Kate McCann

• Folk
• Trad

Kate McCann, also known as Princess Pine, is a folk singer and banjo player based in Belfast, Maine. Kate grew up singing with the Chorus of Westerly in Westerly, Rhode Island, studied classical voice throughout high school, and found folk music during her time as a student at Bennington College. This led her to spend a semester abroad in Limerick, Ireland and write a thesis on the Irish ballad singing tradition.

From 2014 – 2019 Kate lived a transient life traveling around the U.S. and living in different parts of the U.S. as well as a year spent in New Zealand. She began learning the banjo when the tour bus of a folk-punk band she was traveling with broke down and spent a month stranded in the mechanic’s garage on the outskirts of Austin, TX. In 2019 she took a job as a chanteyman at the Mystic Seaport Museum- performing sea chanteys onboard ships and around the museum grounds for patrons of the museum. It was also there she met Yves Corbiere and A.J. Wright and formed the trio Skylark Trad Band.

Kate now lives in Belfast, Maine where she spends her time playing folk music, and occasionally works as a carpenter, farmhand, and deckhand. She is available for a variety of performances ranging from sea chantey workshops to folk music sets. She is also a regular DJ on local community radio station WERU’s old-time program “High on a Mountain.” As an avid music collector and listener, she believes traditional music is not static but ever evolving, and incorporates her love of psychedelia, rock, and punk into her playing.