Kevin Carr will perform My Grandfather's Fiddle as a solo storytelling and musical piece. The performance will include folk tales and music from many lands played on fiddle, banjo, accordion and various bagpipes.
Kevin's maternal grandfather, Denis McGough, was a railroad engineer, a watchmaker, a farmer, an herbalist, a father of two successive families and a master storyteller. As a very young boy Kevin listened, completely absorbed, to his grandfather's tales. A spark was lit which ignited a consuming passion for all things ancient, alive and magical.
That fire in the imagination led Kevin to take up the fiddle in his 20s. Trying to connect with that rooted stream of experience, it pulled him into playing for folk and square dancing. After he got some traction in that world, he visited his mother and played for her. He was completely dumbfounded when she casually said that she recognized some of the tunes because her father used to play them on the fiddle when he called for square dances. In fact, she thought his fiddle might still be somewhere in the family. All of this was news to Kevin.
The search was on! It took years and travels through many territories around the world for Kevin to realize what he was really searching for, and what his "Grandfather's Fiddle" really meant.
Kevin has played dance music for five decades, owns a yurt with 32 bagpipes in it and has been a family therapist and storyteller for much of that time. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife who is also his favorite musical partner. He gives solo performances and plays with the Family Carr, with Daniel OK-Car and Molly Carr, and Josie his wife, as well as with Wake the Dead (a Celtic Grateful Dead ensemble), the Hillbillies from Mars (eclectic dance music with deep roots), OSPA (traditional and contemporary Basque music) and other groups. His website is www.kevincarr.org.
Daytime Adult Learning and Culture Programs are made possible in part by the John R. Schwabacher Family as well as a grant from the Maimonides Fund at the Jewish Community Federation & Endowment Fund. We are grateful for their generous support.