fiddler Johnny Cunningham asked McKeown to be the singer of the songs he had begun composing for the New York theatre company Mabou Mines' production of Peter & Wendy. He composed the rest of the songs for McKeown's voice. They worked together on the show for many years, including performances at The Public Theater, New Victory Theater, Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory, UCLA Geffen Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival. In the late 1990s, McKeown and Cunningham formed a duo and started an annual winter tour of music and song from the Scots and Irish traditions. This resulted in their producing the album A Winter Talisman in 2001 with guitarist Aidan Brennan. In 1997, Cunningham invited McKeown to perform on the album and PBS TV Special The Soul of Christmas with Thomas Moore. It was while working on this show that McKeown suggested to Cathie Ryan and Robin Spielberg the idea of recording an album of songs relating to motherhood, resulting in the Mother album (1999). McKeown began producing, and contributed to the albums Lowlands (2000 Green Linnet) and Sweet Liberty (2004 World Village/Harmonia Mundi). The latter earned a BBC Folk Music Award nomination for her setting of an English Romani song with a mariachi band. Her second release for Harmonia Mundi's World Village imprint was Blackthorn (2006). In December 2003, McKeown joined the klezmer band The Klezmatics onstage at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan in a concert of songs they had composed to lyrics by Woody Guthrie. She has toured and appeared with The Klezmatics often since then, performing in Europe and across the U.S., including in Carnegie Hall in New York City and Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Together they recorded Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2004) and Wonder Wheel (2006) which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album. In 2009, McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg, the lead singer of The Klezmatics, released Saints & Tzadiks (World Village/Harmonia Mundi), an album combining Yiddish and Irish songs. McKeown devised and produced Songs from the East Village, a world music album of songs from the students, parents and staff of The East Village Community School in Manhattan which was released in September 2010. In October 2010 she released the solo album, Singing in the Dark, an exploration of creativity and madness with lyrics from poets who lived with depression, mania and addiction, featuring musical settings of lyrics by Dalkey-born John