Personnel: Sean Cleland, fiddle; Kathleen Keane, flute, tin whistle, accordion, vocals; Mike Kirkpatrick, guitar; Ike Reilly, vocals; Dave Callahan, bass, vocals; Jackie Moran, drums, bodhran, vocals.
Formed: March 1988 to play a St. Patrick`s Day gig at Orphans.
Current lineup together since: Last month, when Reilly, who still plays with the Eisenhowers, and Callahan became full-time members.
Sound: ”Much of it is driving, traditional Irish music with an American urban beat,” Cleland says.
Influences: ”They range from Irish traditional bands like the Bothy Band and Planxty to the Replacements to guys like Thomas Mapfumo from Zimbabwe,”
Cleland says, adding that the group to which they are most often compared, the Pogues, are not a direct influence. ”The only way that they`re an influence is that they`ve opened up a lot of doors. I like their spunk but I don`t own a Pogues record.”
Movie debut: The band performs in the retirement-party scene of
”Backdraft,” which Ron Howard filmed in Chicago. At last notice, they will have three songs on the soundtrack.
Songwriting: Cleland says Kirkpatrick usually initiates the ideas to be fleshed out by the band, but now Reilly is also contributing new songs that don`t fit in the Eisenhowers format.
In-concert cover versions: Aside from the traditional Irish songs, the band plays the Rolling Stones` ”You Can`t Always Get What You Want” and Devo`s ”Beautiful World.”
Memorable concert experience: ”We were playing in Monaco on an outdoor veranda overlooking the Mediterranean Ocean,” Cleland says. ”Some of the royal family was there. Waiters were carrying fluted champagne glasses. It was like something out of a James Bond movie.”
Namesake: ”I got it from a poem by an Irish poet named Padraic Colum,”
Cleland says. ”A drover is a young guy who herds sheep and cattle, living outdoors. It`s sort of a romanticized version of a vagrant.”
Recordings: ”Drovers Live,” recorded by Timothy Powell at Schuba`s in July, is available at gigs. The band also recorded the ”Backdraft” songs at Powell`s Metro Mobile studio in Glenview.
Outlook: ”There`s a lot of connection with being Irish and being Irish-American and exploring cities and the immigrant experience,” Cleland says.
”A lot of it involves finding your own place in the mass of people and finding our own place as a band.”
Goals: ”We want to get a recording contract and start touring,” Cleland says. ”We want to keep growing. Just as long as we can keep presenting our music and be true to it and true to ourselves, that`s enough.”
Next appearances: Abbey Pub, Saturday and Dec. 22; Biddy Mulligan`s, Dec. 29.
