This weekend, I'm heading to join the Kilted Kings at the Mid-South Renaissance Faire. I want to share with some thoughts about the show and what you can expect from our performances.

Greetings. My name is Marc Gunn. This show is about the many amazing experiences I have as a musician and a traveler.

It's funny how one show leads to another. The Brobdingnagian Bards began our career at Excalibur Fantasy Faire in March 1999. As the faire ended, a whole bunch of entertainers and patrons said, you should go to the Castle Muskgee Renaissance faire. When that one ended, they said, you should check out this faire. Those recommendations got us all the way to, our then dream faire, the Texas Renaissance Festival.

That's sort of what happened with the Mid-South Renaissance Faire. I met the entertainment director 3-4 years ago at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. Everyone was talking about this new faire. I couldn't make it at that time. It wasn't until I got invited to ShadowCon that it became a possibility.

You see, I had a booth at ShadowCon right next door to the faire's booth. Beth and I had great conversations all weekend. She invited me to contact her. But again, there wasn't much likelihood. At least until I found out that my wife was gonna be in Memphis this fall. So I emailed the faire and started a dialogue.

They wanted more than just a soloist. They wanted a full band to fill their pub, a three-piece in fact. So I decided to reunite Kilted Kings PLUS one.

Randy Wothke will once again join me on stage. Randy is the leader and percussionist of The Rogues, a bagpipe and drum quartet from Houston, Texas. He's an incredible musician. It was a great honor to record our album Name On My Soul with him. And incidentally, we have a new Christmas single that will be available online very soon.

I also invited String, aka Matthew Trautwein, to play fiddle. String plays with the Renaissance rock band, The Lost Boys. I first met him at the Georgia Renaissance Festival over a decade. Last year, he came to the Louisiana Ren Faire to fill for Randy when he was already booked.

String is fantastic and one of the nicest people you'll meet to boot. Oh! And I should point out that The Lost Boys have a brand new album that should be available soon if it's not already.

Since it's a Kilted Kings show, a lot of the music that we will play is from our debut album. You'll hear “Slainte Mhaith“, “Prettiest Hobbit”, “Wild Mountain Thyme”, “Flower of Scotland”, and of course, “Name On My Soul”. You'll also hear songs like “Ride On” and “Mingulay Boat Song”.

With a fiddler, I'm really looking forward to playing my instrumental tunes without singing them as well. So listen for a new arrangement of “Marionette Jig” and “Clogden More”.

There are a lot of things to see at the Mid-South Renaissance Faire aside from us. There's music from Wind, Wood & Wire, Frieman the Minstrel, Silver Penny, and bagpipes from my friends of Haggis Rampant. Plus, story telling from Melandra of the Woods.

There's jousting, a Mad Hatter, and knighting ceremony. The Lords of Adventure are there. They are brilliant comedy and sword fighting duo. There's also something called Armchair Wizards, which is listed as on-stage role-playing game show. Connor O'Carriag is doing magic and mystery.

I'm happy to see my friends Arr & Tarr the Trolls will be there with kids comedy and fun. Lord Larry Longfellow does magic & comedy and Alima Tribe offers belly dancing. You'll also find fighting demonstrations and historical reenactments with the SCA and Amtgard.

Look for Kilted Kings out there for two weekends, the 13th and 14th, and the 20th and 21st.

If you want to get a Behind-the-Scenes, post-look at how the show goes, join my Gunn Runners Club on Patreon.

Thanks you so much for listening. You'll find links to many of the things mentioned in the shownotes. If you haven't yet subscribed or rated the show on Apple Podcast, head on over to Celtfather.com.

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