What was initially seen as a debacle at the hands of Mother Nature 12 years ago has turned out to be a serendipitous moment of melodic beauty that still reverberates to this very day. 

At the 2014 Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City, Missouri, fiddler Rose Baldino and her band, Burning Bridget Cleary, were to take the stage. But, due to a spell of bad weather, Baldino’s bandmates were unable to make their flights to travel to the gathering for the showcase.

In a last-ditch effort to turn life’s lemons into lemonade, Baldino scrambled and tapped the talents of fellow fiddler Brian Buchanan — of acclaimed Canadian Celtic/rock act Enter the Haggis — who was also at the gathering. Baldino handed Buchanan a guitar, and the duo hit the ground running.

And what resulted from that happenstance encounter was an instant musical connection between two vibrant, creative souls. With the eventual addition of bassist Caroline Browning, the trio, House of Hamill, is currently a renowned Celtic/folk act, steadily cultivating a fan base the world over.

With one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary tastes, the band seamlessly blends the past and the present, as notably heard with its cover of Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’Mine,” which has amassed tens of million views on Facebook alone.

As House of Hamill has now spent more than a decade together, Baldino and Buchanan can’t help but look in the rearview mirror in awe, and how it all started with a handful of cancelled airline flights — a simple moment of sheer inspiration, one ultimately leading to an ongoing journey of artistic discovery.

Smoky Mountain News: Why Celtic and folk music? What is it about those genres of music that you can best express yourself artistically?

Brian Buchanan: All of us actually started as classical musicians. Caroline on piano, and Rose and myself on violin. All three of us eventually abandoned classical music in favor of music we found more fun. I switched to a specific brand of traditional fiddle playing called Ontario old-time, which is a cross-breed of Irish, Appalachia and Cape Breton styles. Rose fell in love with traditional Irish fiddle.

Speaking for myself, I’ve been playing in a pretty loud Celtic rock band for [26] years, and I was attracted to the challenge of acoustic music because it’s much less forgiving in a live context. Every note is important, audible and subject to scrutiny. There’s no hiding behind a wall of amps — if you’re not on your game, it becomes very obvious very quickly. I also like the storytelling aspect of folk music, [where] the songs are usually about something, and don’t shy away from social issues.

SMN: To that, what is it about the live concert setting that still pulls you?

Buchanan:  Celtic music is dance music, and it makes the most sense in a live setting. We also tend to write music that challenges us on a technical level, so there’s a bit of a high-wire element that we all enjoy. There’s really nothing like the feeling of filling a room with music and knowing that the three of us are creating every note and sound live.

People come to see live music — especially folk music — because they hope it’ll touch them in a meaningful way. Our goal every time we walk onstage is to make that happen. Music doesn’t resonate the way you intend it every single time or with every single person, which I think motivates us to keep chasing the connection.

SMN: The name, “House of Hamill.” What is the significance? And how does its meaning play into the intent, sound and ethos of the group?

Rose Baldino: “House of Hamill” is the name of a three-part fiddle tune written by an Irish fiddler and composer named Ed Reavy. I was drawn to Ed’s tunes because of their quirky and unpredictable nature, characteristics which are often lacking in traditional Irish music and his tunes have greatly inspired my own composing in the last decade.

I, unfortunately, never got to meet Ed as he passed away in 1988, but he spent most of his life in Philadelphia, and a few of his family members came out to one of our outdoor shows during the pandemic. I was pretty star-struck.

When Brian first came down to Philly to visit me, we were exchanging tunes, and “House of Hamill” was the first tune that I taught him. Not long after that, we were booked for a show and we needed a band name, and we thought “House of Hamill” sounded pretty cool.

That specific name was something we grabbed out of necessity, but I love that we’ve tied ourselves to a composer like Ed. His compositions often differ so greatly from the typical patterns that you hear in Irish music, and I feel like our band’s music is a bit like that — rooted in tradition but slightly twisted, in a more modern way.

SMN: When you look back at the early days of this bountiful musical endeavor, what really sticks out in reflection?

Baldino: Honestly, even though we’ve both been in different touring bands since we were teenagers, it is kind of wild how much of what we do is straight trial-and-error. Even with all of our experience as performing musicians, I don’t think either of us anticipated the amount of time and work it took to get to where we are now.

Also, I hate to be that person echoing what everyone else is saying about social media, but it really is true that if you’re looking at our Facebook or Instagram pages, you are only seeing the highlight reel. You’re probably not seeing much of the late-night drives, hours upon hours spent researching venues, long and sometimes painful lyric-writing sessions, the thousands of dollars spent on travel or the short-lived blissful moments of introversion in the green room before a show.

That’s not at all to say that we don’t love what we do, because there’s no way we could keep going at this pace if we didn’t love being musicians — but my god, it is so much work. I feel like we’re finally getting a handle on how our level of the music business works. We often say, every performance is either a good show or a good story — and [over] the years, we’ve had plenty of both.

Want to go?

A popular summer series, “An Appalachian Evening” will continue with Americana/Celtic trio House of Hamill at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 25, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit stecoahvalleycenter.com/calendar.