Barry Cloyd is a Midwestern based, full-time touring singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and educator who has spent a lifetime creating a performance style that weaves the genres of Celtic, Blues, Folk and Roots music into a unique blend all his own. Performing over 200 shows per year, Barry, a strong vocalist as well as a storyteller, theatrical performer and historian, delivers his music on a multitude of guitars (6 & 12 string, Dobro, high-strung, archtop jazz, electric, etc.) and other stringed instruments, such as 5-string banjo, mandolin, requinto and bouzouki. Barry is also the founder of the band "Celtricity", a fusion group that weaves together the genres of Celtic, Blues, World and Original music. However, Barry’s primary source of income is solo touring musical performances and he has played most every possible venue imaginable, including Festivals, Colleges, Universities, Bars, Clubs, Fairs, Concerts, Riverboats, Listening Rooms, Nature Centers, House Concerts, Castles and Cathedrals in Ireland and even a Medieval Garden in the wilds of a National Forest.

Barry’s first CD release "The Wind and the Water" features all original music and some of Nashville's finest session musicians including members of Amy Grant’s, Stephen Stills’ and EmmyLou Harris’ bands. The follow-up CDs are "After the Storm", a Celtic/Americana piece, "Yuletide Fire", an acoustic Christmas CD and "The Rainmaker’s Garden" another primarily original offering. Barry has written more than 350 songs, co-written and produced 20 original musicals, and has appeared in over 300 TV commercials and 70 industrial films, some of which have been shown internationally. He is also a regular guest on radio and television programs wherever he travels. In addition, Barry has toured Ireland, England and Wales and much of the U.S. and is a co-founder of Prairie Folklore Theatre. PFT is a touring theatre company which creates and produces original musical theatre based on the history of the Prairie and Great Lakes States. Prairie Folklore Theatre has also produced CDs of four of its original shows, "Prairie Fire", "A Prairie Christmas", "River Ghosts" and "Civil War Ghosts and Legends", with the fifth CD of the show, "Canoe Song" in the works. Upcoming projects include Barry’s fifth solo CD, another offering of original music and Celtricity’s first CD.

Barry Cloyd is a member of the Illinois Arts Council ArtsTour Roster and a part of the musical selection panel for this juried group of artists. Recently, Barry was honored by being chosen to perform in Chicago's Downtown Millennium Park as part of the series, "Great Performers of Illinois."

In addition, Barry provides a wide range of literacy focused, curriculum based classroom/performance programs that bring his music and his study of history together. Programs such as "Carl Sandburg, Poet of the People", "A Brief History of the Blues", "Ben Franklin, the Kite, the Key and other Tales", "The American Songbag, Our History through Folk Music", "Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory", as well as "Connections" (linking Medieval Inventions with our Modern World), "The Celts in Story and Song", "The French Voyageurs", "Life On the Prairie", "Our Rivers in Story and Song" and others link our fascinating history with the importance of oral and written language skills. He devotes a great deal of time to independent research in the creation of his performance programs.

Barry is fully committed to the life of a performing artist and has been earning his livelihood as a touring singer/songwriter for over twelve years.