Belated IrishFest recap

Before the month gets away, a recap of my visit to the Irish Festival.

I'm not Irish. My paternal grandmother was a full Scot (and by most accounts a mean old gal) and she died 15 years before I was born. As far as I can tell she never spurred my dad to embrace his Gaelic roots (her parents name turned up on a Cherokee census, so it's hard to know what was actually going on).

I am, however, enough of a ham that when the KC Irish Festival came calling for emcees last year I jumped at the chance. The deal was simple: introduce a couple of bands in return for free admission and two complimentary beer coupons. Free beer for talking, that's my kind of deal.

Last year I introduced two guys from Omaha (one was originally from Dublin and ran some kind of martial arts dojo so, again, it's hard to know what was actually going on). As people tend to say in Kansas City, "They were all right." Which means that C and I wandered off in the middle of their set, got another beer and eventually ate some Italian food.

(Quick cultural footnote: I love how at almost any ethnic festival in Kansas City you find the folks from Scimeca Italian sausage set up and grilling, with people of all nations lining up for the pork.)

This year, I had the pleasure of introducing Millish, five guys from Michigan who tore up the Boulevard Pub stage on Sunday afternoon (for clips, bios and even a couple of movies follow the link). While they have a uileann pipes and fiddle player, their approach is more jazz oriented than anything you're likely to hear at an Irish festival while still remaining recognizably Celtic.

Their set included a version of Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo that took several meaningful detours into Grand Funk Railroad, the BeeGees and even "Eye of the Tiger" (yes, the theme from Rocky III. Michael Byars introduced them on Saturday and said that the Brubeck number spawned a host of Michael Jackson references.) All of which may sound hokey, but it was held together, as all art has to be, by the skill and commitment of the artists participating.

Kansas City may be the easiest standing ovation in the nation, but this is one band that deserved theirs.

Jesse Lee Mason, the guitarist for Millish, told me that after a summer playing the festivals circuit they were all headed back to Michigan where they're all studying jazz in one way or another a number of colleges in the Wolverine State.

I hung around for the end of Millish's set and even took the stage to do the obligatory "Give it up for..." In a spasm of zest, I even called them "the future of acoustic music." I would love for this to be true. Acoustic music could do a hell of a lot worse. But the future is the future's business and it's pretty much impossible to tell what's going to be go on.

The oldest member of Millish is 24 and a lot can happen in the life of a young man close to the end of or just out of college. I'm content with knowing that these talented young men put on a hell of show and even if they don't end up being THE future of acoustic, they'll be a part of making whatever happens happen.