The Drovers

The Drovers are a Chicago-based rock band whose original songs are influenced by Irish traditional dance music.

Founded by Irish traditional fiddler Sean Cleland in 1988, the group recorded four albums and soundtrack music for the motion pictures, Backdraft and Blink. Songwriters Mike Kirkpatrick (guitar) and David Callahan (bass, vocals) drew from Irish rhythms to craft songs that became increasingly psychedelic over a 12-year period until the band ceased performing in September 2002. Kirkpatrick, in particular, created uniquely Irish compositions, often including reels and jigs of his own invention. Callahan's songs, while obviously influenced by Celtic/American folk music, tended toward a less ethnic-sounding psychedelia.

History

Driven by the powerful fiddle playing of Cleland, his successor, Chris Bain and multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, Kathleen Keane, the group is remembered for its unpredictable, incendiary live performances as the "house band" at Chicago's Cabaret Metro during the early to mid 1990s. They exported this act and won ardent fan bases in Upstate New York and New York City, the rust belt, and Midwestern college towns from Oberlin, Ohio to Omaha, Nebraska. Even though they gained worldwide exposure through the release of Blink, in which they appear onscreen as themselves, the band toured exclusively in North America.