Saturday, August 28, 2004 - Luck O' The Irish To Ye!

Last night I went out to the Buffalo Irish Festival with my mother, one of my sisters and her fiancee. Ah, what a marvelous time! Plenty of Guinness, good music, and good company.

We got there on the early side, so we snagged some really good seats at the main stage and didn't give them up the whole evening. I'm sad to say, dear readers, that most of you will never have the opportunity to see these amazing artists, as they do not perform in your area.

There was a couple local groups:

• Rince ni Tiarna: a local children's Irish dance troupe of about 350 members that has international recognition. The name is Celtic for "Lord of the Dance", and they had the name first, dammit! There were about 20 of them at the festival, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their performance.
• The McKrells: a band who describes themselves as "Celt-grass". I've heard most of the local Irish bands, but never these guys. They are just amazing. They are all incredible musicians in their own right, and I've never heard a sound like theirs before. Too bad the rest of my party didn't care for them...

Then there was my man from down Maryland way, Seamus Kennedy. He comes up to Buffalo a couple times a year, and we make an effort to see him when he is in town. His specialty is comedy, Celtic music style. He does some great drinking songs. Let me relate to you, as best as my memory will allow, his latest and greatest, "The Beer Song". The tune will be obvious:

Dough, I need to buy my beer
Ray, the guy who sells me beer
Me, the one who drinks my beer
Fa, a long way to the john
So, I'll have another beer
La - ger lager lager beer
Tea, no thanks I've got a beer
That will bring us back to Dough!