Accolades and accomplishments for James Keelaghan are many. In the 13 years since his first album was released, he has toured the globe and performed in places as far flung as Australia and Hong Kong, all the while building a solid following in Europe and the United States. At home, the Canadian press has referred to him as a "national treasure." And in 1994, his album My Skies was awarded the Juno for Best Roots Traditional Album. Keelaghan has toured with a trio and with a band and has also performed in front of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, however, he has been traveling alone, playing six- and 12-string guitar.

While Keelaghan's early material strongly reflected his Irish and English roots, he has grown to incorporate far more into his repertoire. The indelible Celtic impression remains. However, his willingness to experiment and challenge himself has produced some stunning results. In 1997 he collaborated with Chilean guitarist Oscar Lopez on an album and subsequent tour called Compadres. As the title implies, the project grew out of their friendship. The outcome was a wonderfully evocative musical hybrid, and the pair coined their new sound "Celtino."

Recently, the group Cry Cry Cry (Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky, and Richard Shindell) recorded Keelaghan's "Cold Missouri Waters" and invited him to open several dates on their tour. The story-song is one of Keelaghan's most celebrated works and was inspired by the book Young Men and Fire by Norman MacLean. Both book and song recount the fate of 13 smokejumpers who perished in the 1949 Mann Gulch (Montana) forest fire and the two who survived.

Likewise, "Captain Torres," the only song of an historical bent on the Road album, has generated widespread attention. The Captain Torres was a freighter that sank in the Cabot Straight in 1989. As the ship was going down, with no hope of survival, each crew member was permitted a brief phone call home to say good-bye. Keelaghan's grasp of the story and realistic portrayal of events effectively places his audience in the freighter's radio room to eavesdrop on the frantic conversations.

Keelaghan's mastery of language, timing, and detail, combined with an uncanny knack for pressing all the right emotional buttons, has provided him with the ability to eloquently tell someone else's story. Considerable changes in his personal life required that he now begin telling his own.

This is an excerpt. Read the full article in Dirty Linen #87 (Apr/May '00).