K-Fold.net – The Blog

This is the blog of Feargal King (yep, that’s me!), a Catholic church musician, composer, producer and so on. Born in Ireland, I moved to the United States in 1993. As a working man, father and husband I struggle to balance life, love and music in my quest to make the most of all that I’ve been given!

I didn’t always want to be a musician – at various times I had ambitions to be a writer, a farmer, a geologist . . . even a teacher. Then one day when I was 15 I decided to pursue music and picked up the guitar and started piano lessons. My parents felt at the time that I should probably have a back up plan but I was determined (read: bloody-mindedly stubborn!) and in the end we reached the compromise that if it was to be music then I should do it properly and go to college and get a degree. And that’s what happened. Some day I’ll blog about the details, but to cut a long story short, during my college career I developed an interest in and aptitude for Catholic contemporary liturgical music.

That later led to studies in liturgy, as well as meeting my wife, leaving the country (the professional pickings in Ireland in this field being slim to non-existent) and becoming a Parish Music and Liturgy Directory at two Catholic churches, to date. At this point I have been at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Algonquin, Illinois since January of 1998.

Apart from full time parish work, I am also a liturgical composer, a sometime studio producer, recording artist, a performer of Irish folk music and an Internet nerd. I also direct music for my diocese (Rockford) at large cathedral events and sub out to various churches in the Chicago area when the local director is sick/on vacation/visiting the asylum. On Mondays I teach guitar and choir to home schooled kids and teenagers at a co-op in Mount Prospect called CHAMPS. I enjoy all these activities in different ways – they all complement each other yet feed me (or drain me) in different ways. They certainly keep me from being bored . . . or idle!

One friend of mine who volunteers at his parish said, when asked why he would not consider working as a parish musician for a living, “No way – I’ve seen what that does to people!” Like many of my colleagues I vacillate between reconsidering that farming career and thinking this has to be the coolest job in the world. Somehow, one year rolls into the next and here I still am . . .

I live in a modest townhouse with my wife, Breda, and our daughter Ríoghna Rose who is a preteen going on twenty-five. Breda is a singer and piano & voice coach – setting up her website at www.bredaking.com is one of my imminent to-do projects after I get this blog sorted out.

I have a few different aims with this blog, apart from the merely egotistical! One is to reconnect with the skill and discipline of writing regularly. Another is to see if I really have anything worthwhile to say for myself! Yet another is to pull together my different Internet nerd projects, which right now include getting multiple websites up and running, my little web hosting/Catholic resource enterprise (www.k-fold.net) off the ground, and the seemingly increasing migration of so much of what I do into the electronic world. A blog is a means of expression, communication and potentially education. I learn from others all the time . . . just maybe there is someone who needs to hear something from me, if that does not sound too big-headed.

Can’t be too big-headed about it anyway – I am one of 20 million people doing this so if you have found this blog, go buy a lottery ticket in case the odds are in your favor today!

I will keep comments enabled for the moment in case anyone cares to say something – but don’t be offended if I change my mind about that in future.

Thanks for stopping by and may your day be a good one!

Sláinte