Get into the St. Patty's Day spirit with a little Irish music

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• If you go green

To turn this slow, rusty crank from winter to spring, we may need to call in brethren from yonder mountain.

It seems we may have to stomp in the new season that's now just a week away.

We've got just the weekend to do it.

St. Patrick's Day falls on a Monday and that means the parties start now. And, the region's got enough Irish-influenced music to keep you stepping and clogging into the next millennium.

The Ironton Council for the Arts/Lawrence County Concert Series is welcoming in Kúla, an exciting band of twentysomethings from Rose Creek Village (a faith-based commune) in rural Selmer, Tenn.

Comprised of seven young guys who grew up together, the band brings a youth-brushed mojo to traditional Irish and Celtic music at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at Ohio University Southern in the Riffe Center, Mains Rotunda.

Admission is $8, $7 seniors and full-time students.

Kúla, a Sanskrit word meaning "brotherhood," "family" and "woven," has been a big hit at Celtic festivals around the country, mixing a unique brand of music and ethnic rhythms together to weave an energetic style that people have called "fever pitched" and "one of the most exciting things happening in the Irish music scene today."

Zemar Riggins, who plays ethnic hand percussion instruments, said the band (Paul Hobbs, fiddle; Brian Copenhaver, button accordion and whistles; David Dickerson, guitar; Matthew Dickerson, bouzouki; and Nathan Hobbs, bodhran and precussions), said that like many young people, got turned onto Celtic music as teenagers through pop culture.

"We saw 'Riverdance' and that kind of sparked an interest in Irish music dance and some of the guys started picking up instruments and playing them," Riggins said.

Using the Amazing Slow Downer software to transcribe the intricate and fast-moving stream of Irish and traditional tunes, they learned old tunes by ear note for note, then all got together in their village of about 300 people to make homemade music.

"Once the guys started learning the tunes they all started getting together," said Riggins, who plays an array of hand-drums that bring a thunder of percussion along with the traditional Irish Bodhran drum. "Ray the Uilleann pipe player would stay up late in the wee hours of the night, and he was one of the guys that really pushed for getting together. Paul the fiddle player was also pretty tenacious about it."

Riggins said they got together just to make music in the village located about an hour south of Jackson, Tenn., and about two hours east of Memphis, but it didn't take long before Kula's spirit bubbled over.

The band started appearing at the Village's cafe, and then word spread. The band began getting invitations to play festivals throughout the south and in such big cities as Memphis, Dallas and Nashville.

"We just got together and didn't get together with the intention of making a band," said Riggins, who has been playing with the group seven years. "But it started to be so much fun we figured we should make ourselves a band. We're having so much fun doing this and that is the reason we are doing it."

That infectious energy has not gone unnoticed.

Dudley-Brian Smith, of Smithfield Fair, said the band has "a feeling of a celebration always, a great joy and rejoicing in what they do that spreads very rapidly into the audience."

Bruce Brown, from Ohio University, said he was blown away by the group which he saw at a street festival in Franklin, Tenn., outside of Nashville.

"I thought they were amazing and just so driving," Brown said. "They've got bouzouki, accordion and all of these instruments that you don't normally hear in an American group, and they are performing it with such élan. It is amazing. I proposed it to the Arts Council and they were really interested."

Riggins, 22, who plays a goblet drum called a Zarb that he put a Djembe head on top of, and assorted bongos and shakers, said the main goal is making a joyful noise for the Lord and sharing the word from the Village.

"We believe Christ is the son of God and believe in loving one another," Riggins said. "The most important thing is loving your neighbor as yourself. We believe in loving God, soul, mind and strength and that is what we strive to do. That is the biggest thing. If your brother needs a car and you've got a good paycheck and he is in need, you must help."

For this band helping out also means passing on the music, and in fact, several of the youngsters from the village will play with Paul and Bryan in the band called Troen that will also perform at the OUS concert.

Everyone will get together for some songs, Riggins said.

"When we all get on stage we rock the house," Riggins said. "Imagine that most stages for folk bands support maybe three or four guys, we'll stack 11 guys up there. It is filled with the sound and the energy of all of us playing together."

Photo courtesy of Paramount Arts Center

Bluegrass band J.D. Crowe & The New South is another way to get green on St. Patrick’s Day. They play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 15, at the Mountaineer Opry House in Milton.