No stranger to Inishfree tours, Judy Kass (https://www.judykass.com) has travelled as a guest with several tours before being invited to be a musical leader herself. She’s thrilled to be joining her good friend Pat Wictor (https://patwictor.com/) for a music infused adventure through Kerry, Cork and Clare. Good times await!
Judy is an award-winning songwriter based in the NY Hudson Valley. She draws in her audience with soulful vocals, no-nonsense lyrical storytelling and genre-bending exploration of guitar and piano. Growing up in a family of musicians, Judy began playing at an early age moving from her classical piano training to accompanying the songs she soon started to write on both keyboard and guitar. Judy’s 2014 debut album, “Better Things” and her 2016 CD, “Beyond the Ash and Steel” both received notable airplay, appearing on the Folk DJ List of Top Albums for those years. Her latest solo album release, “New Skin debuted at #4 on the Folk Alliance Top Albums Chart for July, 2025. Judy can also be heard performing with Amy Soucy and Glen Roethel in their harmony driven trio “Us!” (ustriomusic.com).
Pat Wictor
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Pat Wictor makes his home in many musical worlds. Grounded in rural blues and gospel traditions, Wictor’s lean, poetic songs and expressive guitar playing are seasoned with jazz, pop, improvisational surprise, philosophy and social commentary.
Pat first gained attention as an innovative lap slide guitarist and song interpreter. He toured internationally as one third of the acclaimed trio Brother Sun. Pat’s most recent CD, FLARE, a meditation on political division in America, was called “brilliant” by WFUV’s John Platt, and reached #1 on the Folk-DJ charts in 2022. His CD This is Absolutely Real: Visions and Versions of Phil Ochs, reached #2 on the Folk-DJ charts and was nominated for Best Tribute Album by the Independent Music Awards. Wictor currently tours solo and in a variety of duos, and is a music educator of note, teaching workshops on guitar, song writing, body percussion, and vocal and instrumental improvisation.