Paddy Keenan is acknowledged as the most accomplished Uilleann Piper performing today. He is certainly one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. He can rightfully claim his place alongside such open-style legends as pipers John Cash and Johnny Doran. His flowing, open-fingered style of playing can be traced directly from the style of such legends as Doran. Although much has been said and written about the influence of the famous Doran brothers and Johnny in particular on Paddy's music and piping style. Paddy cites his father, the late John Keenan, as his mentor. John Keenan was an admirer of the Dorans and communicated their style and choice of tunes to Paddy and his brothers. Paddy, however, has developed his own unique style, molded not only from the Dorans through his father, but also from his contact with other traditional musicians.

Paddy Keenan was one of “The Bothy Band’s” founding members titled in reference to the migrant Irish laborers who worked in England and Scotland and were housed in stone huts known as "bothies. Paddy’s virtuosity on the pipes combined with the ferocity of his playing made him in the opinion of many, its driving force. The Bothy Band-mate Donal Lunny once described Paddy as "the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes"; more recently, due to his genius for improvisation and counter-melody, he has been compared to jazz great John Coltrane.

Paddy's style has continued to mature in the intervening years since the break-up of The Bothy Band as he has pursued a solo career. Recently he has played at several festivals and weekends, including Gaelic Roots I and II at Boston College; the 1995 Eigse na Laoi at University College, Cork; Green Linnet's Irish Music Party of the Year; and twice at the Washington Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap, including a concert performance there in 1995 with accordion player James Keane and guitarist John Doyle which was videotaped and has been broadcast worldwide. He has played the Stonehill College Festival in Boston and the Philadelphia Ceili Group’s Irish Music and Dance Festival, as well as various concerts, benefits and tionals (piping festivals) around the US, in Canada and in Ireland, and even plays an occasional ceili (dance).

Tickets are $20.

http://www.paddykeenan.com/