Legacy

From Minnewiki

Legacy playing at Kip's Pub in St Louis Park, December 2005. Photo by Luke Taylor, Minnesota Public Radio

Page contents

1 History
2 Members
3 Albums
4 Audio
5 Related Web sites
6 Related Bands

History

Legacy is the name of a Twin Cities-based Celtic band that specializes in the traditional folk music of Ireland and Scotland and the Celtic-inspired music of the New World. The band’s range includes everything from background music to dance music to audience participation songs.

Legacy formed from the serendipitous meeting of four friends who all share a love of Irish music.

Kevin Carroll started taking friends and relatives to hear live Irish music at McCafferty's (now defunct) on Grand Avenue in St. Paul around 1980. In 1982, Carroll made his initial visit to the Milwaukee Irish Fest, which was the first of about a dozen consecutive annual trips there. He hired the Irish Brigade to play at his wedding reception in 1986, and he sang with them on stage at that time. Carroll had dozens of albums of Irish music and had memorized most of the melodies and lyrics by the early 1980s.

Thomas Juenemann, a longtime folk music aficionado, developed an interest in Irish music rather by accident when he stumbled upon a show called “Last Night’s Fun” on radio station KFAI. The show played Irish music for two hours and Juenemann was impressed. His interest in Irish music remained mostly latent until 1996, when he earnestly began learning to play Irish tunes. He attended sessions at local pubs, and soon turned his sister’s ear to the Irish sound.

Juenemann’s sister, Patti Drew, had been teaching line dancing to Country/Western fans, but after attending music sessions with her brother, Drew’s interest shifted to Irish folk dancing. Drew’s children later enrolled in the Shamrock School of Irish Stepdance, and that’s where she met drummer Kevin Carroll, whose children also attended Shamrock. Soon, Juenemann, Drew and Carroll were all attending Irish music sessions together. It wasn’t long until Juenemann contacted college friend David McKoskey to encourage him to come to Irish sessions, too.

Providing accompaniment to dancers was where the band members cut their teeth. A friend of Juenemann wanted to begin teaching Irish step dance in Northfield but lacked live accompanying music, so she asked Juenemann for help. Juenemann agreed and asked Drew, McKoskey and Carroll to join him at one of the dance school's first Irish dance performances. The day took an unexpected and rather exciting turn for the fledgling four-piece when Norman Butler, the owner of the Contented Cow pub in Northfield, heard the band play for the dance class. Butler approached the band afterwards and invited them to the Contented Cow, offering them dinner in exchange for playing at the pub. It was the band’s first real gig.

This initial Contented Cow engagement led to many more at that venue, and soon the band began operating under the name Legacy. The band’s name was chosen to honor immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, Irish and otherwise, who passed music and traditions from one generation to the next.

In addition to the Contented Cow, Legacy has shared its music with patrons at Kieran's Pub and at Keegan's Pub in Minneapolis, the Dubliner Pub in St. Paul, Celts Pub in Rosemount, and Charlie's Pub (in the Water Street Inn) in Stillwater. Legacy has also played at the annual Minnesota Irish Fair in St. Paul, Paynesville's Ethnic Heritage Festival, Rosemount's Leprechaun Days, and at numerous private events. And they haven’t turned their backs on the venues that gave them their start: Irish dance. Legacy frequently continues to provide accompaniment for the Shamrock School of Irish Stepdance and for Scoil na d'Trí Irish Dance Academy. Legacy has also provided accompaniment to dancers at St. Paul’s Landmark Center (as part of that city’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations) and at the occasional Irish ceili.

All members of Legacy are Minnesota born. Only Kevin Carroll has direct Irish lineage; his paternal grandfather was born in County Cork and emigrated to Minnesota. Siblings Juenemann and Drew have an Irish aunt, but they know little about her. McKoskey’s bloodlines are primarily French and German; his ostensibly Irish surname is actually an alteration of his original family name, derived by his forebears who wished to assimilate into the large Irish community of their adopted St Paul.

Members

Kevin Carroll — percussion (bodhran, bones), vocals
Patti Drew — flute, tin whistle, vocals
Thomas Juenemann — button accordion, vocals, harmonicas, guitar
David McKoskey — guitar, mandolin, vocals

Drew is a science teacher in the Rosemount school district. Carroll is the Director of Community Development for the City of Farmington. St Paul resident McKoskey has two Masters degrees and is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science.

Albums

In 2003, Legacy financed the production and release of a 17-track, self-titled CD. The disc includes a number of traditional songs, plus two original pieces composed by McKoskey and performed by the band. The album was engineered, mixed at mastered by Joe Mabbott at A440 Studio in Minneapolis.