As I said in my last post, my main reason for going to the Rainforest World Music Festival this year was to meet up with Paddy Keenan. I’ve known Paddy for several years now. We first met up when I was photographing him at a festival and we hit it off immediately. He’s one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet and extraordinarily gifted musician.

A while back we sat down and he told me in depth about his fascinating life and I am planning a feature article on him in the near future. Paddy is without doubt one of the greatest traditional Irish musician alive today. Born into a travelling family, both his father and grandfather were uilleann pipers. Paddy took up the instrument which he describes as ‘one of the hardest in the world to play’, when he was ten and went on to perform with other members of his musical family as The Pavees (pavee is the Irish word for traditional travellers).

Paddy tells me that during the 60s very few people were playing the uilleann pipes and instrument almost died out. The revival of interest can be attributed to Paddy himself. In the 70s, he was a founding member of the Bothy Band who went on to be one of the greatest and most influential Irish bands of all time. The pipes were central to the band’s sound.

Paddy currently lives in the USA but often returns to Ireland to perform, as well as making appearances at festivals around the world.  At the Rainforest World Music Festival, he played in daytime workshops and on stage as The Paddy Keenan Trio with Chris Murphy on bodhrán and James Riley on guitar.

It was a pleasure to hang out with these guys but the kind of experience that made me wish I had picked up an instrument years ago and not a camera.

I look forward to catching up with them again in the near future.

If you are not familiar with Paddy’s music it’s time you were. Check out his solo work, and that of the Bothy Band. If you are in Bristol, New Hampshire, USA, swing by Chris Murphy’s fantastic bar, Kathleen’s Cottage for Irish hospitality, beer, and of course superb live music.