Robert Burns fans to pay tribute to the haggis / LJWorld.com

Archive for Sunday, January 20, 2002

January 20, 2002

Larry Carter is getting ready to throw a birthday party for a Scottish poet who died 206 years ago.

Robert Burns Night will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Lawrence Arts Center.

The acoustic concert will feature music written by Burns and traditional music popular during his lifetime, performed by the Celtic band Rowan and the duo Maria Anthony and Megan Hurt.

Rowan's members are Doug Harvey, cittern, guitar, whistle and vocals; Lance Zimmerman, fiddle, concertina and vocals; Marianne Carter, fiddle, bodhran and vocals; and Larry Carter, guitar, piano and vocals.

Anthony plays acoustic guitar and flute while Hurt plays violin. They both sing and are members of the Lawrence folk-rock band Uncle Dirtytoes.

Carter said a highlight of the concert will come during its intermission: Bagpiper Liam Riggs, wearing a kilt and Celtic regalia, will play as the haggis is paraded through the performance hall. Anthony will address the haggis before it is served.

"Haggis is liver and cornbread tied together in a goat's stomach lining," he said.

Carter, who has organized other Burns concerts in the last 20 years, said this year's event is a farewell and thank-you to the old Lawrence Arts Center. The arts center is moving this spring from its longtime home at 200 W. Ninth St. to the 900 block of New Hampshire.

Carter said the center has been instrumental in helping him establish a musical career.

"The arts center has been real important to me and I wanted to do one final fling there," he said.