Wow!! Thank you Mark Lysaght and Irish Music Magazine for adding me to your Legends Series – I am honored and humbled by your selection of this southside Chicago immigrant box player who was fortunate to grow up and learn…
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Dennis Cahill & Jimmy Keane
This is the full 2014 online concert video of Dennis and I playing two tunes: Hector the Hero and The Charleston Reel. A snippet of the video below appeared in the TG4 Documentary: “Dennis Cahill: Litir ó Do Chara" (meaning:…
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Seamus Begley (1949-2023)
From the first time the Horse, Liz Carroll, and myself met you in TJ Daly’s on 63rd Street back in 1976 you were a constant source of joy, joviality, jigs played in that jaunting juggernaut west Kerry style – followed…
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New Year. New Start...
This year marks the 60th anniversary of my arrival in Chicago from Ireland along with the Kerrywoman where we were reunited with the Horse for a new start and new beginning in this great Windy City.
It was also sixty…
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Tribute to Mick Moloney at the Milwaukee Irish Fest 2022
I think that Mick Moloney — the most eloquent and articulate person I’ve ‘ere known — would get a good chuckle that stumbling bumbling me ended up giving a few pre-tunage remarks about himself at The Scattering this past Sunday…
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Tony MacMahon (1939-2021)
Sorry to learn of the passing of one mighty man of music who I knew on and off since meeting Tony MacMahon when I was a kid in the 1960's in Chicago and various other places throughout the years where…
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Joe Burke (1939-2021)
Talk of a surreal day on Saturday. I've been working on a 192 track audio project for nearly a year and am now about one-fifth the way through on the first draft of the liner notes. I ended my writing…
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Brendan Mulkere (1942-2020)
I was on my first solo trip to Ireland to compete in the 1977 Fleadh Cheoil in Ennis - after a successful Fleadh, I had a notion to head over to London for a long weekend before going…
Read moreThis about sums it up...
Acc0rdi0n Suite 2020 in Two Movements
Infinite Hope...
My individual video contribution to the 140 minute plus "Infinite Hope" originally live streamed on Wednesday, June 24th, 2020.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Infinite Hope"…
Read moreThe Charleston Reel as played by Four Men and a Dog
While searching online for a way to trade in all them years of playing the accordion for the equivalent in time of playing the fiddle - I came across the following track by the brilliant Four Men and a Dog…
Read more#Quarantunes
I wish to thank Dr. Ryan Hackett for the #Quarantunes nomination - but more importantly, to thank Ryan and all you other healthcare heroes, first responders, and essential workers (our newest class of heroes) out yonder who are leading…
Read moreJohn Prine - Rest in Paradise
Side B, Cut 7
I met John Prine in Dublin many years ago at a hotel where I was staying — it was at the in-house late night ‘disco’ where one went for a drink a few minutes after the…
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Review: Liz Carroll & Jimmy Keane: Dublin Tradfest January 2019
Tradfest shows what music can be
Irish Echo
February 6, 2019
By Colleen Taylor
"What also makes Temple Bar TradFest remarkable in its use of Dublin’s most historical and austere spaces, from City Hall to St. Patrick’s…

Review: Liz Carroll & Jimmy Keane: Dublin TradFest January 2019
Tradfest: Liz Carroll & Jimmy Keane
Irish Music Magazine
Live Review by Mark Lysaght
City Hall, Dublin, January 25, 2019
Dublin’s TradFest has evolved over the years to become a major
event in the…
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1974 All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil booklet Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland
Came across this treasure from the past earlier this week. It is the program booklet for the 1974 Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland listing all the competitors who qualified to compete. I've highlighted all the competitors from the USA who…
Read moreIronwork...
In the "now for something completely different" category -- musician, historian, and my buddy Bucky Halker interviewed me a few years back as part of the "Cultural Traditions of Ironworkers in America's Upper Midwest : Archie Green Fellows Project" for…
Read moreJimmy Keane CelticMKE interview
Artist Spotlight: Piano Accordionist Jimmy Keane
CELTIC MKE·TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
You grew up around music & your parents encouraged you to play, but what drew you to the piano accordion?
J: It is a bit odd…
Read moreAccordionist Jimmy Keane: Irish Fest and the Ward Irish Music Archives
Accordionist Jimmy Keane:
Irish Fest and the Ward Irish Music Archives
Hi Folks! Jimmy Keane here typing out a few words about my upcoming performance with Mick Moloney at the CelticMKE Center on Saturday, October 21.
It…
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The Horse Keane and Sean McGuire...
Liz Carroll recently sent me an article written by Martin McGinley about the late great fiddler Sean McGuire (1927-2005). Liz asked me to make sure I read it all the way through. And lo and behold, there was a Sean…
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CCE Living Tradition Award
I guess I should clean out my accordion case more often... ;-)