Alan and John Kelly

It's as if the Irish ancestors of the Kelly brothers themselves recorded this CD. Fourmilehouse's mandate is to stay true to tradition, and it accomplishes this goal by forgoing any studio sweetening and laying down raw, pub-tempered reels, jigs and hornpipes with an almost entirely all-acoustic instrumentation. Alan Kelly took up the piano accordion after finding his father's old and dusty instrument in the turf shed. He and his brother John (flute and whistle) competed in music competitions as youths in their hometown of Roscommon, and later were part of the Castlebaldwin Ceili Band out of Sligo. While Alan has released two solo albums, Fourmilehouse is the first with his brother. The material is drawn from classics ("The Duke of Leinster") and some more contemporary sources, all Irish in origin. At times, Fourmilehouse has a modal medieval feel connecting 20th century Celtic music to its own predecessors, but it also manages to demonstrate the close links between that same Celtic music and latter American styles, such as old tyme and Appalachian country music. This is not to say that in any way Fourmilehouse is less than Irish; the Kellys were schooled at the feet of traditional music as potent as Bushmills Black, as fun as a limerick and as old as a leprechaun.