Booking Contact Information

Call (781) 344-2023 or
E-mail: info(at)stevetapperandshelleyotis.com

• Silent Night
• First Noel
• Angels We Have Heard
• Away in a Manger
• All Though the Night
• We Three Kings
• God Rest Ye Merry
• Greensleeves
• Deck the Halls
• O Come All Ye Faithful
• Hark the Herald
• Joy to the World
• Coventry Carol
• Good King Wenceslas
• Jingle Bells
• Oh Holy Night
• Oh Come Emmanuel
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
• Oh Christmas Tree
• Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
• Rudolph
• Up on the Housetop
• Jolly Old St. Nick
• Simple Gifts
• One Small Child
• Dreidyl
• Hannukah
• Maoz Tsur
• Oh Hannukah
• S\’vivon Sov Sov Sov

and more…

• Air from Water Music (G. F. Handel)
• Ave Maria (F. Schubert)
• Brandenburg Concerto #1 (J.S. Bach)
• Fred the Cat Flies to Heaven (Alan Hovhaness)
• Kanon in D (Pachelbel)
• Hornpipe from Water Music (G. F. Handel)
• Ode to Joy (L. Beethoven)
• “Spring” from “Four Seasons” (A. Vivaldi)
• Trumpet Tune (H. Purcell)
• Trumpet Voluntary (Jeremiah Clarke)

and more…

• Bobbing Joe
• Brian Boru’s March
• Carolan’s Draught
• Childgrove
• Danny Boy
• Daphne
• Dark Plaintive Youth
• Down by the Sally Gardens
• Eleanor Plunkett
• Fanny Power
• Foggy Dew
• George Brabazon (Second Air)
• Greensleeves
• Harvest Home
• Holy Ground
• Jock O’Hazeldean
• John Barleycorn
• Kemp’s Jig
• Lark in the Morning
• Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
• Mairie’s Wedding
• Musical Priest
• My Jonny Was a Shoemaker
• Once I Had a Sweetheart
• Parting Glass
• Queen Jane
• Rights of Man
• Scarborough Fair
• Separation of Soul and Body
• Sheebeg and Sheemore
• Sir Charles Coote
• Skye Boat Song
• Sleep Soond in da Mornin’
• Star of the County Down
• Stingo
• Waulking Song
• Wild Mountain Thyme
• Weaver
• Weaver and the Chambermaid
• Weaver is Handsome
• Wind that Shakes Barley
• There Were Roses (Tommy Sands)

and more…

• Akoshan Farewell (Jay Ungar)
• All My Friends (Appalachian)
• Avinu Malkenu (Jewish)
• Bamboo Flute (Chinese Lullabye)
• Blue Dove (Mexican)
• Brandy Tree (Gordon Bok)
• Cruel (Kate Rusby)
• Erev Shel Shoshanim (Jewish)
• Killiekrankie (Appalachian)
• Kojo No Tsuki (Japanese, Renato Taki)
• Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (Spiritual)
• Omal (Greek Dance)
• Promises (Roy Watrous)
• Rockport Sunday (Tom Rush)
• Romance (Kay Gardener)
• Shalom Aleichem (Jewish)
• Sidewalks of New York
• Simon Tov (Jewish)
• Simple Gifts (Shaker Hymn)
• Spool (Armenian)
• Torat Emet (Jewish)
• Tum Balaika (Jewish)
• We Gather Together (Dutch Hymn)
• Whipoorwill (Native American, Carlos Nakai)
• Nutfactory Shuffle (from the Dulcimer Folk Association)
• Dabbling in the Dew (Appalachian)
• Holy Place (Debbie Friedman)
• Shady Grove (American)

and more…

The following are written by both us, and our friends

• Blue Pearl (Steve)
• Wind to Blow (Shelley)
• Radiance (Steve)
• Song for Debra (Steve)
• Dulcimer Tune on a Friend’s Departure (Shelley)
• Meeting House (Rick Kuethe)
• Somerset Waltz (Shelley)
• Sunrise (Steve)
• Golden Gate (Shelley)
• Feather/Wing (Steve and George Ulrich)
• Blackwoods (Steve)
• Nomad Song (Paul Otis)
• Farm in the East and the West (Shelley)
• “New Untitled Piece” (Steve)

and more…

• Blue Skies (Irving Berlin)
• Chalil (Herbie Mann)
• Easy (Walter Horton)
• Estrada do Sol (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
• Flute Thing (Al Kooper)
• Koto Song (Dave Brubeck)
• Mercy Mercy Mercy (Joe Zawinul)
• Peace Piece (Bill Evans)
• Summertime (Gershwin & Heyward)

and more…

• Alleluia (Leonard Cohen)
• Amy’s Theme (John Sebastian)
• Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
• Crazy Man Michael (Fairport Convention)
• Ginza Lights (The Ventures)
• Grace (Country Joe and the Fish)
• Happy Girl (Man) (Prodigals)
• Happy Together (The Turtles)
• Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
• House of the Rising Sun (The Animals)
• I Will Remember You (Sarah McLachlan)
• If These Walls Could Speak (Amy Grant)
• Rain on the Roof (John Sebastian)
• Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones)
• Spanish Harlem (Lieber and Spector)
• Tequila (The Champs)
• Wear Your Love Like Heaven (Donovan)
• White Flag (Dido)
• If You Were a Bluebird (Butch Hancock)
• Ripple (Grateful Dead)
• Urge for Going (Joni Mitchell)

and more…

Steve and Shelley’s music offers a mix of flute, harp, and vocals, with the occasional modern ‘panpipes’ (glass bottles). Scan through the genre links on the menu to view specific songs.

Wyrd Music

Steve Tapper, wooden flute
Shelley Otis, folk harp & vocals

all songs arranged by Steve Tapper and/or Shelley Otis

Call (781) 344-2023 or
E-mail: info(at)stevetapperandshelleyotis.com

Originally from rural Illinois, Shelley holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from Vanderbilt University’s Blair school of Music. After graduating, she began working at Plimoth Plantation, role-playing one of the Pilgrims and taking care of the farm animals there. She also began to study the music of 17th century England, and joined an a capella group called For the Nonce which sings in historic costume for museum events and tavern dinners. She found that folk music satisfied her musical spirit more than her classical studies had and has since learned to play the harp, mountain dulcimer, and several other folk instruments. Her other interests include dancing and dance music, historical agriculture, writing stories and poetry, gardening, and being outside.

As a classically trained pianist, Shelley grew up playing music by composers such as Bach, Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart. After graduating from college with a degree in music, she pursued a life-long interest in history and began work at Plimoth Plantation, a museum about the influences of English settlers on New England and the Native Wampanoag people living there. Unexpectedly, she found a book of 17th century English folk music among the training manuals.

Shelley had always felt unconfident about her voice, but she began to sing for visitors to the museum, figuring her job was to portray real people who wouldn’t have had vocal training, rather than displaying vocal finesse. The more she sang, the more she loved it—and she also received positive feedback from the people around her. One visitor around the age of nine said, “You should go professional!” After thinking, “yeah, right,”—for when she was in high school she took a voice lesson where the teacher said “some people don’t have ‘it’”—she later joined a pilgrim singing group, For the Nonce, that sings for Plantation functions and tavern dinners. After spending years studying about classical piano, she was delighted to be paid to sing folk-songs in a historic costume.

Once introduced to folk music, Shelley couldn’t get enough of it. She learned to play the tabor pipe, a traditional instrument amongst English commoners in the 17th century, as well as the tin whistle and mountain dulcimer when a dear friend gave her one in 1999. Soon after, Shelley decided it was time to follow her dream of learning to play the harp. It wasn’t long before she realized it was a perfect fit, and she has been playing the harp ever since. Shelley also enjoys playing a modern folk instrument she has named “big recyclable glass pan pipes,” otherwise known as beer bottles. Her other interests include dancing (especially Scottish, English, and Contra,) writing poetry and stories, historical agriculture, gardening, and being outside.

In this duo, Steve focuses on several kinds of wooden flutes; however, he plays the entire flute family, recorders and bass guitar and is also a composer and arranger. Since 1986, he has been part of a duo with guitarist Audie Bridges. Tapper and Bridges have performed through the United States and have released three highly acclaimed compact discs. In recent years, recorder virtuoso John Tyson has been performing several of Steve’s compositions internationally, and Tyson is currently recording a CD of Tapper’s compositions and arrangements. Steve Tapper and guitarist Robert Tarchara co-lead a Brazilian music quartet. They have written a book of flute and guitar arrangements of classical pieces published by Santorella Press. He also plays bass in a “retro-rock, blues and country” band called the ChillyHeads. Steve is a graduate of Bates College and Berklee College of Music and lives in Stoughton, MA.