Kevin Doherty was born in the late 1960s and grew up in the seaside town of Buncrana, County Donegal, near the most northerly point in Ireland.
By the age of about six years old, Kevin began learning to play the tin whistle with Dinny McLaughlin, a renowned teacher of traditional Irish music and dance.
However, around the age of fifteen or sixteen, a fateful encounter with the works of Bob Dylan in a neighbour's house saw a dramatic change in direction for Doherty back to music again.
There had previously been a Buncrana-based band, The Pyrotechnicos, which reformed in the mid to late 1980s with the shortened name 'The Pyros' and with the added younger talent of both Ciaran Tourish and Doherty.
The band played several bluegrass and country standards at a blistering and technically bewildering pace, which had audiences stomping mad on the dance floors.
In the early 1990s The Gooseberries also went their separate ways and this was quickly followed by Doherty being asked to support Tanita Tikaram on a UK tour, which he did successfully as a solo act.
The Band were among Doherty's musical heroes and Levon, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson performed on the two Woodstock Four Men and a Dog albums.
During the Four Men and a Dog hiatus period referred to above, Doherty recorded two solo albums, Strange Weather and Sweet Water, as well as a limited edition EP, Morocco.
The latter album, Sweet Water, featured other musical icons; James Delaney is a master of the keyboard and has played with the likes of Van Morrison and Paul Brady; Henry McCullough is a genuine guitar legend in rock and folk music, probably most famously as a member of Paul McCartney's Wings and the Joe Cocker Grease band.
Kevin Doherty and Ciaran Tourish (former member of Altan since 1990) have formed a duo and recorded their new album Hotel Fiesta due to be launched on the occasion of 3 shows in Ireland in July 2019.