Search - Kevin Henry :: One's Own Place: A Family Tradition

One's Own Place contains 23 tracks of Irish traditional music and recitations from Kevin Henry who plays flute, tin whistle and uilleann pipes. He is joined on several tracks by his daughter Maggie Healy on flute, tin whistle and fiddle; sister Verona Ryan on fiddle; brother Johnny Henry on fiddle and life long friend Malachy Towey on bodhran. The musical recordings here represent a sampler of styles from the Sligo region. "The reels and jigs are mostly all local tunes from the Coleman Country area," says Kevin, and reels dominate the selections. Outstanding among these are The Clogher Reel/Sean Sa Cheo, the Dermot Grogan trilogy, the thrilling Tom Ward's/The New Policeman, The Tarbolton/The Golden Keyboard, masterfully delivered by Maggie, and Speed the Plough/McFadden's Handsome Daughter, the latter with its juxtaposition of a dark first passage with a light, redeeming second part. The double jigs and hornpipes are very strong, especially the wistful and haunting Murphy's and Kitty's Wedding, played by Verona, Johnny and Maggie. The Butcher's March played ensemble is one of the highlights of the project-"grand" as Kevin would put it, and "hearty." Kevin Henry is a master storyteller who performs what are known in Ireland as recitations. Here he performs Guilty or Not Guilty, The Hellbound Train, Rex, Peg Kelley's Black Cat and The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God. Kevin also performs one song in the unaccompanied vocal sean-nos style, My Little Thatched Cabin.