When I dropped into the middle of Steve Shapiro’s curated Kevin Carr YouTube playlist, my first instinct was to reach immediately for earplugs. Dozens upon dozens of festival recordings likely made with amateur devices (I’m betting even a Walkman or two) produced a growing desire to ditch the deep dive. You know the video type: people in a huge multi-layered circle, standing in the dirt, and all but the loudest sounds escape into the air. The pipes, played mostly by amateurs, dominate. Then I was able to locate some pro recordings although no video images were provided. No earplugs needed. Celtic vibe achieved.

Okay, Kevin Carr pretty much plays anything with strings: fiddle, banjo, guitar. Then there is his proficiency with pipes, basically anything with a chanter, drone, bag, or reed:  Uilleann pipes, Galician pipes, and perhaps more. And, in more than one video I noted him seated and playing fiddle and contributing foot percussion. He’s all in!

I did some Google research and learned that a resurgence of the Galician region, culture, language, and music has been afoot since the end of Franco’s reign of Spain in the 1970s. The Galician gaita (pipes) is the traditional instrument of Galicia and northern Portugal. Galicia is a sovereign territory in the north of Spain adjacent to Portugal. The national dress resembles a mix of Celtic, Baltic, Northern Asia, and Scandinavian customs: peaked hats, colorful fabrics, and flowing shirts. Kevin Carr is all in!

Festivals celebrating all things Galicia attended by expats and/or distant relatives and/or afficionados abound in the world of trad music and Kevin Carr’s eyebrow and beard will most likely be in attendance at all of them. From my limited and quick perusal of the videos, he seems most comfortable with a fiddle and/or a set of pipes. He occasionally sings in a soft baritone that’s kind of sandy yet playful. He’s all in!

Then I found some of his storytelling. Quaint and fanciful and delivered with that rogue eyebrow, his sandy voice, twinkling eyes, and the occasional fiddle accompaniment. He’s. All. In.