Mike Clem – a Cullman, Alabama native – began guitar lessons at age nine and has had some sort of stringed instrument in his hands ever since.  A veteran of various  Rock ‘n Roll bands, jazz combos, big bands, pit orchestras and a brief flirtation with Bluegrass, he first took the stage in 1966.  For the last several years, Mike has focused his musical attention solely on the study of traditional Irish music and packs a mandolin, guitar, Irish tenor banjo, bodhrán and a bag of whistles to SlipJig performances.  He generally does not sing, as several southeastern states have enacted laws prohibiting this.  Mike says, “In this part of the country, Celtic music is not very common.  It’s not on the radio, in the music stores or on MTV, so a huge number of people have never heard anything like it.  People will show up to a SlipJig performance not knowing what to expect and it’s great fun to watch their faces light up when they hear the stuff we’re playing.”

Stephenie Holtkamp

After many years of school-teaching and social work, Stephenie is grateful to have the leisure time to enjoy the Celtic music scene and play fiddle and mandolin for SlipJig. In addition to fiddle and mando, Stephenie plays whistle ( on an emergency basis ), hums along on selected vocals and is currently pursuing the Celtic lever-harp.  Having violin lessons forced upon her at age five, Stephenie is a veteran of orchestra work, Old Time, Bluegrass and Celtic fiddle, and Mandolin Orchestra.  Like Goldilocks, who found “ some porridge too hot and some too cold”, Stephenie finds the Celtic tunes  “ Just right !”  
A long-time Huntsvillian, Stephenie is the mother of three grown sons and shares her home with husband, Dave, and Thomas-The-Cat.

Mike Lyon, a tenth generation Scot, was a founding member of the Glen Astar Pipes and Drums of  Huntsville and is an  award-winning Highland competition piper.  Mike brings whistle(s) , Scottish smallpipes, Highland pipes, Uilleann pipes and vocals to SlipJig.
Weary of the regimentation of piping competition, Mike sought out the traditional Irish Session music because of its expressiveness and variety. In addition to his pipes and whistles, Mike takes the vocal lead on RPS's ( Raucous Pub Songs ).
To support his musical habits, Mike is Director of Propulsion and Structures at the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center.

Garrett Smith

Garrett's parents made the tragic mistake of letting him have a tiny violin when he was only 5, thus instigating a series of events that would only be described as a musical career by the most generous of biographers.  Violin was Garrett's only instrument for quite a few years, in fact, it took a semester in the music school of Indiana University before he realized that a career in this sort of stuff wasn't really what he wanted.  The following year, Garrett picked up guitar because someone told him this would help him meet girls.  Guitar is now what he plays most of the time, though the originally anticipated social repercussions have failed to materialize.  He also makes occasional forays over to the mandolin.

A job with Dynetics helps support the instrument-buying habit.  When he's not playing Celtic music with Slipjig, he can typically be found puttering around on a variety of aviation-oriented activities (building an airplane, for example), looking for microbreweries, or losing at tennis.

Phil began performing music as an early teen playing lead guitar in a series of rock bands. After about 10 years he was ready for a change and made his move to acoustic folk music and the fiddle in the mid 1970's. He played fiddle, mandolin, and guitar with folk and bluegrass bands for another 10 years before he "discovered" traditional Celtic music.  “I immediately loved this music … its passion, variety and beauty.”   Since the mid-1980's, Phil has focused his musical energies on Celtic-style fiddling and has performed throughout the area in popular traditional Celtic bands including “Calliope”, “Jig Masters”, and “The Wild Hares”.  Phil is a co-host of the weekly (Thursday night) sessions at Finnegan’s Pub in Huntsville.  With SlipJig, Phil primarily plays the fiddle with occasional side-trips to other instruments.