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Celtic Wood and Wires aims to share their Celtic traditional sessions all over Central Pennsylvania to bring "a little bit of the Irish" to the state.
A traditional, or "trad," session is a traditional session of playing together, which grew out of Ireland and Scotland. It's like a "jam session in Irish," said Sandi Finnerty, a member of the band.
"We want people to know this is not just for St. Patrick's Day," Carl Finnerty said. "This is to carry on the stories and struggles of Ireland."
Carl plays the bodhran drum, which was "used as a basket in the early 1900s to bring crops in and out of the field."
Though Sandi grew up locally, she lived in Southern Pennsylvania for 26 years before moving back here when she met Carl. They started to listen to Celtic bands and, when Sandi said to her now-husband that she played the fiddle, he was "wowed."
Celtic Wood and Wires started off as a duet in January 2018, playing mostly South Central Pennsylvania cities, like Harrisburg and York.
Sandi said "to find people playing trad sessions was difficult." Luckily, she reconnected with former schoolmate Shelley Whitnack, a viola and fiddle player, about five years ago during a session. They knew each other originally from playing in the Williamsport Area High School orchestra together as teenagers.
Sandi asked Shelley to a session at the former Moon and Raven. Shelley said, "despite playing the viola classically in the symphony, it was acceptable for me to read music as compared to the fiddle where they play music by ear."
Michael John Miller, who writes songs, sings and plays the guitar, was in the band SHOOfly when he was invited by another band member to a trad session.
"I did not know anything about Irish music and just started learning," Michael said. "I think Sandi gave me an iPad and I just started from there."
They all laughed, recalling how Sandi had instant messaged Michael, asking him to play with their band because they needed him, but not wanting to hurt the band he was already with.
Michael continues to be friends with SHOOfly, but says he found his calling with Celtic Wood and Wires. He even saved that message to this day.
And so, the duet became four in Williamsport. In late summer 2020, they played for the first time at the Gamble Farm Inn. Now, Celtic Wood and Wires is fresh off a Saint Patrick's Month Tour.
When asked what Irish music means to them, Michael started off saying, "When I was in third grade, my teacher asked the students where we were born, and I would say Ireland."
"When my mom showed up for a conference the following week, the fabrication could be no more," he laughed.
Though he mainly played folk and hard rock, his fascination with Irish music started early. Shelley added that she "enjoyed the folk tradition and an old-time folk band would come into our church in Nisbet."
"I loved the Celtic-like tribal sounding music which comes out of the ground expressing experiences through art and interactions with nature, with joy and sadness," she said.
Even though her first love was classical, "This is my next love and I feel privileged to get to do it. There is no end to learning and it makes me happy," Shelley said.
"The music for me resonates joy and a deep feeling of sadness," Sandi said, piggybacking off her bandmate. "When I play 'The Fields of Athenry' (written in 1979 by Pete St. John), it takes you back to someone being put in jail for stealing (because) they were starving to death during the Great Famine of the 1840s ... To have empathy for people and what people, even now, in our country are going through."
A favorite of hers is "Wild Mountain Thyme," first recorded by Francis McPeake in 1957 for BBC series "As I Roved Out." At first, she was appalled at the lyric, "I would surely find another," but then came to find out it is all about the location and place, being in the mountains of Ireland.
The Finnertys traveled to Ireland this past Christmas. Sandi brought shells back and mixed them with others she had collected, crying during the moment as her husband was washing the dishes.
"I felt overwhelming joy," she said.
While in Ireland, they participated in the Winter School, a traditional music lesson, which has been offered for almost 30 years.
"Despite the storms coming in all week, there were beautiful rainbows each day," they said.
In addition to experiencing the Winter School, Carl underwent a year of bodhran lessons, including with coach and bodhran expert Mickey Stewart.
"We try to get together once a week to practice," Carl said of the band now.
"We are learning to talk with fiddles and read each other with our eyes and body language," members of the band said.
Sandi and Shelley laughed, saying it is difficult sometimes to "read each other's eyes with the fiddles in our faces, but we do it!"
Celtic Wood and Wires have been nominated three years for the Spot Award in Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame, even taking the win in 2021. They are streamed all over the world through CD Baby, Spotify and other digital platforms. The band also has been featured on Marc Gunn's Irish and Celtic Music Podcast.
"We love doing it -- bringing the sound from Ireland over here," the band said. "We are friends with everyone. The music tells the same kind of stories which country (music) does over here. It brings all the good times and struggles of the Celtic nations."
Celtic Wood and Wires can be found online at www.celticwoodandwires.com or on Facebook.