For siblings Kathleen Fee, John Vesey and Ken Vesey, Ireland was an ocean away growing up, but inside their New York family home, it was part of everyday life.
Raised by Irish immigrant parents with roots in County Mayo and County Longford, the siblings grew up surrounded by the music, stories and traditions their parents carried with them to America. At the center of much of it was their family kitchen.
“Our house growing up, the kitchen was the central space where everyone gathered to share tea, soda, whiskey, good news, bad news and whatever was going on,” the band shares. “It was the same in the stories our parents told us about growing up in Ireland.”
That room inspired Meet Me in the Kitchen, an EP about family, heritage, belonging and the traditions that survive when they're carried across an ocean and passed from one generation to the next.
Celtic Cross formed in 1990, when Kathleen, John and Ken began playing Bronx pubs as teenagers, blending the Irish music they inherited with the rock, folk, country and pop surrounding them in New York.
More than 35 years later, they’re no longer simply the kids around the kitchen table hearing their parents’ stories about Ireland. They’re now the generation carrying those stories and traditions forward.
We’d love to explore an interview or feature around the new EP, their Mayo and Longford family roots, sibling bond, 35+ years making music together, and how their Irish-American identity continues to shape their music today.
New EP, Meet Me in the Kitchen, out 10/9 by sibling band, Celtic Cross
