2006
The Band Forms
Drew Monasky, Sandy Lineweaver and Curtis Clark formed Trotters Wake in January 2006 after playing together in church and other projects for 6 years.
2007
Changing Members
Anna Merritt joined the band in October 2007 when Curtis left to pursue other avenues with the jazz groups Jacob’s Ladder and Three Thirds Jazz.
2008
The Finding of the Fiddler Begins
Cyndy Gaughan joined the band in July 2008. Prior to Trotters Wake, she sat in on occasion with Blackwood back when her sensei the mighty Kevin King was the bodhran player. She has also played/recorded with Scott Jeffers/Celtica.
Erin Lewis began fiddling with the band at gigs in December 2008 and still plays with us on occasion.
2009
Fiddlers and a CD
Jonathan Miller provided the fiddle tracks for our first CD and began sitting in with us in May 2009. Jonathan gigged with us until May 2012, when he moved back to Israel, where it sounds like he is doing quite well on the music scene.
Our first CD, A Decent Dowry, was released on November 1, 2009.
2010
Half-a-Wake
Tamara Freida, an ASU grad with a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance, worked some of our St. Patrick’s 2010 gigs before running off to work with troubled youths in the wilderness of Utah.
In Sep 2010, we began billing ourselves as “Half-a-Wake” when we had only a partial complement of our normal band.
2012
Backup Fiddler
In April 2012, we began working with a new fiddler, Megyn Neff. Alas, Megyn had many other projects, and just wanted to be a backup fiddler.
2013
The Fiddler is Found
Bonnie Teplik joined the band on fiddle in February 2013, and is still going strong! Bonnie has a Bachelors in Music Performance from Arizona State University.
2014
Changes on the Rise
April Trinidad started as our backup fiddler in January 2014. April has a Bachelors in Music Performance from the University of Arizona.
Tracy Haddad replaced Anna Merritt as our bassist in Jan 2014 after Anna moved to Colorado in January 2014. Tracy has a Bachelors in Music Performance
Jennifer Caraway started as a backup bassist. Jennifer is also the founder of a successful Non-Profit Organization called The Joy Bus, which provides “chef inspired” meals to homebound cancer patients.
David Schramm began lending his talents on banjo, guitar, and vocals in October 2014. He also leads the Bluegrass band All Stringz Considered, a finalist in the 2017 Pickin’ in the Pines band competition in Flagstaff Arizona.
2015
Backup Bassist
Llaine Comstock began filling in on electric bass in the fall of 2015.
2017
Penny Whistlers
We met Debbie Hutson in March 2017 while collaborating on Sonoran Desert Chorale’s production of Ben Allaway’s “Heaven and Earth: Mass on the Celtic Journey”, where she played flute, penny whistle, and low whistle. We were so impressed that we started inviting her to fill in. With her very busy schedule as the Director of Instrumental Music for Deer Valley Unified School District, she opted to just serve as a back-up, but she introduced us to Tanner Bayles.
Tanner Bayles is a self-taught penny whistle and low whistle prodigy, whose primary instrument is saxophone. Tanner started playing with us in October 2017, shortly after he was selected to the 2017 Army All American Band.
2018
Anna is Back!
Anna Merritt moved back to AZ (Yeah!) and started gigging with us again as a backup electric bass player.
2019
Backup Banjo
George Wootten joined us on backup banjo player.
2020-2022
Going Strong!!!
With the exception of Apr-June 2020, when COVID-19 stopped everyone dead in their tracks, we had a strong last few years in Arizona with no personnel changes.
Drew retired from his day job and became a snowbird in April 2022. To fill the void while Drew was gone, David formed the band "Finnegan's Brogue" using various Trotters Wake players and some of his bluegrass associates.
2023
Goodbye Arizona, Hello Pennsylvania
Drew decided to move to Pennsylvania permanently, so the Arizona band was retired after our last gig on Mar 18. After a brief respite, Drew set about rebuilding the band in Souderton, Pennsylvania which is about an hour north of Philadelphia.
Rich Pomager joined the band on accordion in June. Rich formerly played in the band O'Shenanigan's, who are a staple of Molly Maguire’s in Phoenixville.
Also in June, Dave Miller joined the band on fiddle and Jeannie Hansberry joined on bodhran (Irish hand drum). Dave and Jeannie are married and play frequently at local sessions and travel the northeast for festivals.
Gerry Clark joined the band on bass guitar in August. Gerry was a founding member of the Philadelphia band Causeway and still performs with his former band-mate, Kim Killen under the name Killen-Clark.
