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Kansas City Irish Festivals, Music, Pubs, & Events by an Artist in Ireland

The original Irish Festival of Kansas City is Eddie Delahunt. A one-man festival, his songs, singing, and musical generosity have created the very music scene in KC that now needs Irish Festivals and Celtic Block parties to satiate it.

Last night in an Irish pub only ten years old Eddie orchestrated a night of Irish music and craic we haven’t experienced for a long time.

You knew the night was going special places when Kevin Kiley from Arkansas joined the crew on stage with his cittern and banjo.

With Delahunt’s own compositions from the magnificent Original Sing CD, like Love is Pleasin’, to standards like St Brendan’s Voyage, and jigs and polkas from the peerless Brett Gibson on accordion, we were in full swing when Gordie Grohmann’s uilleann pipes took center stage.

Like Gibson’s accordion, Gordie Grohmann’s uilleann pipes are now reason enough by themselves to go to O’Dowd’s of a Sunday night. And then, mid-tune, like Norm into Cheers, Máirtín de Cógáin walked in the door. With Gabriel Reyes absent, sure they needed a bodhrán player anyway.

When Eddie handed the microphone to Máirtín, O’Dowd’s clapped along to the West Cork shooting of a man in Reno, and the people on stage were having way too much fun.

When I tuned in to Walt Bodine last summer I heard the Voice Squad and much as I enjoyed it I wondered why, given that Máirtín was a guest. It wasn’t the Voice Squad, it was The Fuchsia Band singing Ten Minutes Too Late.

Last night as Máirtín introduced what was clearly going to be Ten Minutes Too Late I wondered if all the musicians would join in for the chorus, because it works so much better that way. Never mind the musicians, the whole bleedin’ pub joined in.

Shortly after followed a version of Paddy Works on the Railway, both respectful and raucous, and then An Cailín Álainn. And there was a lot of talk, mostly from the Cork fella as he sparkled from underneath his enormous beard.

And there was dancing. Much dancing. You remembered that dancing isn’t only for competitions; sometimes it’s just joyful. And all the time Eddie quietly and masterfully took us all together on a musical trip that needed a half-time break so we could all pause and anticipate the second half.

And the expectancy was palpable in those few minutes where we all took a breather, afraid to acknowledge we were witnessing a special night lest we ruin it by doing so. With the nonsensical early-closure of O’Dowd’s looming Delahunt quickly rallied the musicians and immediately we had Kevin Kiley perform solo one of his own rare compositions, the excellent Vinegar Bush Gulch (NOTE: See comments for background by Kevin), on banjo. And regular bodhrán player Gabe even arrived to join the party on stage.

The rest of the night was a blur (I wasn’t drinking, honest), a tour-de-force of jigs and reels and songs and dances that all bled into each other before it had to end. Somewhere in there Máirtín got intimate with a broom, in a dancing kind of way, and then to finish a set of dancing he and one of the dancers, did their one-two-threes all the way around the entire pub - disturbing those of us who take to quiet corners and lurk - though he said hello as he went past.

I only left last night after Máirtín did, convinced as I watched him walk down the street with his bodhrán that I wouldn’t be missing out on any more fun. It was one of those nights, where you knew people in every corner of the pub, but the accordian, the pipes, the cittern, Eddie’s voice, and that Corkman, had your attention.

Now what’ll I do tonight?

Related Posts:
Eddie Delahunt & Friends: Music, Stories, Pictures

Handy Irish Phrase: Is minic a lean maidin bhrónach oíche shúgach   (’Tis many a sad morning followed a merry night)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 11:38 am and is filed under Accordion, Brett Gibson, Eddie Delahunt, Fuchsia Band, O'Dowd's - Plaza, Reviews, Something For The house. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.