kevin de Souza

Kevin de Souza began playing the bass guitar in 2000, and since then he has been able to work with amazing people all over the country. Growing up in Washington, DC gave de Souza access to a huge variety of music, and his college years saw him playing with punk-rock, blues, alternative, R&B, pop, bluegrass, hip-hop, and indie groups. Regardless of the setting, Kevin always brought the same things to the table: strong, supportive bass lines; a well-developed sense of ensemble and songcraft; and a powerful presence onstage. 

Those qualities are what made the young bassist an attractive prospect when Bob Halligan, Jr., was looking for a new low-ender for his award-winning Celtic rock band, Ceili Rain. After a five-minute conversation with the noted songwriter, de Souza knew Ceili Rain was something he wanted to be a part of. The band has worked with many talented bassists in the past, including the great Tony Levin, and de Souza has had a lot of fun picking apart their considerable body of work and making it his own since joining the group in 2008. In March 2011, the band released its seventh full-length album, "Manuka Honey", which features Kevin on bass throughout. 

In 2010, de Souza recorded his first solo album, an EP titled "Remember Your Dreams, Pay Your Child Support". The six tracks on RYDPYCS, as he’s taken to calling it, draw on different facets of the prolonged transitional phase that marks young adulthood for so many of us. A big step forward for Kevin as a songwriter and arranger, the record incorporates aspects of R&B and electronic music on some tracks and sticks to the time-tested guy-with-a-guitar model on others, but each song has something in it that listeners will find surprising. The record is available in both digital and CD formats at kevindesouza.com and is also available on iTunes.

In May 2010 Kevin made the move from DC to Nashville, Tennessee. Over his twenty-two months there, he appeared as both a sideman and solo artist at writer's nights and concerts across Nashville, in addition to picking up a few session and songwriting credits along the way. 

After learning a great deal in Music City, de Souza made the decision to move back to his hometown in March of 2012, and is looking forward to diving back into the vibrant DC music scene, playing more cities with Ceili Rain, and continuing to build his reputation as a direct, honest songwriter and a passionate instrumentalist.