About Clay irkland’s Beat the Reaper

Celebrate Clay Kirkland’s 78th birthday with his 18th Annual Beat the Reaper Concert! Joining Clay are his friends and fellow Swallow Hill Instructors Paul Trunko and Steff Kull.

With Clay on harmonica, Paul on guitar, and Stef on piano, the trio has performed for over fifteen years. They love the musical clarity, depth of emotion, and connectedness that comes from playing as a trio. You can hear the beautiful subtleties and nuances in the playing and singing of these three great musicians.

Clay’s been performing since the age of six, singing with his twin sister, Claire. Since then he’s shared stages with the likes of Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Robben Ford, Chuck Berry, Willie Nelson, Lou Rawls, Junior Brown, The Nighthawks with Jimmy Thackery, and many others.

He performed his blues harmonica arrangement of the Third Movement of Brahms Third Symphony, “Brahms In Blue,” with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Stratus Chamber Orchestra, and the DaVinci String Quartet. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Blues Society, Distinguished Faculty Award from Swallow Hill Music. His album “Blues, Rock, Raga Harmonica,” featuring the Royal Musicians of Nepal, world renowned flamenco jazz guitarist, Miguel Espinoza, and blues rock guitarist, Neil Haverstick, was awarded “Best World Beat Album of 1995” in Westword.

Stef Kull is a long-time Colorado performer and educator with a degree in music education from University of Colorado, Denver. She began playing piano at the age of four. Stef has done it all, played it all, from gospel tunes in church, to her long-lived Doors cover band, “The Garage Doors.” Current Stef keyboard tracks can be heard on Jammyman’s latest release, “Is there a Flight on this Movie.”

Paul Trunko began at Swallow Hill Music behind the front desk and soon became a member of the faculty. His band The Keepers became a fixture in the Front Range as the leader of the open stage blues jam at the Little Bear Saloon in Evergreen. He was a long time member of the nationally recognized Grateful Dead tribute band, Shakedown Street. As father of three young boys, he recorded popular albums for youngsters under his Jammy Man handle. Now that those boys are grown he continues to record under that name and recently released “Is There a Flight on this Movie.”