Paddy Keenan & John Walsh

Event Information
Event Date: 
May 16, 2014 - 8:00pm
Venue: 
The Upper Bout
Address: 
723 S Neil St, Champaign, IL 61820
Description: 

Paddy Keenan was born into a traveler family steeped in traditional music. His open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such great Travelling pipers as Johnny Doran, as well as that of his own father and grandfather.

In the 1970s Paddy was a founding member of the legendary Bothy Band, and his virtuosity on the pipes, combined with the ferocity of his playing, made him, its driving force. Since the break-up of The Bothy Band, Paddy has pursued a solo career, playing festivals and concerts all over the world. He has composed and arranged music for several film projects; most recently, he's been working on a documentary film in Mali.

In 2002 Paddy was awarded the TG4 (Irish language television) Traditional Music Award (Gradam Cheoil) as Traditional Musician of the Year. This is the most prestigious award given in the genre of Irish traditional music.

Generally acknowledged as the most accomplished uilleann piper performing today, Paddy is certainly one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation.

Songwriter Patsy O'Brien has a penchant for seamless genre-hopping, as well as showing off his critically acclaimed songwriting skills.

Patsy's most obvious influences are blues, traditional Irish music, jazz and country, with obvious nods to such masters as Hank Williams, Rory Gallagher, Son House and a host of others, Patsy's cross cultural explorartions within songwriting and composition genres have lead him on an interesting path.

He has played with Punk Rock bands, country bands, big-band swing and Jazz ensembles, Irish folk groups, tradiional Irish music groups and most recently and most successfully, as a solo guitarist and singer.

He has been known to supply the driving guitar rhythms on Irish/World Music diva Eileen Ivers' European tours, and regularly treads the boards with Piping legend Paddy Keenan, who also sprinkles some of his own magic onto a few tracks on Patsy's last album.

On Patsy's solo recordings, his interest in contemporary songwriting as well as his jazz influences are also apparent - this being most evident in a jazz/blues version of "Star of The County Down" with Paddy Keenan on low whistle, an arrangement of the old Irish ballad that inspired Irish music critic Paul Dromey to declare Patsy "Ireland's best - kept musical secret.", and has recently been featured on NPR's "All Songs Considered"

http://www.paddykeenan.com

Admission: 
$20 adult, $10 student/senior
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