Brrrr

Winter arrives in our town today. After a Tuesday in the 70s, for today one of those fanous Kansas City ice storms is expected. And on days like this, a late summer evening at Irish Fest can seem very far away. So to bring it a little closer and warm you up a bit, we'll officially announce our first artists of the 2007 KCIF.

New York based The Prodigals will be joining us on stage for the first time at a Kansas City Irish Fest. If you're not familiar with this band that the the Irish Voice calls "the kings of jig punk", and of whom the Irish Times says "Trad/rock or rock/trad? Who knows/cares-this lot tackle both genres with energy and skill", then you have some time to correct that oversight between now and the end of August. By way of introduction, singer, accordionist and band founder Gregory Grene say of his band: " We have a strong melodic base in Irish and traditional folk music. We're Irish at the heart, but we're open to different interpretations in the course of developing something." Grene, along with band mates Eamon O'Tuama, Ed Kollar and Dustin Rohrer will be here, the weather will be warm and only the beer will be cold next summer.

And speaking of Cork (home county of Prodigals guitarist and singer O'Tuama), I'm also thrilled to announce that our own trans-Atlantic house band, The Fuchsia Band will be back holding court at Irish Fest next year. But seriously...could we have Irish Fest without them? I think not. Look for Máirtín, Mick, Eoin and Brian on every stage all at same time, as usual. I think sometimes that they all must be triplets.

Much more music and comedy news in the next week or two as signings heat up. Stay tuned!