"With St. Patrick’s Day a few weeks out, a trio of local promoters is pouring a triple shot of Irish music distilled on the Emerald Isle itself. While the holiday is a handy excuse for importing some musical talent, the artists admit that St. Patrick’s Day is a much different occasion in the U.S. from the way it’s celebrated at home.

Irish-born Cathy Jordan, vocalist, percussionist and bandleader of Dervish, remembers a subdued holiday.

“St. Patrick’s Day for me growing up was you put on the shamrock and go to Mass, and there wasn’t much more than that,” she said. “There might have been a small parade, but there wasn’t anything the size and scale of America’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.”

Dervish, a six-piece band that describes its sound as “magical Irish traditional music,” plays Sunday in a performance hosted by Ten Pound Fiddle. The group was founded in 1989, and Jordan joined the band in 1991. The group traces its cultural lineage to some of the early stars of traditional Irish music.

“We’re a traditional group based out of (County) Sligo, which is a very rich part of the country for music,” Jordan explained.
James Morrison and Michael Coleman, both from County Sligo, emigrated to the U.S. in the 1910s and were some of the first musicians to record traditional Irish music.

“The music of Sligo became world famous, because they were the first to be recorded,” Jordan said. “The tunes they recorded are like the pop music of traditional music.”

Like most traditional Irish outfits, Dervish draws on Ireland’s rich history of folk music, especially its dance music. While the melodies of these songs trace back a century or more, Irish groups in the 20th century began experimenting with accompaniment, adding in instruments like bouzouki, mandolin and guitar.

“It makes the tunes sound very different,” Jordan said. “That creates the Dervish sound. The tunes we put together are our own arrangements.”