Keen on her art

Keane Still Takes Irish music by Storm
By Mike Danahey
Mountjoy Writers Group
 

Movies have played more than a bit part in the career of Irish musician and Chicago native Kathleen Keane. In 1989, and 18 at the time, Keane joined the eclectic Irish rock band The Drovers. The band recorded two well-received albums, and their sound caught the ear of filmmaker Ron Howard.

Howard was working on Backdraft, a drama set in the world of Chicago firefighters. As anyone who follows American entertainment can tell you, a movie or TV show about cops or firefighters set in a big city east of the Mississippi River invariably means some characters are Irish, at least in a Hollywood sort of way.

For an added touch of Irish Howard employed The Drovers both as a bar band in the film and to record numbers for the accompanying soundtrack to his box office hit Flash forward 10 years.

In the summer of 1999, a friend tells Keane that the band Gaelic Storm is looking for a multi-instrumentalist to accompany them on a tour of the East Coast, Midwest, parts of Canada and California.
Like The Drovers a decade before them, Gaelic Storm caught the ear of moviemakers.

Sans Keane, the group consists of Pat Murphy on spoons, harmonica and accordion; Steve Wehmeyer on bodhran; Steve Twigger on guitar and mandolin; and Shep Lonsdale on djembe. All share vocal duties.
Los Angeles transplants from Ireland, England and New York, they had been playing an irregular gig at a bar just off the beach in Santa Monica called O'Brien's. Spotted one night by a producer, the act was cast as the band playing for the steerage class passengers in one of the biggest box office hit of all time, Titanic.

Over the three years since the film's release, Gaelic Storm is still blowing through ports of call -- for the last two tours with Keane in tow.
Though the movie brought the band attention, Keane attributes its continued good fortune to the fact it "really puts on a good show. People keep coming back to see them. Pat Murphy is a great comical frontman. When we're on-stage, it's so much fun."

Not that the band has reached Celine Dion-sized audiences. But their combination of traditional music, Irish dance music like they played in Titanic, and original compositions is filling opulent performing arts centers; corporate gigs, like the St. Patrick's day show for a graphics Company outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin; bars, bookstores and even college cafeterias.

Gaelic Storm has been touring internationally on a regular basis since 1989, including appearances in Holland, Tokyo, France, Germany, Scotland, England and Ireland. In August of 2000, Keane joined the group in a wildly successful two-week tour of France, including an appearance at Festival Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany. France continues to be Gaelic Storm's biggest European market, with plans for another French tour this summer in the works.

Keane said one of the best crowds for Gaelic Storm was at the University of Wisconsin -- Stevens Point, where a makeshift stage was set up in the dining hall, and where it wasn't hard to convince fans to do what the band does after every night's show: join them for a pint at a local pub.
Not that the tour is a constant party. There's the grind of hotels, buses, planes, rental cars, faxed schedules, and packing up equipment - all which means the band is "pretty sensible - a fun, but sensible band," according to Keane.

Keane says most of the band exercises in one way or another. She tries to hit the treadmill or bike in the hotel gym and is trying the Atkins all-protein diet to shed a few pounds.

Plus, the band often has to be on-stage at the un-musician-like hour of 9:30 a.m., sometimes playing before audiences of school children. Working with children though is something with which Keane is keenly experienced. Though focusing on performing, since 1987, she's taught youngsters and adults at the Irish American Heritage Center on Chicago's northwest side. In the fall of 1995, she opened the Keane Academy of Irish Music. 
Keane was born in the Windy City to parents from Connemara. At an early age, Keane started on the tin whistle and eventually progressed to the flute. The fiddle followed - under the watchful eye of Liz Carroll, then Martin Hayes - as did the button accordion.

She's won numerous North American Cheoils on various instruments and placed in the All-Ireland on flute. If that weren't enough, Keane also is a champion stepdancer. Her stint with The Drovers was a brief taste of fame from which she learned a valuable business lesson.

"The main reason the band wasn't able to capitalize on its initial success was management, I think," said Keane. "There were a lot of missed opportunities. They started out fairly traditional and wound up closer to alternative rock, losing some uniqueness along the way." The band is still together, but with none of the original members, Keane said.
During her career, Keane has opened for Sharon Shannon, Luka Bloom, bluesman Lonnie Brooks and toured with Chicago's renowned Trinity Dance Company. Recently, she was the lead vocalist in a musical puppet theater production of Peter and Wendy at Yale University. The score was written by Johnny Cunningham.

In 1994, she formed the group Wilding with former Drovers Jackie Moran and Dennis Cahill. The band still plays shows around the Chicago area. She also played with a band called Bolt-the-Door. "There's a good jobbing scene in Chicago. Musicians are supportive of each other," she said.
Before the Gaelic Storm tour, Keane hit the road with Aengus, made up of Jimmy Keane and Robbie O'Connell, Mick Maloney and Johnny Cunningham. And last year, she found the time to release her first solo album. Self-titled, the 10-track work features Keane in all her instrumental virtuosity playing traditional jigs and reels as well as original compositions. She also sings on three tracks.

Featured on the collection are Chicago Irish musicians Pat Broaders, Jim DeWan, Marty Fahey, Bill Knox, Jimmy Moore, Jackie Moran and George Pace.

While she is making a living as an Irish musician, in terms of reaching a mass audience Keane feels the popularity of the sound may have reached its peak. "But because of things like Riverdance, a pool of fans left in its wake has
been built up," she said.

As for the sound itself, "it was being mixed with many types of world beat influences, but I think people are going back to the roots phase," she added. Which is not to say the music isn't making its way into the high-tech era. Gaelic Storm has its own Web site - www.gaelicstorm.com -- which features a fiddler immersed in a pint of stout as its entry portal. From there fans can point and click to learn about the band, the tour and buy product. Samples of the band's music are available for downloading at broadcast.com
Keane, admitting to being behind the Internet curve, said a friend is creating a site for her. Other plans include probably recording with Gaelic Storm late this year on its third album, she added.

While the weather may be nicer out on the West Coast, "I'll never be leaving Chicago," she insisted.