Kevin Rowsome is in the fifth generation of a famous piping family and his daughters are part of the sixth.
By Daniel Neely
The name “Rowsome” is one that looms large in the world of uilleann piping. Indeed, several generations of Rowsomes are well documented in Irish music (thanks, in large part, to Captain Francis O’Neill, the police chief of Chicago who wrote so prolifically about Irish music at the turn of the century) but perhaps none of them is as well-known as Leo Rowsome, whose piping and whose instrument & reed-making skills are legend.
However, another Rowsome well-known among contemporary traditional musicians is Leo’s grandson Kevin Rowsome. A fifth-generation uilleann piper who learned from his grandfather and his own father Leon, Kevin has just released “Cuisle Cheol na bPíob (The Musical Pulse Of The Pipes),” a superb new album of solo uilleann piping that explores an ancient repertory and brings it out of obscurity into the fresh light of day.
What Rowsome has done here is fascinating. In exploring his sense of the tradition and its past, he’s gone to a variety of important historical sources, including collections assembled by Goodman, Colclough, Joyce, Petrie, O’Neill, MacLean, Darley & McCall, Levey, Breathnach, O'Farrell, Rowsome and Ryan. The tunes he’s selected are rare and unusual for the most part, but they’re all solid choices into which he breathes wonderful new life. Indeed, one can hear the Rowsome family lineage in Kevin’s playing, but ultimately it’s his own voice that draws the listener’s ears.
This really comes through in several tracks. I immediately think of his playing in the unusual three part version of “The Ace & Deuce of Piping,” in the lovely jigs set “The Dougarry Boys / …” and in the hornpipe set “The Last of the Twins / …” as examples of this. He’s also made his great good taste clear in those tracks, but in many others as well, like the jig set “Tom Rowsome / …,” which features three largely unfamiliar jigs that fit wonderfully well together.
The album also includes a couple of Rowsome originals, “The Very Man / The Bee in the Bonnet” and “Cuisle Ceoil an Bhlascaoid (The Musical Pulse of the Blasket islands).” The former is a pair of very nice reels, while the latter is a moving air that sounds as though it’s come out of the bog with a good bit of turf left on it. Although modern compositions, these tunes all fit very naturally into this older sort of project.
The liner notes are meticulously done. In them, Rowsome reveals the extent of his research, which is substantial, and writes with an authoritative voice about the tunes he’s chosen, discussing his source, their lineage, their historical importance, and sometimes all three. Readers who love nuts-and-bolts discussions about tunes will find these notes quite rewarding.
Musicians and engaged listeners should also know that it’s worth a visit to Rowsome’s website (www.kevinrowsome.com, where you can also find the album), as it not only provides transcriptions of all the tunes played on the CD in conveniently downloadable PDF form, but it expands on Rowsome’s family history in the music by exploring each of the six generations of Rowsome family piping. (The sixth generation comprises Kevin’s daughters Tierna and Naoise, who also play pipes, among other instruments.) Because Rowsome family pipers have been so highly considered for so long, there is quite a bit to take in. There is enough material here to provide the piping initiate hours of intense study, but it is not so technical that it prevents the casual enthusiast an opportunity to better understand this important traditional music family on a more personal level.
“Cuisle Cheol na bPíob” is a captivating album of solo piping that will prove a hit with pipers and fans of the instrument. The impressively obscure tunes bring a sense of historical depth to Rowsome’s lovely piping and the no-frills production conveys a warmth and intimacy that will speak to listeners in search of “the pure drop.” Recommended!
