The Keegan Tunes: Volume 1 - Josephine Keegan

Josephine Keegan has been playing the fiddle all her life, and is also internationally famous as an accompanist. She has composed many tunes, and of these many have passed into the tradition. She has now published a book of her compositions; it contains 75 original tunes and is an invaluable addition to the repertoire. Time will tell how many of them continue to be played. The tune titles and the illustrations pay tribute to the geographical beauty and independent culture of her native South Armagh, whose people on the 22 of this year won the Sam Maguire cup for the first time – through simple courage, intelligence and tenacity.

Josephine Keegan’s unique contribution to Irish Traditional Music is legendary, and with this CD and book it has been given the long overdue public recognition her work so deserves. The full-color book contains notations of all the 80 tunes included (reels, jigs, hornpipes, marches and slow airs), and the CD features 38 musicians from Keegan’s beloved South Armagh region, an area steeped in rich tradition.