By Kellie Hwang The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jul 23, 2013 6:17 PM

There’s no mistaking that Runa’s music draws heavily on the Irish culture with its storytelling lyrics, energetic percussion and playful fiddle.

Yet the group’s founder and lead singer, who excels at both singing in Gaelic and step dancing, is not from Ireland. Shannon Lambert-Ryan was born and raised in Philadelphia, and is a mix of Irish, Scottish and French descent. Her parents, also born in the U.S., were dancers, latching on to specific styles of Irish culture while performing at festivals.

“I started out step dancing when I was about 5,” Lambert-Ryan said. “When I saw step dancers for the first time when I was 4, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I wound up working with a dance school for eight or nine years.”

Lambert-Ryan competed for years in step dancing but eventually wearied of practice. She began got involved with singing, playing the piano and acting, and found her way as lead vocalist for Boston-based world-music band the Guy Mendilow Ensemble.

At the Philadelphia Film Festival, she met her future husband, Fionán de Barra, a Dublin-born guitarist. The pair formed the Irish folk group Runa, adding a percussionist Cheryl Prashker, fiddler Maggie Estes and vocalist, mandolin player and step dancer Dave Curley.

Lambert-Ryan’s talents earned her a nomination for best female vocalist at last year’s Irish Music Awards. She discusses the band’s fresh take on traditional Irish music and working to make a name in a generally rigid genre.

Question: What is the writing process like for the band?

Answer: We try to bridge the gap between old and new. I love traditional music and grew up with that, but if it stays where it is, it doesn’t grow. We take a traditional sound and try to modernize it, tending to look at the words and arrangements before anything else. We might change the chord structure or the rhythms, and combine parts together. Some songs might be 17 verses long, which is great when you’re sitting around a fire, but not for an audience.

Q: Where does the storytelling come into play?

A: All Irish songs have stories, so we first figure out what we need out of that song to make the story colorful and accessible to people. These songs were written 200 to 300 years ago, yet they were writing about the same things as we are today. We try to find that connection for people.

Q: How have you drawn influences from other genres and cultures?

A: Cheryl’s background is Middle Eastern, so she’ll bring in different instrumentation, such as the bongos, djembe, chimes and cymbal, which you don’t see in a lot of Irish music. We have a mandolin player who bolsters the rhythms and adds a fuller sound to everything. Sometimes three of us will sing, which allows the harmonies to be more lush, and we incorporate bluegrass. We infuse all of that with Irish-Celtic songs.

Q: Is the step dancing choreographed to the music?

A: It’s choreographed to a certain extent in that we know what steps we will dance. We do it toward the end of the set, because if we went back to singing after, we wouldn’t be able to catch our breath. The dancing adds not just the visual element to the show, but also an extra sound, a percussive element as well.

Q: Who are your typical fans?

A: We have a devoted audience, and we call them our Runa-tics. Many were drawn to us because we’re not the Irish group that is jumping up and down onstage, singing pub songs. Some literally travel across the country to see us. The middle-age group is probably out biggest audience, but it ranges from really young to really old. They’re a listening crowd more than anything else, and looking for the nuances in our music.

Q: Is it ever hard to break the stereotype of Irish music, which usually is associated with rowdy tunes on St. Patrick’s Day?

A: There’s a vast difference between Irish folk and rock music. In some ways, they’re very similar, but in others, they’re nowhere near alike. The expectation here in the U.S. tends to lean toward bands like Flogging Molly or Gaelic Storm. That’s not the music we make, and it’s not always easy to convince people of that and find a niche for ourselves. ... But I hope people will come and stay long enough to listen to what we have to offer, and see another element to Irish music they never knew about before.