Every year for St. Patrick's Day, Rhode Islanders become Irish. Those of us whose lineage may or may not have included ancestors from Ireland become a wee bit Irish for just a day. And on that day, those of us whose blood runs green year around and in whose heart beats the tunes of the Irish hills become even more Irish.

Rhode Island immigrants from Ireland and Scotland and Brittany who settled the Blackstone Valley during the American Industrial Revolution brought a rich tradition of Celtic music. In some parts of the country like the Appalachian Mountains, the music has been absorbed into American folk music, but along the Blackstone, the Irish culture has remained strong enough to keep the music alive to the present day.

For the last 20 years, the keepers of those Irish musical traditions have been the members of Pendragon.

The band plays traditional Irish reels and jigs with fiddles and flutes and drums and whistles. But a typical performance also blends in the sounds of banjos and guitars and base and even a bouzouki and concertina. New instruments for old music? In a way, new instruments are traditional -- folk music in general, and Celtic music in particular, is based on the concept of sessions; just like modern "jam sessions", musicians bring their favorite instruments and join in, blending in and adding their own sound to the musical whole. In that way, the lute-like bouzouki of Mediterranean origin fits, not because there were a whole lot of Irish musicians playing classical Irish jigs on bouzouki, but because it just sounds right.

Danny Boy and the Providence Reel both demand a traditional presentation, but once even they were both new. Pendragon composes and performs new Celtic music. Mary Lee Partington, who performs vocals for the group, composes original songs depicting the experiences of the immigrants who settled here and their role in the mill and textile traditions of New England, never straying too far from the Irish musical traditions for the music to sound anything but just right.

Kevin Doyle plays percussion, sometimes on drums and sometimes with his pounding Irish step dance. He is a US champion dancer who has now performed throughout the New England area for over 30 years. The band is also often joined by step dancer Jennifer McCormack, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who teaches the traditional dancing at the Blackstone River Theatre.

Ken Lyon, who is also known his solo blues singing, is featured on vocals, guitar and bass. Russell Gusetti plays concertina, banjo, and guitar, while Bob Drouin plays fiddle, tenor banjo, and bouzouki.

Russell, Bob, and Mary Lee are holdovers from the first days of the band. They're grooming their newest, youngest member, 18-year-old Josh Kane, who plays flute and whistles, to carry on their traditions as the band continues on for the next 20 years. In their own lighthearted and comfortable way, they joke that Josh's addition is for carrying on their traditions and for carrying the heavy equipment.

Over 20 years, the group has developed a loyal audience who has come to expect their joking and banter like members of the family. And over 20 years, they have grown comfortable enough with each other to tell jokes about banjo players and trap-evading squirrels between their songs.

Keep a look-out for their six CD's. Their latest, "Finding Our Way Home" came out December 2001 on the RiverFolk Productions label. Their other CD's include "Beyond Borders... A Celtic Journey", Passage to New England", "The Working River", "At the Crossroads", and "Pendragon".

If you're reading this on St. Patrick's Day, track them down, they appear regularly at the Blackstone River Theatre in Cumberland, along with other shows in venues like Chan's and the Greenwich Odium, and maybe they can make you feel a bit more Irish. And if it's not St. Patty's Day, well, track them down anyway, and declare the day Irish through and through.

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Visit Pendragon online at riverfolk.org/pendragon.html. Their favorite venue, the Blackstone River Theatre is at 549 Broad Street, Cumberland, RI 02864, can be found online at www.riverfolk.org and can be called at (401) 725-9272

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