CASS COUNTY — Contained in every library are thousands upon thousands of stories. Most are found in books, but next week Cass County residents will be able to go to their local library and hear Irish tales being sung.

On Thursday, July 19, northern Indiana band Kennedy’s Kitchen will tour four Cass District Library branches. Each show will take place on the same day. The band will sing songs and tell stories out of Irish Tradition, and also perform a few originals.

“We’ll do a little question and answer since it’s at the library,” said John Kennedy, Kennedy’s Kitchen lead member who sings a plays a variety of instruments. “Libraries are all about learning. People are often curious because some of the instruments we play are things that people don’t see every day.”

A few of the instruments the band plays include a tin whistle, bouzouki, guitar, bodhran, banjo, flute, fiddle and mandolin.

The tour will kick off at 10 a.m. at the Main District Library in Cassopolis, followed by a post lunchtime show at 1 p.m. at Mason/Union Branch Library. The next show is at 3 p.m. at the Edwardsburg Branch Library, with the final performance at 6 p.m. at the Howard Branch Library in Niles.

Each performance will be child friendly.

“[Libraries are] where you meet interesting people who are curious about the world,” Kennedy said. “This is also kind of a fun side. I joke about this with the band, ‘we get to make noise in a library.’ There’s the Catholic school boy part of me that wants to go, ‘Shush, everybody’s got to be quiet.’ And now we don’t have to be quiet. We get to make a little noise.”

The band has performed at the Cass District Library several times in the past, but not recently.

“It’s been a good few years now,” Kennedy said. “I’ve got a lifelong Cass County library card because we’ve been doing it every year or every couple of years, but it’s been a while now.”

Kennedy’s Kitchen has been together for 20 years and has produced five albums, with a sixth one coming out soon. The band’s website says it performs “all things Irish from pub songs and sing-a-longs, stories, recitation, to ripping dance tunes.”

The band gets together almost every Thursday night to have a meal together and play music.

Currently, the band has six members: Kennedy, Liam Ladewski, Chris O’Brien, Jacob Turner, Rob Weber and Theresa Kubiak. The library tour will likely feature four of the members.

Kennedy says the name comes from the fact that Kennedy’s parents and grandparents would gather in the kitchen after dinner to sing songs and tell stories. There was not television back then, so that was how they entertained themselves.

“As much as I enjoy performing — and I enjoy performing, this music belongs in the kitchen, which is why we have the name Kennedy’s Kitchen,” he said.

That is why most of their shows are in small settings, such as a pub, which can feel a little bit like a large kitchen. But he says he enjoys playing at libraries as well.

“It’s a more intimate sort of an environment,” he said. “When you’re playing a festival or a pub, you want that big energy. A bass really helps drive the energy in a big room. You don’t need to do that in a library. A library is a more intimate space. You can sing quieter songs and tell more stories.”

For more information on Kennedy Kitchen’s Cass District Library tour, visit cass.lib.mi.us.