Ken Fleming has been involved in the Irish music scene for nearly five decades in Dallas, Texas. His first introduction to traditional Irish music was listening to Planxty and The Bothy Band in the mid-70s, but it was after seeing De Dannan live at the Walnut Valley Festival in 1980 that inspired him to begin playing Irish music. He soon formed an ensemble called Tinker’s Dam, a popular traditional Irish band that performed at festivals, concerts and pubs throughout the region in the 1980s.
In 1983, Ken with his wife Peggy and friends Jim Brunke and Peggy Turner, founded the North Texas Irish Festival with Ken serving as its director for six years. Also that year, Ken and the festival organizers formed the Southwest Celtic Music Association, a non-profit corporation created to run the festival and promote Celtic music and dance in the region, of which Ken served as its President for its first four years.
Also in the early ‘80s, Ken hosted a weekly radio show called “Celtic Crossroads” which aired on KNON 89.3 and was one of only a handful of radio programs across the country that featured just Celtic music.
Because of his accomplishments in promoting the Irish culture coupled with his Irish heritage, Ken was recognized by the Irish American Society of Dallas in 1988 when he was named Dallas’s first “Irish Person of the Year” and was also selected the Grand Marshall of the Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade that year.
In 2002, Ken organized ceilis with the Hibernian School of Irish Dance, group dances similar to American square dances and contra dances, in an attempt to showcase Irish music and dance together. That same year, Ken produced a “Riverdance-like” show with the Shandon School of Irish Dance and the Lone Star Ceili Band at the Texas Folklife Festival. In 2004, he produced an Irish variety show called “Over the Pond” combining Irish stories, songs, instrumental melodies and step dancing for the Chautauqua Festival in Waxahachie, Texas.
With a strong interest in music education as a means to further the growing tradition of Irish music in the region, Ken founded the Traditional Irish Music Education Society (TIMES), a non-profit corporation based in Richardson, Texas of which he served as its president for its first four years and is its Executive Director. The purpose of TIMES is “to assist and encourage people in their learning and playing of traditional Irish music through educational programs and performance events.” Incorporated in January of 2005, the organization was formed after the successful holding of the first annual O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat in October of 2004, an event which Ken also founded and served as its director until 2024. The three-day music camp is held every October at the Hoblitzelle Camp & Conference Center in Midlothian, Texas and attracts more than 350 students, teachers and staff from Ireland and all across the U.S.
Along with the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, Ken founded a youth camp in 2008 called the O’Flaherty Irish Music Youth Camp which has encouraged hundreds of school-aged children to learn and play traditional Irish music.
In 2011, Ireland’s primary organization dedicated to the promotion of the music, song, dance and the language of Ireland — Comhaltas Ceoltóirí ÉireannIn — recognized Ken for his “commitment to the promotion and preservation of traditional Irish culture” at its annual convention held in San Antonio, Texas
In 2012, he helped create the North Texas School of Irish Music to provide year-round learning and performing opportunities for its youth and adult students. Then in 2013, Ken founded the TIMES Irish Trad Camp where a master instructor is flown in from Ireland to teach students on a particular instrument for one full week.
In 2021, he received an “Arts & Culture Award” from the Irish Echo Newspaper for his online efforts during the Covid pandemic to provide virtual sessions and tutoring and organizing the 2020 O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat as a virtual event from within Ireland and the U.S.
He has co-authored four tune books of traditional Irish music and recorded a number of instructional CDs for students. He also has recorded with Tinkers Dam, Waifs & Strays, Jigsaw, Loose Change, Trinity Hall Session Players, fiddler Linda Relph, singer Jed Marum, and hammered dulcimerist Russell Cook. He also organizes house concerts of touring artists, hosts sessions at local pubs and helps arrange private lessons on a variety of instruments.
For the past 46 years, Ken and his wife Peggy have performed together in various ensembles including Tinkers Dam, Stone Soup, Waifs & Strays, Loose Change, Jigsaw, the Lone Star Ceili Band, the Trinity Hall Session Players, the TIMES Band and, since 2020, with KinFolk that includes his wife Peggy, son Kevin and daughter Katie. Continuing Ken’s musical legacy, his two children now co-direct the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat.