This crucially important album is a fitting tribute to Kevin Keegan and will help to re-establish his rightful place among the most accomplished button accordionists in Irish traditional music during the 20th century. Earle Hitchner, The Irish Echo
The Music of Kevin Keegan was compiled by his friend and fellow box plaver Joe Burke, and by his brother Vincent Keegan, mainly from recordings donated by friends. It attempts to capture the spirit of the music and of the man for all time.
Kevin Keegan kept the company of other great traditional Irish musicians, and he counted Joe and Seamus Cooley and Paddy 0' Brien among his close circle of friends. Kevin was born in Tiernascragh in East Galway.
He joined The Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band in the early 1950s and earned a reputation as a master of the 2 row button accordion. The recordings he made around this time with Paddy Fahey for the RTE Radio programme A Job of Journeywork, presented by Ciaran Mac Mathuna, were much admired and will be remembered by many.
The band toured the USA in 1956 and Kevin stayed on and settled in Chicago where he was a valuable addition to an already-vibrant music scene in the city. He later moved to San Francisco where he inspired a whole generation of young musicians to play and learn Irish music.
The Music of Kevin Keegan is a rare opportunity to experience the wonderful music of this man With all of 23 tracks in total, including jigs, hornpipes, reels, waltzes, a march- a long dance and two songs, including 'The Little Thatched Cottage', it offers outstanding value for money. The Music of Kevin Keegan will be cherished by those who remember Kevin in this country and in the USA, and will also be appreciated by younger musicians and music fans for the chance it gives them to hear this brilliant box player at work, and at play!
Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and to help it achieve its full potential will be supporting this release with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail. Feedback always welcome. Please copy us on any airplay/reviews published.
Dinny O'Brien's:
Kevin Keegan's Waltz:
The Pullet:
The Cuckoo:
- Talk: Kevin Keegan
- ]igs: Contentment is Wealth/The Cat in the Corner
- Hornpipe: Dunphy's Hornpipe
- Reel: Dinny O'Brien's
- Song: The Little Thatched Cabin
- Hornpipe: The High Level
- Talk: Padraicin McGillicuddy, Radio KPFA
- Waltz: Kevin Keegan's Waltz
- Jigs: The Rambles of Kitty/The Pipe on the Hob, version 2
- Reels: Maid among the Roses/Rolling in the Rye Grass
- Song: Adeste Fideles (introduced by Eoin O'Kelly)
- Hornpipe: An Comhra Donn
- ]igs: Moloney's Wife/The Blackthorn Stick
- Talk: Voice of Joe Cooley
- Reels: The High Reel/The Bunch of Keys
- Jigs: The Trip to Athlone/The Pipe on the Hob
- Reel: George Whyte's Favourite
- Hornpipes: Off to California/The Harvest Home
- Clan March/: The Battle of Aughrim
- Talk: Richard Lundy; Ellen Patterson
- Reels: I Wish I Never Saw You/The Pullet
- Long Dance: The Blackbird
- Waltz: The Cuckoo
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine
Many musicians have come and gone with little trace of their music left behind them except their memory in folklore, story and sometimes in song. Kevin Keegan was one musician who shied away from commercial recording because he never wanted attention focussed on him. As a result the remaining recordings of his music are mainly those made privately.
On 'The Music of Kevin Keegan' we are allowed to glimpse the style and heart of this musician who enthralled and inspired so many during his relatively short life. Like his contemporaries Paddy O'Brien and Joe Cooley, he emigrated to the United States, staying on when the Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band toured there in 1956. He settled in Chicago and later moved to San Francisco where he made many broadcasts on Californian radio stations. Most of the recordings here were made in Chicago and San Francisco.
Kevin was also a singer and the two songs on this album were recorded in Ireland, Adeste Fideles' might be considered an oddity on a traditional music album but carols, hymns and church songs were part of the routine musical fare in everyday Irish life one time.
This recording was made on a wire recorder in the wee small hours of Christmas Eve, 1954 in Boula Parish Church in Co. Galway. Later in 1962 an emotional rendition of 'The Old Thatched Cabin', the song most associated with Kevin, was recorded in the home of Eoin 0' Kelly near Portumna accompanied by the late Aggie Whyte on fiddle and Jennie CCampbell on piano. Eoin is on of the voices we hear on this album along with that of Joe Cooley, Alien Patterson, Richard Lundy and Kevin himself whose voice introduces the album.
Kevin Keegan's music is all heart and character. It is lively, sprightly and full of fun, a reflection of his own personality.
The tunes are mostly great standards of the tradition such as Off to California, Contentment is Wealth, The High Reel, The High Level Hornpipe, with the exception of 'Kevin Keegan's Waltz' composed by himself.
Joe Burke who meticulously sifted through the many recordings provided by friends and acquaintances to put this CD together had enormous admiration for Kevin's music and says "I just didn't want it to happen that he would be forgotten." This album is significant and invaluable in that it gives to the public and younger listeners a sample of the style and character of one of the
most renowned and influential accordion players in Irish traditional music.
We have the privilege of hearing a strong individual style of music that has thankfully been preserved and restored. It is a timely remembrance, a lasting document and a fitting tribute to a unique and stylish musician. Ita Kelly.
Pay The Reckoning September 2004
A master of the two row B/C accordion, Keegan - a former member of the famous Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band - remained behind in America after the band's 1956 tour and there he lived and played his music until his untimely death at the age of only 54.
Initially settling in Chicago, Keegan teamed up with the wealth of the musically talented who had taken up residence there. His playing days were far from over!
CIC's new CD of Keegan's work has been compiled from cassette tapes and reel-to-reel recordings made by friends and musical acquaintances.
The sound quality is not always of the highest order. However Keegan's playing cuts through the hiss and the background noise like a knife. With touching sleeve notes by Keegan's long-time friend Joe Burke - no mean accordionist himself!- the CD is both celebratory and melancholy in equal measure. Celebratory of a mighty talent; melancholy in its reflections on a man taken from us too soon - a man whose music still had a way to go.
www.irishmusicreview.com
"the sheer fun of his music and a resolute belief in letting the tune do the talking and you have an almost perfect release".
Great stuff and thanks, Joe! Geoff Wallis
Hi my dad lived opposite the keegans in tiernascragh his brother frank was a friend of kevin they all new each other well,
Thanks Martin,
great to know.
Alan
Kevin lived with my parents in Chicago (Jack &Emily Hough). They all knew each other in Ireland. Have pictures of him with my brother and me when we were small.
Hi Mary,
thanks for getting in touch. Greatthat you knew Kevin. A much loved man in Ireland.