Folk duo Chris McIntosh & Alvin McGovern have been playing, singing, teaching, and mentoring in the greater Chicago area since the early 1980's. Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM) (FARMfolk.org) said as much when they honored Chris & Alvin with their 2008 Lantern Bearer Recognition award.
Although they typically perform alone, McIntosh & McGovern ocassionally have a bass player. Two of them have been Marilyn Cummins, who they met through the Old Town School of Folk Music, and Ellen Dassow, Alvin's goddaughter. They are also members of The Beatleleles (beet′l·lay′lees), a ukulele-centric Beatles cover band.
As of this writing, if you want to hear Chris McIntosh & Alvin McGovern, you're going to have to find them in concert because they don't have any recordings. And of course you or your organization can book them. They are happy to play for large and small groups, and are just as comfortble in a front room setting as they are on a stage. Contact them by phone or e-mail them through their website.
And on a non-musical note (pun intended), we've been going to Maine for many years. You can find out more on our Gallery page.
We're Grateful
Thank you Doug Henkle for including us in your FolkLib.net list.
Thank you to the Plank Road Folk Music Society (PlankRoad.org) for including our bio in the Winter 2011 issue of their Quarter Notes newsletter on page three in connection with our February 11th, 2012, appearance at Maple Street Chapel Folk Concerts (folk.MapleStreetChapel.org).
Jeff Krage/for Sun-Times - Jan. 17, 2010
© 2010 Heather Jackson
Individually
-
Chris McIntosh is a founding co-organizer of the Free Range Ukulele Society of Oak Park. If you're interested in playing ukulele, see our web page
Mcintosh-McGovern.com/frusop.htmlfor more information.On December 19, 2012, Chris was one of the people interviewed at the Harrison Street Ukulele Players' Christmas Party and was featured a couple of times during the video about the event shown on WGN TV News that evening.
In addition to being a performer in his own right, Alvin McGovern has been a teacher at the Old Town School of Folk Music since 1974.
From 2000 to 2012 Alvin was the primary accompanist for Miss Carole's Macaroni Soup!, “Active Music for Kids!” (MacaroniSoup.com) He also played and sang on her first six recordings, and co-produced three of them.
On January 9, 2012, Alvin was at the opening of the new Old Town School of Folk Music building, and made a couple of background appearances in a video about the event shown on television that night.
Alvin's “Ukulele for the Guitar Player—Quick and Dirty” article appeared in the Plank Road Folk Music Society (PlankRoad.org) Winter 2011 issue of their Quarter Notes newsletter on page three. Thank you PRFMS for publishing it, and Vicki Ingle (ComfortFoodMusic.com) for asking him to write it.
Website Note
McIntosh & McGovern have been online since the early 1990's, when the Internet became open to the public. They designed their first web page on-the-fly over the weekend that Chris gave Alvin his first ISP account as a birthday present, and she taught him what she knew about HTML. They acquired the McIntosh-McGovern.com domain in 2004. The original design was tweaked now and then, but remained essentially the same until it was totally redesigned in 2010.
| Q: | How many folk musicians does it take to redesign a website? |
| A: | Three. One to redesign the site, and the other two to sing a song in harmony about how good the old design was. |