Live Irish Music in KC: Len Graham at Cafe &
A fantastic treat to lovers of Irish traditional singing in Kansas City is on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at Delahunt’s Cafe & in the form of the great Len Graham.
Eddie told me about this gig months ago, and was very excited about it though somehow I’ve managed to let it slip posting about the event until now.
I know you read a lot of superlatives about Irish events in Kansas City all the time, but you don’t read them from me so when I say fantastic I mean something quite special.
You don’t get too many opportunities to hear somebody of Graham’s calibre perform in KC; you may not get another chance to hear him.
Let’s do a quick dash through the name-dopping and award-dripping resume. The Chieftains, Altan, De Danann, Dolores Keane, Cherish the Ladies and Andy Irvine have all sourced songs from Len. Irish poets that Graham has performed with include Seamus Heaney, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Ciaran Carson, Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, and Brendan Kennelly. Among the many awards in Ireland and overseas that Graham has received are the Seán O’Boyle Cultural Traditions Award in 1993 and more recently the TG4 national music award for Traditional Singer of the Year 2002.
Len Graham lives with his wife Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, the fellow Ulster renowned traditional singer with whom he has given performances and workshops in universities and festivals throughout Ireland and the US on the varied bi-lingual Ulster song tradition, drawing their repertoire from the many sources of the oral song tradition which includes the classic ballad, the south-east Ulster song tradition, macaronic songs, love songs, political songs, Jacobite songs, songs of emigration and dance songs.
As a collector of songs (some of his field recordings have been published by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland), Graham has a huge store of songs and stories that he can draw on, and is himself part of the tradition of Irish songs and stories being passed from generation to generation.
You really will be missing something very special and very Irish if you don’t get to this gig.
Eddie Delahunt’s Cafe & is on 45th Street at State Line Road. Len Graham performs at 7:30pm. Phone (816) 753 3322 for more information.
On Thursday, April 3, 2008 at 7:00pm Len Graham is also performing over in the Unity Center of Columbia (1600 W. Broadway)
$12 / $10 members / $8 students & seniors, Free for ages 14 & under
The event at Delahunt’s Coffeeshop has been posted on the Kansas City Irish Events calendar.
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