A 2008 Semi-Finalist in The Prairie Home Companion "People in their 20s Talent Show"

Hello! I am Andreas Transø, a storyteller, writer and musician based out of the Ocooch Mountains of the Driftless Region in Southwestern Wisconsin, United States of America, on the Planet Earth...

Performing mostly traditional and contemporary Irish, English, Scottish and American folk music, I do my best to travel around learning and sharing stories, songs and dances and spreading the messages of peace and community.

I often travel as THE HANDFUL OF EARTH, a project that strives to support and encourage the traditional and folk music scenes in the areas I travel to by my being involved in the local jams and sessions and by hiring local musicians to play with me during my gigs. I have toured and performed with a number of fantastic musicians...and am always looking to do more!

When not on the road, I work on-and-off as a reporter and copy editor for The Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout newspaper in Gays Mills, Wisconsin, on the banks of the lovely Kickapoo River. I also volunteer with the Gays Mills Natural Foods Co-operative and with the InHealth Community Wellness Clinic (Boscobel Free Clinic), which my family founded in 2007. Between the spring of 2007 and the fall of 2008, I lived and worked at the Frog and Toad Land Trust, an off-the-grid organic farming and living co-operative in Crawford County, Wisconsin. 

My travels as a student have taken me to study Irish music, history and culture at the University of Limerick’s Irish World Music Centre in Limerick, Ireland, the Oideas Gael Gaelic Language School in County Donegal, Ireland and at St. Mary’s College in London, England. I have also studied world cultures, theatre, music and history at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and through the UW-Milwaukee Celtic Studies Department.

I am a bodhrán player with the International Peace Ambassador group The Call For Peace Drum and Dance Company, and sometimes work with The Great Midwestern Educational Theater Company, the group that hosts the acclaimed Frogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

When in Northern Ireland, I work for BINGBANGBONG, the ingenius instrument design and building workshop founded and run by Paul Marshall. My work with Paul has included building instruments for the internationally-acclaimed theatrical percussion ensemble STOMP!, as well as for schools, sound playgrounds, and civic art installations around the UK and Ireland.