About Jim Bransky

Jim Bransky started his musical sojourn studying jazz saxophone when he was nine, and spent his teen years practicing and finding musical inspiration at the jazz and blues joints on the South and North sides of Chicago. He started playing harmonica at the age of 18 after hearing the great Peter “Madcat” Ruth at the Ark in Ann Arbor in 1977, and has been   blowing harp most days ever since.  He gigged around Ann Arbor in the late seventies and early eighties on saxophone and harmonica.  In 1984 he happened upon weekly Irish music sessions in Boulder, Colorado where he became engrossed in learning celtic penny whistle.  Jim also enjoys playing guitar and singing. In addition to his passion for playing jazz, blues, celtic and folk music, he developed a children’s repertoire when Jim and Robin’s daughter, Monya, was little, often performing for kindergarten through fifth grade classes. 

Jim’s harmonica and penny whistle playing can be heard on the Fifth Street Sessions, a CD released in 2007 on Medium Walter Records, featuring a collaboration with fiddler/bassist, Andy Rockwood. The Northern Express described the CD as “an all‑instrumental take on 12 traditional and jazz standard tunes, expertly played by a top‑notch roster of local acoustic musicians.” Bransky and Rockwood co-founded the legendary old time fiddle tune/blues/jazz ensemble, Road Kill Stew, in the late 1980's, and this recording carries on the no musical boundaries adventures of those early Road Kill Stew days. They are joined by Mike Sullivan on guitar and Rick Jones on bodhran, both of Song of the Lakes fame, Traverse City's own ace performer and session man Pat Ivory on guitar, percussion master Mike Parrish, and bassist Laura Miller. The CD was recorded at Sullivan Entertainment Studios, located in the old Fifth Street district of Traverse City.  Mike Sullivan, along with much sought after sound engineer, Jan Whaling, recorded and mixed  the tracks.  The CD is available at Instinctive Art Studio, or can be ordered at CD Baby,

or downloaded at Apple ITunes, or you can listen to samples

and find additional download and purchase info below on this page.