Seamus Kennedy

At last years Dublin (OH) Irish Festival, I was walking over to their trad stage to catch The Tanninhill Weavers show. Now, if you've every been to DIF, it is a long haul between the main stages, but I had been there for a couple of days and knew the grounds pretty well. I was traversing thru the food and merch tents when I hear this uncontrollable laughing and cheering. I stopped to see what was going on and got a great glimpse of Seamus' show. Everyone was signing along and laughing. There must have been 300-400 people. It was wonderful. It was then I realized that this was a show at the children's tent. WOW! This guy is good! A couple hours after that, I caught Seamus' show (the one for the adults) and there must have been 500 people on that tent. They were all singing and dancing. WOW! This guy in REALLY good.

So I put him down on the list of entertainers to contact when KCIF 2005 was over and laid to rest. Not really thinking about it, I was walking to my car and I got to meet Seamus near the gate as he was leaving. We chatted a bit and he said he had heard great thinks about KCIF. We exchanged card (his was a baseball card complete with stats) and agreed to talk later about 2007.

Seamus Kennedy is one of THOSE entertainers. He will play to the crowd, no matter what kind of crowd they are, and have a lot of fun doing it. He is very simple, just him a his tri-colored guitar. Here is a snipped from his web site...


Seamus Kennedy, originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been entertaining audiences all over the United States for the past 32 years. With a ready wit and a vast store of songs, he travels from Alaska to Florida, Maryland to California, performing for audiences which range from Popes and presidents to bartenders and bricklayers, from college students to kindergartners.

In concert or festival, in pub or club, in colleges or high schools, Seamus Kennedy has the repertoire and the ability to make folks forget their cares for a while, to relax and enjoy themselves. He encourages the crowd to sing along to silly lyrics and daft ditties or act out the choruses of children's songs. When he plays a lively Irish jig or a reel, Seamus will often coax someone to jump up and dance to the music of his guitar or bodhrán - to the delight - and often amazement - of their friends. His audience participation songs and tongue-twisters have amused the ablest of participants and the nimblest of tongues.

Seamus has an endless supply of rib-tickling jokes, stories and one liners which can leave an audience breathless from laughing so hard. Many a crowd has gone home from one of his shows giggling to one another, "Do you remember the one about...?" (Ask him to do the routine about Moms And Kids, the Nuns, or Murphy and the Snails.).

But the Irish have their serious side too, and when Seamus performs one of the more somber ballads such as Tommy Sands' "There Were Roses" or Pete St. John's "Dublin In The Rare Old Times" you can hear a pin drop as the words sink in. That moment of silence before the applause can raise goosebumps. Seamus' greatest influences have been the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, the Dubliners' Luke Kelly, and the Irish Rovers, so it is no surprise to find many songs that they made famous, such as "The Wild Colonial Boy", "The Wild Rover," or "The Black Velvet Band" in his performance. So come and enjoy the music and mirth of one of Ireland's most popular exports - Seamus Kennedy!


Seamus play September 1st at 5:00 and September 2nd at 3:30 on the Boulevard Pub Stage and a kids show on Saturday September 2 at 12:15 in the Heritage Tent.