Highland Games Entertainment  
 




The Highland Games offer a full weekend of musical entertainment on two stages, drawing local and national performers of traditional and contemporary Celtic music. You'll hear Scottish strathspeys, jigs and reels played by pipers, fiddlers and others in authentic styles. Listen to Irish, Welsh and Breton ballads, airs and laments from soloists and bands alike. Celtic Rock is big internationally, and you'll hear high energy groups headlining our picturesque amphitheater on Friday and Saturday nights. The area is rich with musical talent from its Scots-Irish heritage, and the Games tap into that eager and creative pool to bring the best Celtic sounds in the region.

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Enter The Haggis

Over the past three albums and five years, Toronto’s Celtic rock band Enter The Haggis has found itself at the center of a grassroots success story ever teetering on the brink of mainstream success. From playing Celtic festivals to headlining them, and from the festival circuit to selling out multiple nights in rock venues, ETH has blazed a path with heavy and almost constant touring up and down the East Coast, to Canada, the West Coast and back again, winning over success one fan, one town, one region at a time.
The band has made waves in the musicality of the genre with its multi-influence style of Celtic rock. It’s the kind of overall sound and devotion package that has created not only die-hard fans, but “Haggis Heads” that follow the band from gig to gig.

Check us out on the web:  www.enterthehaggis.com






Showcasing traditional and innovative Celtic music from Scotland , Ireland and Brittany with a mix of world percussion from Arabia, Africa and America , Tartanic creates a fusion of contrasting musical conventions which is nothing short of explosive. As the jigs and reels of the past are spun into the musical world of the future, Tartanic runs, leaps and races across the stage taking live performance to heart and creating a high-energy pulse at 120 beats per minute and beyond.
Tartanic fills a much needed niche in Celtic music, taking tunes out of the session and into the sensational with humor and theatrics. It is not just music, it is interactive spectacle -- it is a "Tartanic Experience".

Check us out on the web:  www.tartanic.net 
 
 
 
 
  
  
   With twelve seasons under their belt, and two well-received tours of Scotland and Ireland to boot, Tullamore is one of the Heartland's premiere Celtic bands. Mark Clavey, Mary Hanover, and Rachel Gaither deliver the music of Scotland and Ireland in rich and clear vocals, tight harmonies and instrumentals, and cool and clever arrangements. The Kansas City trio draws from diverse musical experiences and influences for their hallmark sound - contemporary American-folk body and traditional Celtic soul. Across the country and across the ocean, from arts-centers and theatres to Irish Festivals and Scottish Highland Games, Tullamore draws rave reviews from their audiences everywhere they go.

Check us out on the web:  http://tullamore.info/





Uncle Dirtytoes has an extensive musical repertoire consisting mainly of originals which are complemented by a mixture of traditional and contemporary cover songs. The originals vary widely in style and flavor with songs that are evocative of other times and places, as well as portrayals of life here and now.

The band derives its inspiration from songwriter/lead singer Maria Anthony and such seminal folk-rock artists as Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Jethro Tull, and Richard Thompson, and covers songs by these performers as well as artists such as Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, Jefferson Airplane, and others.

Check us out on the web:  www.uncledirtytoes.com
 






Three Dollar Band
The Three Dollar Band is an acoustic trio that performs tradtional music from Ireland and North America, along with original material composed in a similar vein. Through the recognition of cross-cultural musical influences and a desire to remain true to themselves as musicians, the Three Dollar Band aspires to present music that isw both innovative and grounded in tradition. Ranging from invigorating instrumental pieces to unique song arrangements and harmonous a capella, the Three Dollar Band presnts a varied and complementing program of music.  

Check us out on the web:  www.threedollarband.com







The Shortleaf Band  is a Kansas City based “Celti-Billy” band with close ties to the Ozarks. Founded by fiddler Michael Fraser, they specialize in high-energy dance music rooted in celtic and old time traditions. Haunting ballads and southern rock help round out this multi-instrumental group. 

Check us out on the web:  www.shortleafband.com






  


 Highland Reign, a Scottish band from Indianapolis, takes the tunes of the old country and breathes a rocking new life into them! With traditionals such as "Lass of Fyvie", originals like "Plaid to the Bone", Highland Reign brings the union of traditional Scottish and rock to pleasing new levels!!

With over 10,000 CD's sold, "Bedlam Boys" is the most recent release by Highland Reign! This CD is a mixture of traditional and original with
that Highland Reign twist of Celtic, Rock and Appalacian!!

Playing venues and festivals all across America, Scotland and Ireland Highland Reign is poised to make a lot of noise in the world Celtic music scene! With bagpipes/guitar tunes, rocking percussion of the bodhran, melodic melody of the mandolin, and upbeat vocals, Highland Reign will rock you back to the old country!!!

Check us out on the web:  www.highlandreign.com




The Kelihans
Songs of family and friends, old times and legend. Pub rock with punk energy and working class harmonies. Birthed from the midtown of Kansas City behind years of weekly duty at happy hour. Given to sometimes raucous, sometimes beautiful, deliveries of original tunes and heartfelt traditionals offered to honor a heritage that inspires us.

Check us out on the web:  www.myspace.com/thekelihans






The Glenfinnan Band

A Celtic, acoustic folk-rock, groovy stuff, & sometimes just plain traditional Scots/Irish music band based in KS.  Celtic with a twist, from Edinburgh to the Heartland.  It's members are: Ian Hall, vocals, guitar, & whistles; Karla Hall, vocals, mandolin, bouzouki, & guitar; Liam Riggs, vocals, bagpipes, bass guitar, bodhran & bones, & Flint Goodrich, fiddle.
  
Check us out on the web:  www.kansasscot.com
    





Kelly!

  Kelly members are loaded with years of experience and talent. Their ability to combine their past experiences and deep understanding of where Irish music has been, bring it full circle, joining new ideas with time-honored traditions. It truly makes for a very exciting performance experience. The variety of instruments: fiddle, guitar, mandolin, flute, button accordion, whistle, bones, bodhran and bass combined with happy and haunting vocals pay homage to the true spirit of Irish music. The tunes are driven with deliberate purpose. The songs are sung with a passion that will weave the hearts and minds of any audience into the fabric of the story found in every set of lyrics. Kelly believes in the strong tradition of Irish music and the community that it brings together. Each set of tunes they play and ballads they sing is a chapter offered to the great collection of music played for hundreds of years inside and outside of Ireland. It continues the passage of the Irish music tradition on to the next generation one note and word at a time.

Check us out on the web:  www.kellyirishband.com





Ellis Island started on St. Patricks Day in 1996, after a couple Casino executives from Harrahs heard Mick Doyle singing with another Irish act at the Dubliner Pub In Omaha. They offered a spot at their Grand Opening on St Patricks Day to Mick and his band. The only problem was Mick did not have a band, but he did have a lot of willing and able friends who were willing to give it a go and so a band was born. Lead by an Irishman with another one on bass, a Scot, an Italian and a German in the line up, Ellis Island was a natural name for the band. After a couple line up shuffles over the years, Mick and Dave Marsh decided that it would be just the two of them that carried on with an occasional guest musician now and then.

Check us out on the web:  www.myspace.com/ellisislandband



   

Mother Grove has become a major force on the Celtic music scene.  Energenic and powerful with an on-stage chemistry that makes you feel right at home, Mother Grove seamlessly blends well crafted original songs with traditional Scottish and Irish instruments such as Highland Bagpipes, Pennywhistle, and Fiddle to create a sound defined as 'KILT ROCK'.  With lyrics that can be insightful, witty, and often just plain fun, and music that ranges from soaring ballads to raucous pub tunes and 'Kilt Rock-ed' traditional somgs, there is something for everyone in Mother Grove's high energy performance.

 Check us out on the web:  www.mothergrove.com







Irish-American musician Bob Reeder is a captivating and versatile performer, entertainer, singer/songwriter and events/music producer.  Armed with his 6- and 12-stringed acoustic guitars, banjo, cittern, and bagpipies, Bob has shared his music in pubs from New York to California, from Canada to Mexico on radio interviews and network TV.
The best way to enjoy Bob's gift of song is to spend an evening with him, traveling down many and old Irish path through hard-driving Irish songs or sensitive, intimate ballads.
WARNING:  If you have a medical condition that discourages you from laughing, this isn't a safe place for you.  You will laugh harder than you have in a great while as you're propelled along by rollicking toasts, audience sing-alongs, Irish ballads, rebel songs, limericks, and spontaneous banter on current affairs.

Check me out on the web:  www.bobreeder.com


 


Flannigan's Right Hook is rising on the Kansas City music scene with some versatile, widely-based roots in Irish and American pop and rock.  Well versed in classic standards, these three young men have an edge and energy that engages and lifts audiences accross the metro.  Humbly calling themselves the "8th best Irish band in Kansas City", bets are on that their ranking is moving up.  Cameron Russell on guitar, harmonica and vocals, Shane Borth on lively and lyrical violin and vocals and Michael Cochran on drums and vocals are local lads with a growing fan base in the city.  Expect to hear more good things of this threesome.  Bring friends and enjoy their performance. 

Check us out on the web:  www.flannigansrighthook.com



Eddie Delahunt
Not long after wandering musician Eddie Delahunt mustered out of the Irish Merchant Marine, he caught the big immigration wave to America. Low and behold, the Dublin boy washed up in landlocked Missouri! Delahunt knew nary a soul when he arrived in America in 1989, with rucksack in hand and guitar over his shoulder. But the natives were starving for new and younger sounds from the country of their grandparents. A two-week gig at Harling's Pub in Kansas City turned into a hundred gigs. The gigs turned into CDs, parades, regional festivals and radio shows. Eddie's workingman concoction of traditional Irish ballads, energized guitar riffs, and original lyrics and tunes have made him an adopted native son and something of a household name in and around Kansas City.  

Check me out on the web:  www.eddiedelahunt.com





Gaelic Brass is a brass trio group that consists of two trumpets and a trombone. The group is based in Kansas City, Missouri. Gaelic Brass was formed by arranger and trumpeter, Liza Zumbrunnen from Overland Park, Kansas in 2008. The brass trio specifically plays folk and traditional music from Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales.
The group currently plays at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and occassionally plays in other venues such as Kansas City's Union Station.
  
Check us out on the web: www.gaelicbrass.com.



Essential to the definition of Scottish music, the harp enjoys a popular venue at Kansas City's Highland Games. The cruit or clarsach historically was the most popular musical instrument of Scotland before the advent of the great highland bagpipe circa 1200 C.E. Long the favorite of kings and nobility, the harp served prominently in ceremonies, banquets and weddings from the 8th century onward. Today, we enjoy it at our Games as a gentle and resilient form which is sometimes surprising — traditional airs give way to jazz as area harp masters inspire Games audiences. Be sure to visit the Harp Tent at the Games, and enjoy what you hear.








Enjoy the music and the Games!