Click here for The Lost Forty’s very own website.
A native of the northern Minnesota town of Bemidji, Brian Miller teams up with Wisconsinite Randy Gosa as The Lost Forty. The Lost Forty revives and performs the Irish-influenced songs of men who roamed the Great Lakes region in the days when pine was king. Miller (Bua) and Gosa (Myserk) have toured the US with their Irish traditional music groups. Together they mix a passion for northwoods history and folklore with their love of arranging forgotten songs to bring to life this rich but under-explored music.
“A wonderful exploration of and oft-overlooked facet of the Irish American experience… …brilliantly curated and superbly executed.”
–Daniel Neely, The Irish Echo
“…the most fun thing at [the Milwaukee] Irish Fest this year”
— Erik Carlson, “A Feast of Irish Folk” WHPK Chicago
Brian Miller’s intricate yet driving guitar style has made him one of the most sought after accompanists in the North American Irish music scene. Esteemed Irish music critic Earle Hitchner writes: “The backing of Miller on guitar flexes not just muscle but a fully complementary style.” Also a renowned traditional singer, he is the founder of the Traditional Singers Club of the Twin Cities. Brian is also a master of the bouzouki, an instrument that has been adopted into the Irish tradition in recent decades. He has performed across North America and in Ireland with various groups including Bua, Chulrua, The Máirtín de Cógáin Project and the Two Tap Trio. He has been featured on MPR’s All Things Considered, CBC Radio’s Canada Live, and Ireland’s RTE television, RTE radio and TG4 television. He has been a guest lecturer on the Irish song tradition at University College Cork (Ireland) and he teaches at the St. Paul-based Center for Irish Music. Brian has earned considerable recognition for his work with the Irish-influenced music of Midwestern lumberjacks including the Folk and Traditional Arts Grant and two Artist Initiative grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. He was also a 2014 recipient of the Parsons Fund Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
“Miller is a strong singer and a masterful instrumentalist…
each song is a gem.” —Off Center Views
Randy Gosa has been playing Irish music since 1999. During his undergraduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he studied with several renowned Irish music masters including Liz Carroll and Sheila Shigley, studied at the University of Limerick, Ireland with Niall Keegan and Sandra Joyce, and completed the UW-Milwaukee Celtic Studies program. A founding member of the Milwaukee based celtic trio Cé, he performs nationally with the band Myserk and collaborates with several accomplished midwest-based musicians including flute player Brett Lipshutz and celtic harpist Kim Robertson. In addition to performing, he teaches at the Irish Fest School of Music and is an active céilí/set dance musician in Milwaukee. Randy’s versatile musicianship has been described by critics such as Alex Monaghan (Folk World) as “driving, percussive, lyrical, gentle, dominant by turns.”