REWIND: Drochubh, drochéan ... and the Kentuckiana Celtic Foundation.

My letter appeared  in the July 5 edition of the News and Tribune.

Understandably, some will find my position to be too aggressive, so just let me say this: I'll give my city a very hard time when merited, but I'll also defend New Albany against those who screw us unjustifiably ... and this is one of those times. Good riddance to the bums.

Next stop, Shoals?

---

An old Irish-language proverb goes Níl aon suáilce gan a duáilce féin, translated as, “There are no unmixed blessings in life.”

In January, we learned that the 2012 Celts on the River concert would not take place at New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater, as it had for the past three years, but on the waterfront in Jeffersonville.

The Kentuckiana Celtic Foundation (KCF) apparently saw no compelling ethical reason to inform New Albany officials that a bidding war for the concert had started, because doing so might have allowed for a matching counter-offer.

I don’t contest Jeffersonville’s favorable offer to the committee, only that the committee is guilty of considerable tackiness and slap-in-the-face ingratitude by its failure to give our city a chance to reply, whatever the response might have been.

It must be remembered that three years ago, the KCF came to New Albany as a fledgling splinter group with neither marketable experience nor organizational credibility. The England administration graciously gave the KCF metaphorical refuge, a physical riverfront home, and extensive logistical assistance in nurturing both the KCF and its concert concept.

But worry not; New Albany's loss probably will be Jeffersonville's, too, once the Kentuckiana Celtic Carpetbaggers flee next to Otisco, New Amsterdam or Birdseye, given there seems to be no sentiment for them to be hosted anywhere in Louisville, which surely speaks volumes in itself.

I’ll close with another Irish proverb: Drochubh, drochéan, meaning “A bad egg, a bad bird.”

Drochubh, drochéan ... and the Kentuckiana Celtic Foundation.

My letter appears in today's on-line edition of the News and Tribune.

Understandably, some will find my position here to be too aggressive, so just let me say this: I'll give my city a very hard time when merited, but I'll also defend New Albany against those who screw us unjustifiably ... and this is one of those times. Good riddance to the bums.

Next stop, Shoals?

---

An old Irish-language proverb goes Níl aon suáilce gan a duáilce féin, translated as, “There are no unmixed blessings in life.”

In January, we learned that the 2012 Celts on the River concert would not take place at New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater, as it had for the past three years, but on the waterfront in Jeffersonville.

The Kentuckiana Celtic Foundation (KCF) apparently saw no compelling ethical reason to inform New Albany officials that a bidding war for the concert had started, because doing so might have allowed for a matching counter-offer.

I don’t contest Jeffersonville’s favorable offer to the committee, only that the committee is guilty of considerable tackiness and slap-in-the-face ingratitude by its failure to give our city a chance to reply, whatever the response might have been.

It must be remembered that three years ago, the KCF came to New Albany as a fledgling splinter group with neither marketable experience nor organizational credibility. The England administration graciously gave the KCF metaphorical refuge, a physical riverfront home, and extensive logistical assistance in nurturing both the KCF and its concert concept.

But worry not; New Albany's loss probably will be Jeffersonville's, too, once the Kentuckiana Celtic Carpetbaggers flee next to Otisco, New Amsterdam or Birdseye, given there seems to be no sentiment for them to be hosted anywhere in Louisville, which surely speaks volumes in itself.

I’ll close with another Irish proverb: Drochubh, drochéan, meaning “A bad egg, a bad bird.”

"There will be live entertainment at the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater as well as downtown this year."

This is good news from City Hall.

Other than Billy's fave (Confederate Railroad), among the acts not set to return to the amphitheater this summer is the Celts on the River concert, which was poached by Jeffersonville after the Celts committee organizer did not provide the city of New Albany with notice that a bidding war was underway. But New Albany's loss will be Jeffersonville's, too, once the carpetbaggers flee to Otisco or New Amsterdam at some point in the future, given that there seems to be no sentiment for them in Louisville.

There'll be much, much more to say about Celts, so for now, a few positives.

New Albany ‘in the process of deciding’ riverfront schedule, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — A schedule of events has not been confirmed, but Mayor Jeff Gahan vowed there will be live entertainment at the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater as well as downtown this year.

“We’re in the process of deciding what the schedule is going to look like this year, how it’s going to be managed and who’s going to be involved,” Gahan said.

Former Mayor Doug England’s wife, Shelle England, managed the riverfront plan last year and led the fundraising charge. Gahan said she informed him recently that she had decided to step down from the post ...

... Gahan said he hopes to include more entities, organizations and people in the process this year, as he added there likely won’t be a two or three member committee overseeing riverfront entertainment.

Several parties have expressed interest in helping with planning events and Gahan said “I want to encourage” an inclusive group to manage the program. He added his administration wants to press for more shows at the downtown farmers’ market stage off Market Street as well.

Good news: There'll be a Celts on the River concert in 2012. Bad news ...

NA Confidential has just learned that this year's Celts on the River concert will be held on Saturday, September 8 ... in downtown Jeffersonville, not New Albany. Apparently the Jeff parks department made a better offer to the festival's governing committee, and it was accepted.

It is uncertain whether (a) there even remains a standing riverfront events committee in New Albany since the mayoral changeover, or (b) if this events committee was consulted prior to the festival's shift.

Certainly the fact that Jeffersonville's negotiations have been conducted by an official, ongoing arm of the city's government, irrespective of the current occupant, and as opposed to the ad hoc committee-as-political-appendage approach favored by the previous England administration, played a part in this decision.

I'm optimistic that entrepreneurs can provide ample activities for New Albany's riverfront amphitheater.

If we let them.

ON THE AVENUES: From the Liffey to the Ohio.

ON THE AVENUES: From the Liffey to the Ohio.

By ROGER BAYLOR
Local Columnist

In my memory I will always see
the town that I have loved so well
Where our school played ball by the gas yard wall
and we laughed through the smoke and the smell
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
past the jail and down behind the fountain
Those were happy days in so many, many ways
in the town I loved so well
-- “The Town I Loved So Well,” by Phil Coulter

The extent to which I love, and seemingly just as often loathe, my own town of New Albany is a subject requiring more column inches than time permits, not to mention occasional bouts of psychotherapy. Beer helps, too.

But another festive cultural weekend looms, and before it receives its due coverage, there’s a wee bit of back story for us to peruse. Find a chair, pour a jar, and smoke’ em if you’ve got ‘em – before someone makes fun like this illegal.

Consider first the distinctively American sport of basketball. Although the squad didn’t make this year’s NBA finals, you may have heard of the Celtics, the perennially successful team in Boston, itself arguably the world capital of the Irish Diaspora.

To my mind, the Celtics should never be the SELL-tics, as we insist on calling the team, but the KELL-tics. The team’s name comes from the Celts (properly pronounced “Kelts”), who were ancient tribal Europeans of the Iron Age, and the ancestors of today’s Irish.

The hard “k” is easier to remember by fixing an image of Bushmill’s, Jameson’s or Tullamore Dew in one’s mind, and asking the bartender for a belt of the Kelts … or two.

Long ago, Celtic cultures expanded into many European territories. The advent of the Roman Empire gradually pushed them toward the continent’s western periphery, to remote green islands and misty, isolated coasts. In modern times, we think of the Celts as comprising Gaels (Irish, Scottish and Manx peoples), Welsh and Bretons.

It’s far more complicated than all that, but for our purposes today, it’s enough to know that a few central elements of convivial living, including music, beer, conversation and food, are stocks-in-trade of the Celts, and that among Celts, the Irish stand out as visible and enthusiastic proponents of these timeless virtues.

It’s 2011, and is there any place of consequence on the planet outside of North Korea that doesn’t have a mostly authentic Irish pub serving Guinness and some variant of fish and potatoes?

---

It’s been more than a quarter-century since I first visited Ireland, eagerly draining countless pints of the national black elixir, and depleting adjacent seas of any marine life capable of being battered and subjected to frying. About the same time, my well-traveled cousin Don Barry introduced me to classic albums recorded by the Dubliners, Wolfe Tones, Tommy Makem, the Clancy Brothers, and other Irish folk bands.

While Stouts, Porters and Red Ales do a man’s body good, his mind craves a governing context to accompany the liquid, and it is in words and music that the Irish experience truly comes alive. The recipe is simple. One adds equal literary elements of James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, John Synge and W.B. Yeats to gifted instrumental musicianship, complete with fiddles, tin whistles, guitars and banjos, which on occasion can lead to jigs and reels.

Spice the emerging concoction with everyday speaking voices that transform common English into lilting melodies, even when reading the Dublin phone book, and listen as golden-throated singers render these tunes into the realm of the ethereal and sublime. Enjoy the results as often as possible, with pints of black gold at the ready.

This is where the town we (well, something) so well, New Albany, re-enters the narrative.

On Saturday, June 18, the hard-working volunteers from the Kentuckiana Celtic Fest return to New Albany’s revamped riverfront amphitheater with the third annual “Celts on the River,” a free concert running from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

This year’s musical headliner is Brendan Loughrey, who was born in County Donegal, an isolated, rural area clinging to the northwest coast of the island. Donegal is part of the Irish Republic, but most of its land border is with Northern Ireland, and Loughrey’s childhood coincided with the worst period of the Troubles. While still very young, Loughrey’s father gifted him with a guitar and said, "You'll reach more people with this guitar son, than you'll ever reach with a rifle."

On the 18th, supporting local and regional artists will include Cloigheann, Mark Geary and John Skelton. There’ll be food from area purveyors, arts and crafts vendors, and beer from the New Albanian Brewing Company, including the 2011 releases of Haggis Laddie (Irish Red) and Strathpeffer (honey and heather ale, Scottish-style).

The Irish Exit will be assisting NABC this year with bar service, and the Exit will be hosting the Celts on the River after party (10:00 p.m. to dawn’s early light). The concert also provides support for Kentucky Harvest’s Blessing in a Backpack.

Did I mention that there is no cover charge? For more information, visit http://celtsontheriver.com, and enjoy this anecdote, as relayed by Sean Cannon of the Dubliners.

In the Irish love triangle there are three parties involved: A man, and a woman – and drink. And so the girl gives an ultimatum to her boyfriend: It's either the drink, or me. And he chooses the drink. But afterwards, he relents. They get married and live happily ever after … the three of them.

Open thread: Celts on the River show at Riverfront Amphitheater -- Yes? No? Undecided?

Thanks to anyone and everyone who braved the miserable heat and humidity and turned out for Celts on the River yesterday. My sense is that there were actually more Louisvillians than locals in attendance, and that makes me curious.

If you came down, did you like the event or dislike it? If you chose not to attend, why? I'm delighted to see so many people from across the river, but still wondering how this show is being viewed in Indiana, and what can be done to improve it. Of course, the weather refused an invitation to take part in the panel discussion.

Brutal day, great Celtic music and the usual -- you know, the usual Open Air Museum stuff.

At about a quarter 'til one on Sunday morning, I had a pint of Bitter in my hand, a stomach full of mussels, and was listening to a half-dozen musicians, some New Albanian locals and others from far-away Ballyfermot, all of them playing and singing together in the corner at Bank Street Brewhouse.

It's the little things that make it all worthwhile.

Saturday was a long, brutally hot and deathly humid day with far more in common with the equitorial rain forest than an ideal Southern Indiana day in June. Obviously, the Celts on the River show went on as planned in spite of the heat and a strictly personal level of annoyance with utterly non-communicative local powers that be which might have hit even higher on the Rog thermometer than the scorching surface temps; evidently, transparency ain't nuthin' but a four-syllable word that no one ever bothered to learn in school 'round here.

But please, let's accentuate the positive.

I crossed my fingers and NABC vended slightly more beer than last year while the great music was performed. Yes, the crowd seemed a bit down, which was understandable given the weather, but it was undoubtedly a successful event, and will be back in town next year. We may well have a tradition on our hands, but to preserve it, there needs to be a higher level of grassroots support on our side of the river. How we achieve that -- if it even is achievable -- I really don't know.

As for the usual local politician watch: Ed Clere and family were there. I saw Diane Benedetti and Pat McLaughlin (city councilpersons), and as always, searched in vain for Steve Price, Dan Coffey, Burger King and King Larry (who still believes he's a local politician). If I missed someone, please let me know. Gads -- a free concert, no tax monies extorted from them people, and still Professor Erika did not attend. Perhaps the inhaler tube got blocked with sticky tobacco bile.

By the way, in light of my experience yesterday, I have a question and follow-ups for the mayor at the coming mayoral forum on Wednesday, June 16:

Can we have fresh locally brewed craft beer down there at the waterfront for the approaching 3rd of July celebration, or is that one of the events arbitrarily selected to patriotically honor multinational swill?

What about the other events and how the city plans to treat 3-way supplemental catering permits?

Does anyone at City Hall know what 3-way supplemental catering permits are?

Is there a game plan for the decision-making process to award access to vending by the river, or is it a chaotic variation on the Oklahoma land rush?

Can you explain how the bidding system works?

Thank you.

Today's Tribune column: "Celts on the Ohio River, too."

Have I though to mention that there's a Celtic music show at the amphitheater on Saturday?

BAYLOR: Celts on the Ohio River, too

Back when Ronnie Raygun was still President and Ginger Lynn everyone's preferred First Lady, my friend Barrie and I were in Ireland, conducting scholastic research on the foundation and practice of one of the world's most enduringly popular religions, Guinnessism.

More Celts on the River details ... the show is this Saturday, June 12.

The fest committee continues to fill in blanks as the Celts on the River show approaches. The following was mailed by Peggy, who is referring to a new Zesto's creation in the first sentence.

---

Where can you enjoy a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone laced with Irish whiskey this Saturday ... at “Celts on the River 2010” of course. There will be non-alcoholic ice cream choices to enjoy as well.

FREE admission, FREE parking!

If your pocketbook allows, please donate a backpack for Blessings in a Backpack.
Boxes will be available at the fest for collection.

You can also enjoy:

A pint of “Haggis Laddie Celtic Red” from the New Albanian Brewing Co.

Fish and chips from the Knights of Columbus.

Scotch eggs from the New Albanian Brewing Co.

Delicious coffee.

Grilled chicken sandwiches and corn dogs from Bluegrass Kitchen.

A sampling of our retail vendors: O’Neal’s Irish Imports, Failte Irish Shop (Lexington, KY), Rigolo French Boutique.

For the wee ones: Children’s craft kits from The Treasured Child (LaGrange, KY).

For the 21+ lads and colleens: FREE samplings of Irish whiskey in the beer garden.

For everyone: Take a stroll through our cultural exhibit “Wild Irish Women,” which explores the history of famous Irish women throughout history.

Enjoy a FREE massage from “Celtic massages.”

Slainte ya’ll!!!

No sleep this weekend.

Busy, busy.

The NABC World Cup Series of small batch/USA match ales starts Saturday, June 12, with the debut of "USA vs England – Ordinary Bitter" at Bank Street Brewhouse, and our Haggis Laddie Celtic Red will be tapped for the "Celts on the River" concert on the same day.

Also this weekend: It's the rain date for the New Albany Bicentennial Public Art Project kick-off walk (Friday) and the Glass Art Society Annual Conference in Louisville (June 10-12), portions of which spill across the River into New Albany.

More when there's time ...

Photos from "FOX in the Morning's" coverage of Celts on the River, earlier today.

Watch for it: Celts on the River festival promo Tuesday on "FOX in the Morning."

The Celts on the River concert is this Saturday, June 12, and tomorrow morning there'll be promos throughout the telecast of "FOX in the Morning," live from New Albany's riverfront amphitheater. Following are excerpts of what to expect, with thanks to Dell Courtney and FOX-41 for making it happen. I've posted more details about our Haggis Laddie at the Potable Curmudgeon's blog.

--

As promised, here are the details:

"Fox in the Morning" Show
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
5:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
New Albany Amphitheatre - east of I-64 at the foot of Pearl Street; it's right on the river.

Here's the line up:

5:20 - Peggy Baas with overview

5:50 - Kerry O'Neal with Charity Golf Scramble; she also will have a putter that will be in the silent auction, and may be accompanied by Bob Iezzi, GM at Fuzzy Zoeller's Covered Bridge golf course

6:20 - Guilderoy Byrne (local Celtic musical group playing on Saturday)

6:50 - Scotch Eggs prepared and served by Amy Baylor and Zesto's Ice Cream, served by Jim Young

7:20 - Guilderoy Byrne

7:50 - Roger Baylor of NABC with three beers that will be served at the Fest; he will feature NABC Haggis Laddie Celtic Red

8:20 - Guilderoy Byrne

8:50 - Larry Frederiksen from the Louisville Pipe Band, with a drummer - and maybe more members

Celts on the River Performance Schedule (June 12, 2010).

As we get closer to the event, I have a goal of getting the information pertaining to the Kentuckiana Celtic Fest and Celts on the River concert published here, and handy for searching.

Today, the musical schedule. For a glimpse at the posters for the festival and golf scramble, go here: Save the date: 2nd annual Celts on the River music fest, June 12, 2010 ... and here: Save the date: Charity Golf Scramble sponsored by Covered Bridge and Celts on the River music fest, June 11, 2010.

Celts on the River Performance Schedule

June 12th at the New Albany Amphitheater
2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
FREE ADMISSION

Kick-off – 2:00 p.m.

Liam’s Fancy – 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Cloigheann – 3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Keltricity – 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Guilderoy Byrne (with McClanahan Dancers) 5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m. (extra 15 minutes to allow time for plenty of dancing!)

Louisville Pipe Band 6:30 p.m. - 7:15 p.m.

Introductions (Mayors England and Abramson, Stan Curtis (or another rep from Blessings in a Backpack), singing of national anthems: 7:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Headline Band – direct from Dublin , Ireland – The BeerMats – 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

“Celtic jam session” (ALL musicians are welcome to participate 9) p.m. - 10 p.m.

“After Party” at the New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse – please stop by for the fun – last year we had a packed house ... 10:00 p.m. until the sun comes up (kidding … sort of!)