I think the book deliberately tries to have a footing in the realms of history and music and isn't shy of a place on the coffeetable. They probably needed to do this to make it viable. Arguably the photos open the tourist book market up for it and the photos also nicely set the scene for those not familiar with the area.
Initially I had misgivings about them including shots taken at Bunratty folkpark and using Portumna workhouse as a stand in for the long demolished Ennistymon one but if you look at them as having a purely illustrative, not documentary, function, a way of setting the scene, it is fine. And they are very well done. Speaking as someone who takes the odd snap and who moves around the same area daily, I think they offer a fair representation, moody cloudscapes and all. You don't want these scenes depicted on a bleak day, featureless and without contrast, with bleached out skies. It makes sense, from a photographer's point of view, to use the light to add texture and interest.
As another recently published historic treatment of a piper's life, the Gandsey book is probably the better one from a historian's perspective (and it doesn't suffer from having the size and weight of a building block) but then again, Gandsey's fame was widespread during his lifetime and his life well documented with plenty of sources to fall back on. Resulting in a very different sort of book. Overall the Barry book brings together local lore about the man quite nicely, it arguably missed a few bits and there are perhaps, for my liking, too many 'what ifs' and bouts of speculation to fill in blanks, topped up with a few bits drawn in kicking and screaming in an attempt to connect them to Barry. But it is a story that needed to be written and the book does its subject justice. Even if showing Barry as remaining a slightly elusive character. It's perhaps a shame documenting his life in a formal and systematic way wasn't done sooner, when the memory of the man was more alive or at least less distant (The attempts of Ciarán MacMathúna, Willie Clancy and Martin Talty investigating for radio were something but overall oral history from people with first, or even second, hand experience was left to die out) .

Above: John Reid and (other) musicians with a family connection to Garrett Barry playing at the unveiling of a memorial at the site of GB's grave on a bitterly cold day just before Christmas 1999 to mark the centenary of Barry's death. Reid played his grandfather Seán's boxwood Coyne on his own, later on.