Kieran Kane

October 7, 1949, saw the birth of singer/songwriter Kieran Kane in Queens, NY; already drumming by age nine in his older brother’s rock band, he shifted during his teenage years toward bluegrass and folk, appearing at festivals across the Northeast. At 21 he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a songwriter and session guitarist, then headed to Nashville by the late 1970s, securing a staff writing contract with Tree Publishing Co. Elektra soon offered a recording deal, yet after two Top Ten country singles—“You’re the Best” and “It’s Who You Love”—creative differences prompted his return to full-time songwriting. In 1985 he joined fellow Tree writer Jamie O’Hara to launch the O’Kanes, releasing three hit albums and placing a half-dozen singles inside the country Top Ten before the duo split four years later. Kane reemerged in 1993 on Atlantic with the solo album Find My Way Home, adopting a leaner, folk-leaning approach, then co-founded the Nashville indie label Dead Reckoning alongside singer/songwriters Kevin Welch, Tammy Rogers, and Harry Stinson, issuing Dead Rekoning in 1995. Six Months, No Sun appeared in 1998 and Blue Chair followed in fall 2000. Primarily acoustic, Shadows on the Ground arrived in 2002, a spare set of plaintive, powerful, and heartbreaking songs dedicated to his son Lucas after the boy’s Hodgkin’s disease diagnosis. You Can’t Save Everybody (2004), Lost John Dean (2006), and Kane Welch Kaplin (2007) documented further collaborations with Nashville crooner Kevin Welch and multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin, mixing spare, moody originals and covers, while 2009’s Somewhere Beyond the Roses featured a bass-less quartet anchored by Lambchop’s Deanna Varagona.