-By David Burke


Americans have gone over board celebrating St. Patrick's Day. And that comes from an Irishman.

”In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is the 17th (of March) and that's it. There's not much of hullabaloo around it, maybe the day or so before or some thing," said Brian McDonagh, mandolin player for the Irish band Dervish. "But it doesn't match over here at all. The shamrocks come out and everything's green. It's great, really.”

"It's great for us because there's a lot of demand for our style of music this time of year."

Dervish will play St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center on Friday night as part of a 22-stop U.S. tour that takes the six-piece band across the country this month.

"The American people, as total, love to have things to celebrate," McDonagh said in a telephone interview from stop in Conklin, Mich. "The year is punctuated by ... these festive occasions."

McDonagh was one of five musicians who started the group in Ireland during 1989, playing in a pub in their hometown of Sligo pubs, "We have to put on a performance on a theater, on stage," he said. "When we're in our pub playing our music, it's just doing what we love doing, and doing it naturally."

The band progressed when it added Cathy Jordan, a "very dynamic and very entertaining" singer, he said.

"Not only is she a fantastic vocalist, she's a fantastic personality on stage," he said.

A recording of the band took off beyond the group's wildest expectations, said McDonagh, 47.  "All of a sudden, we got offers from festivals in Europe and America," he said. "It happened in a very natural, organic way. It's not like we had a master plan to take over the world or something like that."

The band released nine CDs, the most recent in 2005.

"I suppose people who weren't that familiar with traditional music would think we were very traditional," he said.  "People who are familiar with Irish music would see us as more of the accessible, progressive side of the scheme of things."

McDonagh said the attitude of the band is to take the traditional music and move it for ward, "Irish music has a vein that goes back hundreds of years, and there are people who are very, very adamant that it should maintain the integrity of the highest concept," he said. "We take the music and we use it in a way that we think works. Both attitudes are relevant.

"In every art form, you need those who are progressionists and people who are preserving what has been achieved."

The band creates a two-hour show in its theater tour that differs greatly from the music it still plays in the Sligo pubs, "We have to put on a performance on a theater, on stage," he said. "When we're in our pub playing our music, it's just doing what we love doing, and doing it naturally."

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

What: Dervish
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 23
Where: Galvin Fine Arts Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport
How much: $10 adults, $8 senior citizens, $7 students
Information: (563) 333-6251

The Irish band Dervish per forms Friday night at Galvin Fine Arts Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport.