Ali Cook is a former orchestral double bassist who achieved a very high level of success being an on-call performer with major American orchestras such as the National Symphony and the Detroit Symphony. She won a coveted fellowship under the Boston Symphony orchestra at the Tanglewood Summer Music Festival as well as a touring position with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany. She has played under many of today’s great conductors and has made a name for herself in a male dominated field. Her heart, however, was not fully satisfied as there are many caveats in the classical music field that are still all too true. Elitist mentalities toward other musical genres, lack of connection to the audience, nepotism and sexism to name a few. That life was such a part of her that it took her body physically rejecting playing (manifesting as thoracic-outlet syndrome) for her to look inward and discover that her voice and creativity was being suffocated. She began the long journey into the unknown-to-her world of americana moving to Austin Texas to found a band and record her songs. She is releasing that album on January 8th, 2025 entitled, ‘Next.’

Tony Perez is the geese’s violinist extraordinaire. He got his start in Las Cruces, NM to a family of musicians. He started violin at 11 playing in his school’s top orchestras, jazz band, and multiple gigging bands all throughout his childhood. In 2015 he continued to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ where he completed his undergraduate degree in violin performance. He continued to perform in, and around the Flagstaff music scene with various folk, rock, funk, blues, jazz, and experimental music projects, in addition to formally studying both jazz, and classical violin at NAU. Towards the end of college, he broadened his music education by learning from notable violinists such as Mark O’Connor (Grammy award winning bluegrass/jazz fiddler), Christian Howes (World-Renown jazz violinist), and Jason Anick (violinist of New England’s premier Gypsy Jazz ensemble Rhythm Future Quartet). Today, he has been performing and teaching around the Austin, TX area since July of 2021 playing in bands such as Pendulum Hearts (gypsy jazz & honky-tonk), Hot Texas Swing Band (honky tonk and dancehall country), Quintango (tango), Rosie & The Ramblers (country), Ben Balmer Band (singer-songwriter) Ali & The Wild Geese (singer songwriter), and many others.

Will Manning is an Austin-based guitarist. He draws inspiration for his fingerstyle technique from a wide variety of players, including Mark Knophler, Tommy Emmanuel, Lindsey Buckingham, John Butler, Stephen Stills, and Jimmy Page. Will is proudly from the state of Maine, and works as a Chief Engineer on a tugboat in order to “fund his guitar habit”. He has lived and worked in Austin as a session guitarist for several bands since 2020.

Originally from Arlington, TX, Daniel Benoit started playing the bass at age 10. He earned a Bachelor of Music from The University of North Texas and a Master of Music from Indiana University. He then played in the Air Force Band in Washington, DC for four years before unexpectedly developing a chronic pain condition known as fibromyalgia. While this limits his ability to play for long periods of time, he still enjoys playing gigs and teaching bass lessons. In his free time, Daniel likes to play games and watch the Dallas Cowboys.

Chase Borne is the Wild Geese’s newest band member adding accordion and second fiddle to the band’s unique sound. Coming from a family of musicians, Chase began his musical study in middle school by taking private violin lessons. He went on to become an accomplished singer in High School, earning membership in the Texas All-State choir as well as the prestigious St. Paul’s Choral Scholars in Houston, TX. After university, Chase continued his musical study on his own, playing with and for folks in whatever town he happened to hang his hat. He now spends his time around Austin, TX, as he continues to teach and perform music.