BY KAREN BOSSICK

Derina Harvey always loves to see St. Patrick’s Day roll around. It means that she and her award-winning Celtic rock band will be in high demand to play every kind of venue from from the Clymont Community Hall in Edmonton, Alberta, to the College of Southern Idaho Fine Arts Auditorium in Twin Falls.

The high-energy, five-piece band will bring their Celtic show to The Argyros on Thursday when they rock The Argyros with a fresh take on traditional folk songs, in addition to performing originals.

The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at The Argyros in Ketchum. Tickets are $25, available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35937/production/1258055?performanceId=11724127.

“It’s the type of music everyone can enjoy, especially this time of year,” said Harvey. “We’ve performed from Fairbanks to Miami, from Kilarney, Canada, to Marystown in Newfoundland. We’re especially excited about playing at The Argyros because of the state-of-the-art sound and light system.”

Harvey was nominated for the 2025 Canadian Folk Music Contemporary Singer of the Year. And the Derina Harvey Band, touted as a rockier version of Canada’s Great Big Sea, took home the 2024 East Coast Music Award for Fans’ Choice Entertainer of the Year. The band was nominated for a 2025 Canadian Folk Music Award as New/Emerging Artist of the Year.

The Edmonton, Alberta, band has been around the block for a few years, though.

“I had the good fortune of coming from a family that loves music and loves art,” said Harvey. “My parents were both musicians, performers, songwriters who were always making music around the kitchen table. And, in my heritage, the Irish music--the Celtic music--was something I heard growing up.”

After graduating from high school in 1998, Harvey studied music and performance at the College of the North Atlantic in Newfoundland and Labrador. There she met the men who would go on to play drums and guitar in her band.

They started the band in 2008, put out their first album in 2013, their second, in 2016, and their most recent “Waves of Home,” in 2023.

“We experimented with rock and roll, blues, country western music and choir music. As we performed Celtic music and songs from Canada’s East Coast, we found ourselves putting a little bit of a different spin on the music to make it our own while keeping the honor of the original songwriter. And, of course, we make sure the songs are good and lively.”

Case in point: Tom Lewis’ “The Last Shanty.” The band starts it off as in its traditional acapella song. Then they add fiddle, guitar, bass guitar and electric guitar, along with a kick drum that keeps the beat moving forward, bringing it into a full arrangement of music.

The band performs familiar tunes like “The Wild Rover,” “Drunken Sailor,” “The Irish Rover” and “Farewell to Nova Scotia.”

But they also perform originals that show off Harvey’s storytelling and humor.

“Like so many different genres, when there’s a folk element there’s a storytelling element,” Harvey said. “And Celtic music offers a clarity that many people experience whether a love story or a story of longing or leaving home on an adventure.

One of the original songs they do, for instance is “Rove and Go,” a song about a 90-year-old house that is moved to a new home. The song was inspired by a period of resettlement in Canada’s history between the 1950s and 1980s when the government thought it would be good for people who lived in smaller communities along coast to abandon their home and move to lager urban centers for access to better infrastructure.

“The community put it to a vote to decide whether they would leave or not,” said Harvey. “It was very divisive—it divided families, divided communities. People were thinking, ‘Our house is small, but look at the work we’ve put into it, the energy our family has put into it for generations.’ Then they also thought, ‘But what an adventure it might be to go somewhere new and start over!’ ”

The government told the coastal dwellers that it would give them a few dollars to relocate. And the fishermen said, “I don’t want to go. But, if I have to go, I’ll take your few dollars.”

“They floated the homes into the North Atlantic Ocean, dragging them through narrow passes of ocean to a new community,” said Harvey. “They abandoned 200 communities on the East coast of Canada.”

Celtic music is typically lovely and bouncy and light and fun, said Harvey.

“Inherent in this kind of music is the ability to laugh off troubles when you need a laugh and a dance. We’ll have fun stories, heartwarming stories—the idea is just to have a bit of fun in the world. You may need to shed a tear or remember somebody from time to time. But, don’t worry, I’ll make you laugh again before I send you home.”