Somewhere tonight, across the country or across the sea, a singer, sitting on a stool on a pub’s corner stage, is belting out a Kevin McKrell song, and the crowd is singing along. McKrell pioneered American Celtic music beginning in 1979 with Donnybrook Fair. The original trio’s 1982 album Tunnel Tigers remains a landmark of the form, with its blend of Clancy Brothers swagger and upstate NY attitude. In 1998, McKrell—who has five solo albums to his credit—formed a powerhouse band under his own name, merging the Irish sensibility of Donnybrook with a steely, world class bluegrass edge. The McKrells toured harder than Donnybrook, bringing its music, with McKrell’s lusty vocals supported by hot string band picking, to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and festivals and concert venues around the country. Offstage, McKrell, is a respected painter and sculptor, with his work hanging in many of the halls he’s haunted, here and in Ireland, Scotland and Italy.

Kevin McKrell is best known, though, for his indelible songs—classics like ‘Donegal’, ‘Dublin Town’ ‘I Miss the Rain’ and the eternal ‘All of The Hard Days Are Gone’—which, in addition to the raft of pub singers mentioned afore, have been sung and recorded by artists such as The Kingston Trio, Bob Shane, North Sea Gas, The Furey Brothers, Hair of the Dog, Seamus Kennedy ,The Druids, The Dublin City Ramblers ,Wood’s Tea Company, Get Up Jack and many others. Kevin and his bands have performed for audiences at the top Celtic, Folk and Bluegrass festivals as well as  Carnegie Hall , Lincoln  Center, Troy Music Hall, Caffé Lena , Berklee Performance Hall , Proctors Theater, The Sellersville Theater, Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The Egg, North Texas Irish Festival, The Landmark Theater Syracuse, Milwaukee Irish Festival ,Celtic Classic, The Great American Irish  Festival, MusikFest, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Winterhawk Bluegrass festival are some of the top venues  where Kevin and his bands have appeared. When Kevin tours he is accompanied by Arlin Greene on bass, Frank Orsini on fiddle and Peter Pashoukos on guitar.

Some of the artists performing and recording Kevin McKrell songs