Through evocative photography and meaningful text, this celebration of Irish music will stir people's hearts and memories -- Tells the story of Irish music and its place in the hearts of Irish people, from the 1920s to the 1990s, with references to the Famine, emigration, and early traditions and superstitions -- Portrays notable Irish musicians living in the U.S., including the hugely popular Martin Hayes and legendary Chicago Police Chief Francis O'Neill, whose collection of traditional tunes is a bible for Irish musiciansIrish music is rooted in its people, ordinary working folk who lived off the land and whose lives it enriched and sustained. This is the story of that music: how it was passed down, collected, and added to; how it lived on through immigrations, changes, and technologies. Told in compelling fictional style through several generations of one family, it is a lively tale that conveys both the deep spirit of the music itself, and the rich and troubled history of Ireland's people.Marvelous photography and lyrical text recall images of old folks dancing in the kitchen, musicians at a wake, of hurling matches and pub sessions -- beautifully re-creating the rhythms of life in Ireland from the '20s to the '90s, and imparting a vivid experience of this rich musical legacy.There was music before me and after me -- on both sides of my family they could play. There was music in nearly every house where we came from, up in the humps and hollows, wet, bad land, all bog and lake. Music was all people had ... it was within you and you could take it with you wherever you went. -- from the book