Sunday September 3 at KC Irish Fest 2006
NOTE: This post relates to an event in 2006 and is no longer applicable.
I wish I was French.
One of the biggest buzzes from the festival so far has been a scintillating performance by Millish. If you missed them yesterday today you get a second chance at 5pm.
One of yesterday’s highlights for me was the Tin Cup Prophette with her excellent band. Indeed as I was watching, an old woman in a bright green top dotted with white shamrocks passed and put her hand to her mouth to whisper an aside to me -well that doesn’t sound like Irish music, and then she kept walking as I stayed put listening to the best piece of traditional Irish music I heard all day. Today the Tin Cup Prophette move out from the Atrium stage to the Boulevard Pub stage.
Gráda too were a trad highlight, with the singing of Nicola standing out wonderfully. Playing at the same time as the Elders meant a lot of people didn’t get to see them. Second chance this evening.
John Redmond is one of the best Box Accordion players in the country and plays today inside on the Atrium stage. If you come up to me and whisper that it doesn’t sound like Irish music, I will kick you and every one of your descendants in your Irish shins.
Not Celtic Rock, and not Irish traditional, is the special and unique talent that is John Spillane. Today he moves to the big Terrace stage after yesterday’s performance on the smaller Boulevard Pub stage. What John does vocally, with his own songs and others, is something you really shouldn’t miss - and perfect if you’re not interested in Irish music, or if you love it.
Five years ago when Black 47 last played an Irish Festival in Kansas City - at the Brookside Irish Fest - I was working one of the bars when they played on stage and I heard Larry Kirwan famously forecast the festival would be one of the top five in the country in five years.
Five years on, with the help of the Westport Irish Fest, it has. You see, Larry knows about Irish festivals. Reggae, Rap, Irish, Jazz, Funk, Rock. Humour, politics, and lyrics like nobody - Black 47 surely have something for you.
Another chance to see both Gaelic Storm, and a triumphant performance from the Elders in front of packed thousands on the terrace. Something For The House, and The Fuchsia Band; I’m planning to be in three places at one time. You?
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Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Just a comment on the lady who thought the music being played by Tin Cup Prophette wasn’t “Irish” enough - I’d say it’s a certain bet that same lady was singing along with Cahal Dunne as he trilled “My Wild Irish Rose” or “Peg O’ My Heart” and other Broadway-inspired faux-Irish melodies. While it is often embarrassing, those same people whom Tom Brokaw dubbed the “Greatest Generation” kept our culture on life support with such sentimental tripe until the day when we could begin to re-discover what Irish music was supposed to sound like.
This is not meanto to speak ill of Cahal Dunne or his performance - I am certain he is a fine man and from what I witnessed he is a first-rate entertainer (green suit and all) - but perhaps the day has finally arrived when we realize Irish music is more than the simplistic tunes of (often-xenophobic) Broadway hacks.
Also, since it was mentioned in this blog, did anyone else get a weird feeling when they first saw Larry Kirwan in full daylight? Was it just me or did that seem unnatural to anyone else?
I second that.
God do I ever.