One day, when we are free to travel the world again, it is possible that you’ll walk into a bar in New York and, in the corner, you’ll hear someone playing traditional Manx music.

It is also possible that the guy playing the music will be Manx ex-pat Shane Kerwin, alongside the fellow members of his group Fyn.

Having formed in 2019, Fyn, a three-piece featuring Shane on the tin whistle and New Yorkers Mia Theodoratus on the Celtic Harp and fiddle player Heather Cole, specialise in playing the music from Shane’s homeland, combining Manx traditional folk music with influences from the cultural melting pots of Brooklyn and the Bronx.

They released their second EP, Treisht, earlier this year, which features their reworked versions of three trad tunes.

Shane, who has dual Manx and American nationality from Máiréad and Brian Kerwin, his American mother and Manx father, moved to New York in 2009 to follow a career in music after studying music at Drumtech in London.

Twelve years on, he still calls New York home and, after enjoying the popular and vibrant Irish music scene, decided to form his own group.

’I asked one musician friend if he knew a harpist and I put a message up on the New York City section of the website Craigslist,’ said Shane.

’A couple days later I was talking to Mia and Heather. Heather was leading local Irish music sessions in Manhattan and busking on the subway between various studio work.

’Mia is from a more avant-garde and experimental music background, but she has also played traditional Irish music for the Irish Prime Minister and Barack Obama and is a current Grammy nominee. She can basically do anything on the harp.

’Her dad was a traditional music scholar, so she knew about the Isle of Man from that.’

Shane himself grew up in a musical household.

He joined the Manx Youth Orchestra, playing cello followed by percussion, and then played in various local bands before moving away.

’I never really played any traditional Manx music though, that all came from my mum,’ he said.

’I think she might be the world’s biggest fan of traditional Manx music and culture. She can’t get enough of it.

’Growing up, my brother and I were at every Yn Chruinnaght, Ceilidh, lecture about something Manx in a freezing church or anything that involved Manx Gaelic, a fiddle or ideally both.

’Manx music feels like this extremely familiar part of my musical background but I basically ignored it when it came to any music I made, until now.’

Fyn’s development has been hampered by the pandemic but Shane is keen to introduce Manx folk music into the Gaelic music scene of New York and get playing to a wider and appreciative audience.

’Pre-pandemic you could hit the first jam-packed Irish music session at noon on a Sunday and end with the last one at 4am,’ he said.

’I haven’t come across any Manx music here at all, which is either a little sad or a huge opportunity for anyone who can knock out "Eunyssagh Vona" on demand.

’Americans have a real deep love of live music and anything from the old country and I think that demand and appreciation of Manx music will be sort of baked in to that.

’I feel like Fyn is right at the beginning,’ he added.

’We’ve had to take a break from rehearsing recently because of new lockdowns, but we can still work on new arrangement ideas.

’I’d like to do a few live gigs before we record again, which is such a helpful part of the music making process, and it feels like we’re close enough now to just hold out for it.

’I’m confident New Yorkers will fully embrace Manx music once they are hit with a live version of ’Three Little Boats’, and haven’t been in a pub for more than a year.’

More information can be found at fyn.band

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers