In 1998 Adrian co-founded the Loch Dhu Dancers which evolved into one of Houston’s  most popular professional performance troupes keeping the torch alive for new audiences in the Texas Celtic scene. 

The Loch Dhu Dancers performed to Celtic Rock music which more often than not featured bagpipes in their instrumentation.  It was in the Spring of 2001, and it became a natural evolution to hire a live bagpiper at many venues, rather than to dance to a CD or “canned” music.  When the troupe performed at the Houston International Festival April 28-29, 2001 bagpiper Richard Kean was hired to perform on bagpipes.  Subsequently, from that time until late September 2001 Loch Dhu performed at the Kelvin Arms, a Scottish Pub in Houston’s posh Rice Village every Friday night. 

In May, 2001 the idea of forming a performing troupe that had, instead of 12 dancers and a piper (Adrian would double as a percussionist as well as dance), which is very expensive to tour or book for clients; the idea of a musical act with high-energy and humor with only two members who could dance would be a more viable and cost-effective entity.  It was a sound business move to add another performing group to Houston’s Celtic offerings.  This idea was in need of a name.

Just after the Houston International Festival and Tropical Storm Allison (June 5-9, 2001) which flooded Houston for 4 days straight, Adrian and Jody Townsley (a prominent Loch Dhu Dancer and actress set about generating proposed names.  It was not until Jody wrote a list of about ten different possibilities. On this list, one of the hopeful names was “Tartanica” reviving images of something big and colossal, while retaining the root word “Tartan” which is the name of the plaid fabric patterns each family name in Scotland uniquely wears.   Adrian suggested dropping the “A” at the end, so it was simply “Tartanic.”  Everything was a go.  It was a beginning, at least.  For awhile both Loch Dhu and Tartanic coexisted in Houston, until most of the young dancers in the troupe had demanding school, work and/or family schedules and stopped performing as there were not enough dancers to perform the choreography.  The Loch Dhu Dancers still performed at the Texas Renaissance Festival for 2000-2002 seasons before paving the way for Tartanic who has been performing there since.

Starting in late 2001, Tartanic began touring the United States branching out from Texas and in their current season in 2008, have been gracing stages in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, and other cities in Southern California, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arizona, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Adrian Walter, the drummer, dancer and front man of the group started in 1996 after attending the University of Houston's School of Theatre.  Falling into the company of some musicians who played bagpipes--that's right--bagpipes after touring and co-founding a dance troupe, the idea of incorporating music and dance with a humorous and theatrical twist seemed natural. Mixing bagpipe classics like "Amazing Grace" with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and "Smoke on the Water" the act acquired quite a following. As Becca Bacon Martin of the Morning News in Northwest Arkansas wrote in article from a January performance in Eureka Springs, "It's like a rock ‘n’ roll unplugged bagpipe theater show without a plot,[Tartanic] is a fully audience-integrated show that goes against the usual band formula.”

Dressed in kilts and sunglasses, Tartanic gives its audiences a barrage of sound from not one but TWO Highland Bagpipes, and three percussionists.  Imagine one dancer, six drums, six drones, 18 notes, fast fingers, high comedy, flying bagpipes, taste-defying stunts and scorching hot music played at over 120 beats per  minute with driving speed and high-volume, all brought to you by five men without pants.

Jay Kruse, a native Texan now transplanted to Las Vegas plays percussion along with David Macejka from upstate New York.  Both are accomplished musicians; David plays the New Orleans Jazz Festival as the percussionist for C.J. Chenier every year in long-standing annual fete, while Jay's background is in Jazz bass guitar and handcrafting flutes--even travelling to Turkey to hone his skills on the Ney, a long bamboo reed instrument.

The sound is driven by the melodies brought by bagpipers Mike McNutt and Andrew Beck.  McNutt is a sound engineer from Tennessee.  Mike has mixed everything from country western music to bagpipes, and has since relocated to Boston.  Andrew Beck, the band's youngest member is a trained Emergency Medical Technician, and award-winning piper from upper Michigan.

Together, the sound is impenetrable.  With the skills of not one, but two, award-winning bagpipers, Tartanic is a force to be reckoned with. 

The future looks very bright for Tartanic, as two new albums are set to be released in 2008, and the combined talents of all the members find new expressions in new material in both the studio and onstage.  Tartanic sails strongly with the wind at their back, and the music always at high tide.