By the time he was 18,
Sean Kane had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean 40 times.
Every summer of
his youth his family welcomed him ‘home’ to Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
There, he spent weeks fishing, playing soccer, chasing girls at the disco—and strumming
old come-all-ya’s on his uncle’s acoustic guitar. In his ‘first’ home of
Brockton, Massachusetts—a tough aging industrial city— he played jazz and
classical trumpet through high school. By night he wore out the grooves of his
mother’s Dubliners albums like A Drop of the Hard Stuff. Have you ever
heard an eight-year-old sing I’m A Rover, seldom sober? Love of music is
an essential reality of Sean’s life. But perhaps the first and most fundamental
reality is that perennial return to Ireland . . . and America . . . and
Ireland. In fact, that indeterminate space, above the clouds, between two
shores, is perhaps Sean’s truest home. Sean’s music explores that space. Sean’s
accessible, Irish-lilted acoustic pop explores identity, place, belonging, and
being in the world. Themes familiar to many 1st and 2nd
generation folks, but also familiar to most of us living and traveling in the
modern world.
Sean has released the debut EP, A Nation
of One, for his record label, Arise! Records. The songs are
narratives, modern ballads, of travel, discovery, and loss, full of intricate
word play and accompanied by energetic fiddle, tin whistle, and harmonica.
Sean’s acoustic guitar playing is also prominent, in the percussive style of
John Doyle and Nic Jones. The result? Think Pete Townsend meets The Waterboys.
Pre-released singles have reached number one or placed well on established
Internet radio stations like Global Dust Radio, and RadioIndy. His music can also be heard via WI FI in Boston thanks to the Boston Music Project. Sean also plays out regularly: First Fridays at Brennan’s in
concert with the Irish Thornes; Saturday night seisiuns at the Irish Cultural Centre of
Canton, MA; and
a host of other venues in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Music has been a constant in Sean’s life. He sat as first trumpet for four years in his high school’s 150 piece classical orchestra. He was the first underclassman ever selected for the regionally competitive high school jazz band, where he won 2nd solo trumpetist as a sophomore. He began playing guitar at sixteen, and in the early 90s began playing out for Tommy McGann, of McGann’s Pub of Doolin, County Clare fame, at Tommy’s Irish Embassy Pubs around Boston. He also played in several Celtic and soul rock bands in Boston during this time. He also achieved an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College in 1996. In that year he and his new wife, Jeanine, moved to Dublin. After a year, they escaped financial difficulties (!) and returned to the Boston area. It was this event that made Sean first acutely aware of the emotional conflicts inherent in being of two places. As Robbie O’Connell has sung: to find a way to be two places at one time! Sean promptly established a seisiun at the legendary folk venue, the Blackthorne Tavern in S. Easton, MA, which continues successfully today. He began writing songs and essays in earnest. Sean has played with, or opened for: Liam Clancy, Robbie O'Connell, Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies, Teada, Gaelic Storm, Liz Carroll and John Doyle, among others. He blogs about his nerdy passions like Third Culture Kids, Post-Colonial literature, and hidden outsiders, at http:othering.blogspot.com. His wife Jeanine Kane is an equity actor of the Gamm Theatre, in Pawtucket, RI. Watch for her in the Showtime series, Brotherhood. Jeanine and Sean have two beautiful daughters and live in the ‘burbs of Boston.
A Nation of One is released.