Scottish & Irish folk songs combined with Lord of the Rings music and Celtic music fun at Renaissance Faires

Brobdingnagian Bards Tales

The latest music news, stories, and events of The Original Celtic Renaissance music group, the Brobdingnagian Bards. CELTIC GEEK at its Best! Find out more from the Nagians page.

Well, I just got word today that MP3.com is once again changing their payback system and it will soon be worse than ever. I expect our income to drop to a tenth of what it currently is sadly. So I want to advantage of it one last time, and I need your help.

I put together over 100 of the songs that we have available on mp3.com. You can download almost all of them for free. But I would like something in exchange. Could you please head over to our Top 100 Site on mp3.com and stream the station daily until October 1st! And while you're there start downloading our songs, or Add them all to your my.mp3 account. It's simple to setup and you can listen freely or download freely at any time. Thanks a million!

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Tuesday, September 25, 2001
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It's been a wild past two weeks. Kansas City Ren Fest has been slow first due to rain, then due to last week's disaster. We'll see what this week has in store. But despite a few problems, I think we are making one helluva impression.

Thusfar, we were praised by the Asst. Entertainement Director and numerous cast members for our hard work. We play from 8am until about 7:30pm every day...non-stop. Our shows are still small, but more cast members are showing up as are some patrons. And they're spreading the word. And though it is not solid yet, it sounds like were gonna be able to do more street work during the next few weeks. This means we'll be all over the faire, where few musicians go. We'll have a unique opportunity to reach more people.

I'd also like to tell you about two occasions that have really touched me at KC. First happened two weeks ago. Andrew and I were playing down the lanes when we stopped to talk to a woman with a baby. A loud noise sent the baby into a shrill crying fit. But by the second verse of "An Irish Lullaby", she was gazing quietly it me and my autoharp.

The second little occasion also happened with a baby. I went into the faire church on Saturday to escape the rain. Andrew was away dancing at the maypole. I started entertaining the other rain refugees when a small child of two or three crawled up to me and started trying to climb up my leg. Her mother called her and then said to me, she's blind. I then spent the next thirty minutes playing beautiful songs for this child as she explored my face and autoharp with her hands. Andrew and Courtney soon came in and told me it would've made an adorable picture.

Oh, we've also been making an impression with our choice of songs. In particular, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", "The Jedi Drinking Song", and "If I Had A Million Ducats" are some of our most requested songs during shows. But Andrew and I also had a great time playing some sad ballads last Sunday.

Last, we are pleased to announce that our latest Tolkien song from has received outstanding success. We wrote it two weeks ago, so it is as yet unrecorded, but we are hoping to put out a full-length Tolkien album in time for the release of the first Lord of the Rings movie in December. That's all for now. Please drop us a line and stay in touch.


--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Wednesday, September 19, 2001
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I hope you will all join me in a moment of silence for the loss of life at the Trade Center and the Pentagon this morning. This is a horrible tragedy. You can find out more about this at CNN.com.

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Tuesday, September 11, 2001
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By the way, some hints for when you are attending Bardic performances. Please feel free to do the following:

  • Make lots of requests (saves us from having to think:)
  • Sing-a-long (our music is very interactive so talk to us)
  • If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

See ye at our next show!

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Wednesday, September 05, 2001
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Just this past weekend, we played at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, and let me tell you...Wow! Is that a cool faire or what? Not only do they host one of the best sites I've seen, but they also have an amazing cast. There are hundreds of performers providing some of the most patron-performer interaction I've seen at faire.

The weather was nice too. We kept hearing how last year's opening weekend was 110+ degrees. But this year was in the 80s and 90s. When we arrived, we jumped with joy in the airplane as the Captain announced the weather to be just 69 degrees. We were coming out of hundred degree weather, PLUS humidity. So this was a welcome relief.

Saturday morning we drove out along Loop 435 and saw some amazing fog and beautiful country before arriving at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. We met Jim Stamberger, the Entertainment Director, and began our usual bout around the faire playing music for all who would listen. We ran into a lot of old friends and hooked up with Nagian, Courtney McKenny, who was kind enough to volunteer to help us hawk and sell CDs. She and her husband Brian have been amazing.

We played our shows and found we have a tight schedule. Five regular performances, plus, the parade, plus, the Pub Sing. There's hardly any time to play the streets, but it keeps us busy. The Pub Sing went great though. We played, If I Had A Million Ducats and the audience and entertainers ate it up. It was an immediate hit. But thusfar, we've been fairly conservative about playing Virgins ... the song too. ;)

Since I spend my weekdays in a cubicle, Sunday wiped me out with heat exhaustion. By day's end, I was having trouble thinking, but despite that, Andrew and I had the audiences swaying, whistling and singing "Always look on the bright side of life." It was especially cool at the Pub Sing. That evening, we relaxed with a huge Scarborough Faire cast at Mother Pocket's Soup Kitchen. We played music, at some great food and relaxed...

Sunday morning though I felt the heat exhaustion...ugh. I was out of it during our first show, but after that habit took over and I just performed... I don't remember much about the performances, but I remember terrorizing the stages, and the patrons loving it. We are so excited about heading back next week! (and the next six weeks)

So if you're in the area, please drop by and say hi. I'd love to meet (or remeet) each of you. Slainte!

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Wednesday, September 05, 2001
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Lanigan's Ball was a great start. Captain could give you full people
details, but we had a good thirty or so people who turned up for the event.
We got there around 2:30pm. It was hotter'n hell. So we decided to hold off
on playing anything for a bit. Meanwhile, a small crowd was gathered in The
Captain's house trying to wake from the previous night's festivities.

We sat around jabbering and bearing the heat until about 5 or 6. Finally, it
cooled off enough that Andrew and I started to play. We played a bit until
the roast pig was done. Then we ate, and a wonderful breeze took over as we
ate.

The alcohol really kicked things off as a group of us gathered in a circle.
We played some more with Catriona doing a few songs, and us bring into some
freaky sing-a-longs until late.

All in all, I had a great time. Captain tells me we broke even financially.
And we're already talking about the next Lanigan's Ball. We're talking about
the last weekend in February which is before NTIF...and should be a helluva
lot cooler. But we'll figure out more in a couple months, no doubt.

Special thanks though to The Captain and his Da for all their hard work in
putting on this killer event!

--posted by Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards, Celtic Folk Music
  Wednesday, September 05, 2001
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