About Kevin Farley

Kevin Farley has been performing Irish music since 1979, when he departed stable employment managing the bookstore in Kennebunkport, Maine and began a 5-year stint traveling the country with The Carpetbaggers Irish Band.  His subsequent solo career  included 900+ gigs at America’s most celebrated Irish pub, The Black Rose in Boston.

In 1997, he changed his emphasis to entertaining seniors in settings ranging from independent living retirement communities to therapeutic recreation in care settings, including memory care, a path he followed for the next 25 years.

Kevin made his acting debut at age 55 as Buffalo Bill Cody in “Annie Get Your Gun” at Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick, Maine, appeared in the featured role of Ezekiel Foster (“He came with the barn”) in two sellout Ogunquit Playhouse productions of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” emceed the sixth annual “Share Our Strength: Concert for Hunger” at Portsmouth Music Hall, and performed his spoken word piece, “Barack Obama Went to Dublin” at the North Star AME Zion Church MLK concert in 2020.

His memoir, “Out of the Woods: A True Story,” (now used as a resource for directors preparing student actors) reached #1 on the Amazon Broadway and Musicals List.

The pandemic created challenges to live performance, so Kevin produced highly regarded virtual shows, including “Season of the Light: An Irish Holiday Celebration.”

For St. Patricks Day 2021, he performed “A Great Day for the Irish: Songs from Hollywood’s Favorite Films,” for 10,000+ viewers via TV, movie, and computer screens in more than 120 retirement and assisted living communities from Boston to Boise, and points in-between.

He is currently at work on his next program, “Gifts We Can Barely Carry: Songs from JFK’s Ireland Trip,” about the large role music and song played at nearly every stop on JKF’s trip, and his use of Irish songs and poetry to amplify his message.

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