Barrington's Kevin Doyle To Perform On Childplay's Farewell Tour

BARRINGTON, RI—Kevin Doyle learned Irish step-dancing from his mother. He started at age 8 and remembers practicing some of the steps at the kitchen sink in Providence before he and his sister went off to St. Matthew's School. Those steps, which his mother brought from Roscommon, Ireland, later made it onto the world stage. Back in 2014, Doyle was named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow, but he's not resting on his laurels. He will be performing next month with the "Fiddle supergroup" Childsplay, which is making its farewell tour. Most of the shows are in the Pacific Northwest, but one is in Somerville, outside Boston. He's been performing with them three years, he told Patch in a telephone interview.

Doyle's family ran Doyle's Variety for 35 years. It was on Elmwood Avenue, and they lived seven blocks down from St. Matthew's School. His mother, the late Margaret Taylor Doyle taught him and his sister Maureen. She started at age 6. Doyle branched out and took up tap dancing when he was 10. He was inspired by the movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with Jimmy Cagney, he said. He also attended Theresa Landry's dance school in Pawtucket. She passed away recently, he said. Landry put on extravagant shows, which many Rhode Islanders remember. She made all the costumes and traveled to New York City for inspiration. One night, one of the performers was painted in gold.

Doyle has stuck with Irish step-dancing all these years because it keeps "the culture alive and the steps my mother brought to this country," he said. The appeal has grown thanks to Riverdance, he said. And it's now worldwide.

"I was in Ireland teaching," he said, and some of the best students in the class were from Japan. "It doesn't matter anymore" if you're Irish, he said, "if the bug bites you."

Doyle hooked up a few years ago with violin maker Robert Childs, who organized Childsplay. The fiddle players play a violin or viola, which Childs made by hand.

“Since our first gig in 1988, our band of talented musicians have strived to take fiddle music beyond mesmerizing repetition and into the realm of harmonies and counter rhythms—traditional fiddle sounds in a contemporary world,” Childs said. “We are so grateful to all of our fans for their continued support as we tune our strings for the final time, and hope to meet new fans along the way!”

Here is the tour schedule.

San Juan Community Theatre
Friday Harbor, WA
Saturday, November 10 at 8pm

Nordstrom Recital Hall/Benaroya Hall
Seattle, WA
Sunday, November 11 at 7pm

Egyptian Theatre
Coos Bay, WA
Tuesday, November 13 at 7:30pm

Austin Auditorium at the LaSells Stewart Center
Corvallis, WA
Wednesday, November 14 at 8pm

Aladdin Theatre
Portland, OR
Thursday, November 15 at 8pm

Admiral Theatre
Bremerton, WA
Friday, November 16 at 7:30pm

Lincoln Theatre
Mount Vernon, WA
Saturday, November 17 at 8pm

Somerville Theatre
Somerville, MA
Tuesday, November 20 at 8pm

Courtesy Photo: Childsplay