Stories, drinkin’ songs, and battle cries.

In September 2021 Wolf asked a few friends, Madeleine Townley, Briana Kennedy and Devin Bernard, to start a band built on Irish and Scottish music and the old English sea ballads. Madeleine brought vocals, the Irish harp and the tin whistle, and she brought the name. Briana brought the fiddle, and a way of digging in that gives the music its grit. Devin brought the five string banjo.

The first year moved quickly. They played for the Irish Consulate, recorded a video with the Irish Rovers, released Rebels, Rogues, and Roustabouts, headlined for the Victoria Highland Games Association, and drove as far north as the Gate Theatre in Port McNeill.

Then the line-up did what line-ups in this music have always done: it evolved.

John Kelly joined part time in June 2022, driving down from his homestead in the Cowichan Valley with an octave mandolin, and Ben Garrison came in on mandolin that December, a bluegrass player whose style and talent lean perfectly into Celtic music. In March 2023 Devo's wrist gave out and he left, and Dexter Simpson stepped into the gap the day it opened, an old friend and past bandmate of Wolf's, and a fine player on the Irish tenor banjo. John Kelly went in July, beaten by the commute. Devo came back that September on electric bass, and Jeff Feltmate arrived in December with that signature Cape Breton sound on the fiddle and bodhran.

January 2024 took Devo for good. Theo Waite joined in May on double bass and went straight in at the deep end, recording the third album before he had played a single show. His driving rhythm is what the band is built around now. Craig Frew came in on accordion for the Pogues nights that autumn and stayed, bringing his true Scottish trad sound. Jeff left in 2025, and in March 2026 Madeleine Townley left too, four and a half years after founding the band and working tirelessly for its success.

This is how great Celtic bands have always worked. Musicians come along to play a few gigs, share some tunes and ideas, and pass on their own spin on the music. Every person who has shared a stage deepens the band's understanding and grasp of the culture.

The Hounds are one of the hardest working bands in Victoria. With hundreds of shows under their belts, and a great many hours in a band bus named Snowflake, their performances resonate with anyone who loves a good night out, a bit of craic and some rowdy singing.

Wolf writes originals in the same tradition. He is a composer by training, with a masters from the University of Victoria, and the songs put that to work on local and personal history: one of them follows Albert "Ginger" Goodwin, the labour organiser shot on Vancouver Island in 1918. The band's third album, The Unsung, is a whole record of that writing: songs with rich stories, and meaning to the band and its supporters.

Many people have helped shape the success of the band over the years, and we are thankful for every person in our band community. Every musician, and every friend of the band, has had a hand in our ability to put on a good show and give an audience a true Celtic experience.

Special thanks to friends of the band Joe Supple and Josiah Kennedy, for all the help they have put in behind the scenes.