Get in the St. Patricks’s Day spirit a week early as  Winnipeg Celtic rock band the Dust Rhinos make their first visit to Lethbridge, March 9 at the Slice.
Though they have been together for 19 years, they have never played Lethbridge before.

“If you are a fan of the Mahones, Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys, you’ll probably like us. We play traditional music, but we play a little more rock. We’re not the Irish Rovers, we’re a little bit more high energy,” said lead vocalist Blair McEvoy, looking forward to their “Roaming Shamrock” Tour, which takes them across the prairies and back to Winnipeg just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

“ We have two fiddle players who are both exciting and will be dazzling. One of them has been playing with us since he was 17,” he said. One of the fiddle players, Dale Brown, plays an electric seven string fiddle.
Bassist Dan Cannon used to play with another popular Winnipeg band Men In Kilts, where he played with the Dust Rhinos’ other  fiddle player Andy Bart, who both joined the Dust Rhinos about the same time.

 They have been playing for a long time and have watched their fan base grow.
“My ex-wife was pregnant with our daughter during our first gig. That’s how I know we’re 19 years old. She gave birth two days later. Now my daughter comes to our shows and brings her friends, so it is very cool to have my daughter and her friends who grew up during our practices, come to the shows. But our oldest fan is 94. She calls herself our oldest groupie,” he said.

 
 They play a lot of original music, drinking songs and “Celtify” classic hits like Peter Gabriel’s’ “Solsbury Hill.”
“We listened to it and wondered what it would sound like with mandolin and fiddle. That’s what we do, we Celtify songs,” he said the popularity of their celtified hits resulted in a live CD a few years ago called “Second Set,” which featured a selection of their audience’s favourite covers.

 They are going into the studio this year to record their eighth recording. They have recorded six physical CDs and one for download only.
 They are talking to Rusty (Matyas) from  popular Winnipeg band Imaginary Cities to produce their next CD.
If you haven’t seen the Dust Rhinos before,  McEvoy said “get ready to dance.”
“It’s going to be  a good time. We’re not going to take any prisoners,” he said.