‘Kin’ is the eagerly awaited second solo album from Damien McGeehan. It differs greatly from his previous solo offering, the critically acclaimed ‘The Tin Fiddle’, which was an exploration of looping and multi tracking a tin fiddle to create ensemble like arrangements from one instrument.
‘Kin’ is a band album featuring several tracks of Damien’s own composition. The arrangements incorporate influences from many other genres including jazz, rockabilly and Senegalese kora music. The glorious voice of Shauna Mullin features on three powerfully delivered songs.
The album was produced by Damien & Seán Óg Graham, and features a stellar line up of musicians, including Pauline Scanlon and Shauna Mullin on vocals, Kieran Munnelly on flute and whistles, Liam Bradley on drums/percussion, Conor McCreanor on bass, John McCullough on piano/Hammond organ, Rory Hoffman on clarinet, James Simmons on trumpet and Jeff Adams on trombone..
McGeehan has been heavily influenced by other genres of music and these influences present themselves in the arrangements as well as in the fiddle playing, particularly in the improvised passages where you can hear elements of jazz and double stop runs that come from bluegrass/western swing fiddle styles. He has worked primarily as a session musician the past number of years contributing to hundreds of recordings on fiddle mandolin and guitar as well as touring with artists internationally. He is one of the trio of Donegal fiddlers ‘Fidil’, along with Ciarán O Maonaigh and Aidan O’Donnell
‘Kin’, has been in the works for a few years due to the busy work schedules of everyone involved, further scuppered by a certain pandemic. The wait is over.
Kin was recorded with support of The Arts Council and Music Network. It’s available to purchase or download from www.damienmcgeehan.com
