The Town Talk (Alexandria, LA)
The Killdares: Celtic music rocks

Jodi Belgard | August 24, 2006

"If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band. That lead guitar is hot, but not for a Louisiana man." That's the chorus of the 1984 Alabama hit, "If You're Gonna Play in Texas." Notice that there was no mention of bagpipes. But that changed in 1996 with the formation of the Celtic-rock band The Killdares.

Tim Smith is the lead singer and drummer for group, and has been the only steady member of the group in its 10 years. Smith grew up with his parents in Irving, Texas, but spent nearly every summer of his childhood in Alexandria. His mother is one of 11 children, and most of her family lives in Alexandria. He admits to being a typical child of the 1980s: "I was skateboarder. I listened to The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedys." Not quite Celtic standards. "But I was raised with a pretty wide range of music in my household," Smith said. "There was a lot of folk, Irish and bluegrass — and some of the progressive bands like Fairport Convention. That kind of mixed together in one big pot."

And now there's The Killdares. The band is made up of Smith, Roberta Rast, a national champion fiddler, Matt Willis, an award-winning competition bagpiper, Brek Lancaster, lead guitarist, and Jim Dawson, bass player. And Smith feels the addition of Rast and Willis to the band has "really helped shape and define The Killdares' sound."

Smith chose to call his band The Killdares after Kildare County in Ireland, and Kildare, Texas, a town about 150 miles from his hometown. "It was a nice way to bridge the gap," he said.

Smith said the music caught on early — within the first couple of months of the band's inception.

"During the early to mid-'90s we saw a resurgence in Irish culture," he said, noting the rising popularity of Michael Flatley's "The Lord of the Dance: Riverdance" during that same time.

He said the band began primarily playing Celtic music festivals, but eventually spread out to general music festivals. "We're more rock, so we're able to crossover and play anywhere," he said. And people apparently like them.

"We've seen a constant audience for the past 10 years," Smith said.

The band has played three times this summer at Finnegan's Wake, a traditional Irish pub in Alexandria, and Smith said they've had "a packed house every time."

Of course, since Smith comes from such a large family, 10 to 20 of his family members have been at each show.

The Killdares will be back for shows Friday and Saturday nights, and Smith wants people to understand the music they'll experience.

"A lot of people, when they hear Irish music, they think green beer and leprechauns," he said. And The Killdares are trying to change that perception.

"We're just trying to spread the music one fan at a time," Smith said. "It's progressive, it's traditional — but it still rocks."