If there is one person who fits the title of Gunn Runner better than Jan Czenkusch, I'm not sure who they are. Jan along with her husband Jim have traveled around the world with me to Ireland, Scotland, and Italy. They've driven to Virginia for a house concert. They've gone to Renaissance festivals. They are a Gunn Runners who travel.
Jan Czenkusch is also a volunteer. For the past 20 years, she has volunteered at an elementary school in central Texas. She offers to help out any chance she gets. When I was overwhelmed with too many projects, Jan volunteered to help me. She still runs Song Henge for me. She's organized concerts on my behalf. And again, she's there at a ton of shows.
She first found my music when her daughter lent her a copy of the Brobdingnagian Bards CD, A Faire to Remember. We were playing at the Texas Renaissance Festival. They loved the album. So she and her husband caught each of our shows at the festival. They became Nagians (fans of the Brobdingnagian Bards) and began traveling everywhere they could to see us perform, even after the band split up. They traveled over a thousand miles to see my old music partner, Andrew McKee, perform. His band Flynn's Folly performed at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Jan and Jim were there.
They visit a lot of faires each year including: Kansas City, Minnesota, St. Louis Pirates, Texas Ren Fest, Scarbie, Four Winds, Arizona, and LARF. They've seen Three Pints Gone, Rambling Sailors, Tulstin Troubadours, Queen Anne's Lace, Bard O'Neil, Abby Green, Iron Hill Vagabonds, Queens Gambit, Bedlam Bards, Tea Merchants, Cork Road, Sean Orr, Crannog, Tullamore, Ed Miller, Jed Marum, Beyond the Pale, Silver Thistle Pipe and Drum, Rising Gael, Gaelic Storm, The Musical Blades, Ceann, and many others. Many of the bands, they found through me or one of my podcasts.
Jan doesn't have a favorite album and rotates my many CDs through her CD changer. However, she is a big fan of my performances of “Wild Mountain Thyme”, “Bring Me Home Boys”, “Soul of a Harper”, and “Lord of the Pounce”. She's also anxious to have a recording of “Men of New Basin Canal”. That's a powerful song that Jamie Haeuser and I wrote together.
Jan has gone on nearly all of my Celtic Invasion Vacations and wants to visit all seven of the Celtic nations. She keeps coming back for several reasons:
- “The company, enjoyable traveling companions that share a common interest.
- Getting to know a place and not changing locations all the time.
- You, your music and your family. “
From a couple of fans who quietly started attending every show to world traveling companions, I am thankful to have Jan and Jim Czenkusch in my life and proud to call them Gunn Runners!
And some of my favorite people on the planet! And the nicest!