Scartaglen & the beginnings of Irish Music in Kansas City
I know a lot of people will be very interested in Mike O’Laughlin’s podcast on Scartaglen, Talisman, and the early days of those traditional Irish music bands as they played in Kansas City.
It’s a wonderful interview with Dave Browne as he talks about their influences - particularly The Bothy Band - and the characters who recorded in and with Scartaglen, many of whom still populate the Kansas City Irish music trad scene in some form - like Dave Agee (of Kelly), Mike Dugger (of Glen Road), Roger Landes, Connie Dover, Kirk Lynch.
I’ve listened to so many of Mike O’Laughlin’s podcasts that I’m losing track, but the Scartaglen one is Number 6 in the series entitled Missouri Irish History & Legend: Ireland to America.
I’ve been so late in posting on this that Number 7 has been already posted. Like all the podcasts by Mike you can find them at his podcast page on Irish Roots.
The other series of podcasts is the general genealogy one called At the Irish Roots Cafe Today - which is already up to number 31, and then there are also 6 podcasts from the early days of the Irish Roots Cafe, called fittingly, The Best of 1984.
With the amount of Irish events and Irish music that touches Kansas City these days it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always so, nothwithstanding the Irish who migrated to the city to work on the railroads or the Scots-Irish who came here from rural Missouri and other nearby states.
Check out Kansas City’s leading genealogist, Mike O’Laughlin, and the wonderful collection of oral history he is building at the Irish Roots Cafe
See a list of Celtic & Irish music entertainers in the Kansas City area
See Irish Interest Books by Mike:
• The Book of Irish Families, Great & Small (Third Edition, Expanded)
• Master Book of Irish Placenames: Master Atlas and Book of Irish Placenames
• The Birth Index of Ireland
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Thanks for the lead on the podcast.
On an unrelated note, I was hoping to stop by O’Dowds tonight (Sunday), but I see you’ve crossed it out on your events calendar. Does that mean E.D. isn’t there tonight?
Yep - alas for us E.D. is away in Ireland for a week - although he should be in the air right now on his way back to KC - he’s due to arrive back in town tomorrow.