Mitch Yockey, the primary driving force behind Third Harbour, passed away on January 1, 2025. He was a son, brother, husband, father, friend and more, with many admirable traits. A licensed architect, terrific water-color artist, and talented musician—highlight just a few of his abilities.
As a performing musician, Mitch continued to expand his instrumental skills. His primary instruments included guitar, mandolin, mandola and 4-string banjo. He collaborated and performed with an array of accomplished musicians over many years.
Mitch composed dozens of melodies, with many that developed into performance pieces for the band. Third Harbour recorded and released two full CDs of music based on Mitch’s original compositions. He occasionally commented that he did not know where the music came from. We know that it flowed out of his creative mind to his fingers and to his mandolin. As the band set up to perform, Mitch would often say, “Here’s a new tune I’m working on…”. Mitch recorded studio tracks for a third CD. The band is planning to expand on these recordings with the goal of completing this CD to honor Mitch.
Prior to his passing, Mitch gave his blessing to the rest of the Third Harbour musicians to continue to perform his music and to use the name of the band. Gary, Nancy, Robyne and Dennis have all agreed that we want to continue to perform as a band. We are currently taking a break from public appearances. There is no set schedule, and we hope to resume public appearances soon.
Third Harbour Music
The name Third Harbour comes from the four harbours of the Christian faith, the third being the Aran Islands of Ireland. The photograph above shows the Aran Islands as seen from the Cliffs of Moher.
The music inspired by this region, faith and lifestyle has lasted centuries and continues to touch the heart to this day.
We play traditional Irish fiddle tunes and Celtic music, as well as original Celtic compositions featuring cello, flute, guitar, mandola, mandolin, and vocals.
Our first CD The Road Home was released in 2017, and has original compositions written between 2012 and 2017. Our next CD Connemara was released in the spring of 2022, and also features new / original compositions.
We’re based in Seattle and we perform throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Third Harbour Musicians
Third Harbour was formed in 2010 and since that time has involved many musicians who inspired the development of our music as it is today.
The Road Home CD includes contributions by Dennis Burkhardt (cello & violin), Gary Longton (guitar), George Moorhead (guitar), and Mitch Yockey (mandolin, mandola & guitar).
Special thanks go to Dennis, Gary and George, as well as Jim Fry and Ken McNichols who played with us as we developed our style, and to Bryan Hubert who provided sound engineering and mastering, and an amazing sense of humor and skill on the sound board as we put The Road Home together.
And more thanks to Nancy Morgan (flute), Dennis, Gary and George as we put together the music for Connemara. And thanks to Sam Cook-Stuntz of Homespun Audio for his amazing recording / engineering skills as we recorded the songs, and again to Bryan who’s mastering the songs.
In the summer of 2021 Nancy joined us and gave us the addition of a flute. And then in the fall of 2023 we were joined by Robyne de Jong, who has added vocals, percussion and guitar to our repertoire. And unfortunately George Moorhead has moved on, so we’re missing his contributions to our music.
You can watch music videos from Connemara by going to the ABOUT page and selecting the links to tracks from the CD. You can hear both CDs on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events ~ Sláinte
