Songs that tell a story

With more than 30 albums under his belt, eight of them gold, Sean McGuinness leads more than the Dublin City Ramblers, a group he's kept going with different members for nearly 40 years.

He's also leading a mission to publicize, and perhaps save, a piece of Irish culture.

The Dublin City Ramblers is a ballad and folk group that has performed at major festivals and venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall in New York City and London's Royal Albert Hall. At 7 p.m. Thursday, the Ramblers will open the North Country Goes Green Irish Festival with a concert in the auditorium of the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown.

"We're one of the few Irish ballad groups left," Mr. McGuinness said recently from his home in Dublin, Ireland. "A few decades ago there were hundreds of them. Now you can count them all on one hand."

He said it's important to keep the ballads alive because of the bits of Irish culture they share — tales of leaving and returning to Ireland, the struggle to find work and friendship.

"It's very hard to keep the history going," Mr. McGuinness said. "Every Irish ballad has a good story behind it. It's important to keep the tradition going for future generations. There's no real good ballad groups coming up."

Festival entertainment coordinator Sean M. Hennessey called the Ramblers' visit to Watertown "historic."

"To get a band with the background and notoriety of the Dublin City Ramblers for the north country is incredible," he said. "They are the number one folk band in Ireland."

Mr. McGuinness said many of the newer groups in Ireland focus on Celtic rock.

"They are very good at what they do," Mr. McGuinness said. "But it's not 100 percent Irish music."

A banjo and mandolin player and vocalist, Mr. McGuinness formed his first ballad group, the Jolly Tinkers, in Dublin in 1963. He grew up in the city and came from a musical background. His mother won the highest awards in piano at the London College of Music and his father was an All-Ireland champion dancer for three years in a row.

The Ramblers, Mr. McGuinness noted, have seen many personnel changes over the years, but he's kept the group together and says it's now the strongest it's ever been.

The group's classic songs include "The Flight of Earls," "The Ferryman," "The Parting Glass" "Four Green Fields" and "Dirty Old Town."

Besides Mr. McGuinness, the Ramblers consist of three other members who rotate on tours. The group usually performs as a trio. Performing with Mr. McGuinness in Watertown will be Thomas Miller on bass and vocals and Kevin McKrell on acoustic guitar and vocals. Michael Funge, who plays guitar and sings, is sitting out the U.S. tour.

Mr. McGuinness, who has a home in Florida, said his band usually visits the U.S. at least twice a year, but in recent years has been coming over more often.

"Last year we visited every month, at least," he said. "This year, it's been a little bit quieter, but there's been more work here."

Mr. McGuinness said U.S. audiences usually request the older classics from the band. Those fans will be happy with the Ramblers' latest CD, "The Flight of Earls — The Dublin City Ramblers' Greatest Hits." It's a remake of an earlier album.

"We rerecorded the whole thing and put some new stuff on it," Mr. McGuinness said.

OTHER ACTS

Other headline acts at the North Country Goes Green Irish Festival are Searson and the Glengarry Bhoys.

In 1998, two members of the Cornwall Police Service in Ontario, bassist Graham Wright and G.S. ("Zig") Leroux (drums, bodrhan and vocals) started the Glengarry Bhoys. Since then, the band has sold more than 250,000 records and has appeared on the BBC, PBS and CBC dozens of times.

Also making up the Bhoys are D'Arcy Furniss on fiddle and Ewan Brown on pipes and vocals.

The "alternative-Celt-roots-artists" have been main acts at festivals and concert halls throughout North America. The torrid pace of their recording and touring have won the Bhoys legions of "fhans."

Mr. Wright, a native of Scotland, said he doesn't like the band described as performers of Celtic rock.

"We stay away from that label," he said in press materials. "We have the Glengarry sound, and it's a world folk sound with a bit of a rock feel, a bit of a contemporary feel and a traditional flair to it."

The Glengarry Bhoys perform at 9 p.m. Friday on the 11th floor of the State Office Building. It is restricted to audience members 21 years of age and older.

Searson, another Canadian band, will be making its fifth appearance at the festival. Sisters Erin, Heather and Colleen Searson began performing for audiences at a young age while growing up in the Ottawa valley. Erin plays a "boogie style" of piano, organ and mandolin. Colleen plays fiddle and joins Erin in the lead vocals. Heather plays bass. All three are stepdancers. Rounding out their live shows is Mary Gellner on drums.

Searson is known for its energetic music mixing traditional and modern Celtic, country and popular tunes. The band has six albums, with 2009's "Ignite" its latest.

Searson performs at 9 p.m. Saturday on the 11th floor of the State Office Building. It is restricted to audience members 21 years of age and older.