James Stockton

James has been playing the Tin Whistle for more than 10 years and has a great love of traditional Irish & Scottish music, as well as modern Celtic and folk music.  As a featured guest player in the popular Irish band "Failte," he has performed all over southwestern Ontario at pubs, parties, events, and festivals, and he is a familiar face at a variety of traditional music sessions in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

He has appeared at the Fergus Scottish Festival on several occasions, sharing the stage with "Failte" as well as members of the successful Canadian Celtic band "Quagmire" and Cape Breton's Tom Leadbeater, and others in "Celtic Jams".  He has also played at the Mill Race Folk Festival in Cambridge, ON, and appeared on Failte's third CD, "Kitchen Party Sessions", recorded live at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener, ON.

In the summer of 2009 as a member of the Celtic group "The Rivals", James crossed the province from Windsor to Timmins and all points in between as part of the Alexander Keith's Kitchen Party Summer Tour.  During the Keith's tour the band was thrilled to have a chance to take the stage at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto.

James' dedication to the technical as well as the artistic characteristics of Tin Whistle playing, as an indispensable addition to the sound of Traditional music, has won him respect in the folk and Celtic scene in South Western Ontario.

James is also a bagpiper with the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band in Brant County, Ontario, and was proud to watch his band playing on stage with Sir Paul McCartney in Toronto in the summer of 2010.  He is co-owner of the Sound Factory Music School and TheOnlineMusicStore.ca.