Kevin Carr

New SHOW

Carried Away:
 Pipe Dreams and Fiddle Fables

I've been carried away by music and stories all my life: from the first wild tales my grandfather told me, to the dream-faceted gems contained in old ballads….from the resonant  power of  a trance dance melody coaxed from a middle eastern bagpipe, to the siren sigh of horsehair bow across an eager fiddle string.

 I experience stories and music as the links between the inner and outer realms—and as the bones, blood and sinew of the imagination. They are truer than truth because they give our experience of the world its structure and form. Imagination is the home territory of the human spirit. Its body is story; its blood is music.

We live and dream and create through story. And for me the proper soundtrack consists of raw, rooted tunes played on old wooden instruments.

 Carried Away….

is an evening of story and music from a gifted purveyor of both. It is tales that are true, re-imagined, and retold from deep roots, with music played on fiddles and bagpipes from many lands.
 

School Programs And Stage Performances

 Kevin is a witty and warm storyteller and a tremendous musician, who draws audiences into worlds  of heightened experience, where wisdom and foolishness mix in ways that are enlightening, entertaining, entrancing and most of all fun.

 His performances  are rich in ways that appeal to children as well as adults. And his music is dazzling in its variety and expressiveness. Acclaimed storyteller and harpist Patrick Ball,  says,

" Kevin Carr is one terrific musician: fiddles, bagpipes, whistles, drums, you name it. He also has one of the most engaging stage presences I have ever seen."

Stories from the Musical Realms - The Music Between the Notes

This is a program of folk tales concerning inspiration and the magic of music, with culturally authentic examples played on fiddle, Irish, scottish, Slovakian, French and Galicia/Spanish bagpipes.

 " With twinkling eyes and a wry smile, Kevin carries his listeners along on magical journeys with his art of storytelling and music. Masterfully weaving his tales with his virtuoso pipes and fiddles, Kevin opens our ears, minds and hearts to the music between the notes. " - Jean Gibson Gorrindo, Dance caller and community music organizer.

Fiddle music in the Americas 

Our ancestors brought with them rich musical traditions when they came to the North American continent, and one of the chief instruments on which they kept those traditions alive was the violin, or fiddle as it came to be called in folk music circles. Portable, loud enough to play for dancing, versatile enough to play music that was nostalgic and sweet, as well as fiery and hypnotic, the fiddle was a perfect vessel for keeping the old music and dances alive, and for helping them evolve in the New World.

 Kevin plays multiple styles of fiddle music, and can talk engagingly about the history of the fiddle, and of dance music in many immigrant communities. An accomplished storyteller, he weaves together tales and lore with  music from Irish, Scottish, French( and Quebecois), Latino and Scandinavian sources, leaving adults and children alike tapping their toes and humming historic melodies.

 "In response to a standing ovation, Carr capped his energetic two-hour performance by playing a set of soulful Spanish fiddle pieces that truly illustrated what he calls 'the spiritually lucrative field of traditional music.'"

- Mendocino Beacon Review, January 10, 2011

   Irish Music and Tales

 Irish traditional folk music has enjoyed a huge surge in popularity in the last thirty years. Kevin demonstrates this beguiling music on fiddle, Irish ( Uilleann) bagpipes, pennywhistle, tenor banjo, concertina and accordion. He also tells the kind of tales which are inextricably woven in with the music, and explains the evolution of the music over the last several centuries.

 " Storytelling is becoming a lost art.  Kevin Carr is one of its most skilled practitioners. When he tells stories and plays music, children and adults are entranced, and magic happens. "

-  Kacy McClure, former director of Peninsula School in Menlo Park, California:

The Other Bagpipes:

Exotic and Lesser-Known Piping Traditions of the World

For a thousand years, across Europe, North Africa, and much of the Near East, rural people danced to, performed rituals with, and treasured the music of their indigenous bagpipes-once one of the most ubiquitous of folk instruments. Now the bagpipe is most often thought of as a uniquely Scottish instrument, a circumstance largely due to the British Army's use of Scottish regiments as the vanguard in their creation of the British Empire.

This program introduces listeners to the bagpipes of many cultures, along with a bit of the folklore associated with this powerful, beguiling, almost shamanic instrument. The piping traditions of Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden,  Slovakia, Croatia, Georgia, Iran, and Tunisia will be represented. The pipes of these countries range from grand in size to petite, and in sound volume and timbre from strident to suave. The pipes themselves are marvelous cultural icons to look at-each unique, and each chosen to represent a particular type, or family of instruments.

 " This is a heartfelt thank you for the fabulous evening you gave us last Wednesday. You sent 230+ people away reinvigorated and exhilarated. I think you could have kept them there for another hour. I've heard from a number of people since then, and all they can say is that this is the coolest program we've done all year. Thank you for making that happen!"

-Charles Junkerman, Dean of Continuing Education at Stanford University.

   My Grandfather's Fiddle

A peformance consisting of fiddle tunes, bagpipe melodies, songs and stories from Ireland, Quebec, Galicia and other green places. He'll be playing fiddle, banjo, Irish uilleann pipes, Scottish smallpipes and Galician Gaita ( bagpipes).  

Grandfather's Fiddle was an elusive instrument, a legend in Kevin's family, which he pursued for many years. The whole time he was also traveling and collecting music and lore from far flung places around the world, following his imagination and luck into just the right places at just the right times. It took him many years to realized that he was never going to find his grandfather's fiddle, but that he had already found his grandfather's music.

"Kevin Carr is a musical force of nature"

Rod Margason - Seattle Piper's Review