While walking around Padanaram this summer, you may have heard the ethereal sound of woodwinds and harps. It’s music that would be at home at a Renaissance festival.

The Harper and the Minstrel, who performed throughout South Dartmouth this past summer, are a musical duo consisting of Jay and Abby Michaels who have brought their unique sound all over the country.

The couple performs traditional and non-traditional music with a variety of instruments ranging from the common, like the Spanish guitar, to more obscure one, like the viol. While the pair have extensive backgrounds in music, the band formed around 2002 in Carver.

“Jay was playing harp at King Richard’s Faire, and I started joining him,” said Abby. “It wasn’t until he moved up to Maine that we decided to become a band.”

When the duo formed, they played traditional Celtic music using a flute, a harp and their voices. The two have expanded their instrumentation as well as their repertoire, performing songs from the 11th century and covering more modern tunes like Fleetwood Mac’s 1976 hit, “Rhiannon.”

They initially recorded music using a rudimentary 4-track cassette recorder, but as their music became a full-time job, they moved to bigger and better methods – all in their own home studio.

Jay said that, while there are plenty of books that teach folk singers how to record acoustic guitar and vocals properly, there is less literature on how to record harps and wooden recorders.

“We invested a lot of money into our own home studio. We produce our CDs in-house,” said Jay. “We improved the studio a lot – studied, learned, read books. We learned a lot about the whole process because these instruments are a little different to mic and record.”

Today the group has nine albums. Some of their earliest recordings have found their way onto newer albums after being re-recorded with better equipment.

Abby said while she’s drawn toward woodwind instruments, her most recent addition to the band’s line-up was a percussion instrument, the hammered dulcimer. The instrument has metal strings stretched across a wide board, which are struck with small weighted hammers. The way it generates sound is similar to a piano.

“I wanted one ever since I saw it at the Eisteddfod Fair over at UMass Dartmouth,” said Abby, referring to the former folk festival that ran from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“I was talking with a buddy of mine three years ago, talking about instruments we wanted but didn’t have. Turns out he wanted an autoharp and I wanted a hammered dulcimer, and we each had the other so we swapped,” she said.

Her time with her new instrument was cut short when she accidentally ran over the dulcimer with her van while moving equipment. But last year, she built a new one from scratch with help from her friends. It all started with making the base, which was made from a cherry tree that fell on her grandparents' garage.

“My husband got me the blueprints for Christmas and all the hardware, the metal pins and the wires. It was four months from start to finish. Cutting everything out to spec, sanding it all down, putting it together. It was a whole month putting the strings on and bringing it up to pitch,” said Abby.

The duo plan to head down to Florida for a while and are currently planning their schedule for next year. They said they hope to return to the area to perform.

“I have fond of memories of coming down here during the summer, going through the Lloyd Center. We go to Symphony Music Shop for everything. I love it,” said Abby.

“There’s a plethora of great musicians from the South Coast. There’s an amazing pool of talent here,” said Jay. “We hope to be around next year.”

You can check out clips of their music on their official website at http://www.theharperandtheminstrel.com/index.