Local Band Finding Success With Irish Music

It’s a bittersweet irony for the local traditional Irish- and punk-influenced band the Bastard Bearded Irishmen that it wouldn’t exist but for a friend's death.

“If he wouldn’t have passed away, this never would have happened. We constantly think about it. We go on in his honor,” lead singer and guitarist Jim Smerecky, 31, of Castle Shannon, said of George H. Evans IV.

The members had played together in one area punk band or another at various times, Smerecky said.

Evans and Smerecky had played together in Ragweed before Evans moved to Las Vegas to work as a recording engineer; He was killed in a car crash in November 2004.

Evans' friends had played a few memorial shows in his honor, then because Evans had been a fan of The Pogues, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, they decided to do a show in that vein — intending it to be a one-time thing.

“It worked out so well, that we just kind of kept going with it,” Smerecky said.

“For all of us, this was the best response we ever had in a band,” said drummer Dan Stocker, 29, of Dormont, a volunteer firefighter in the borough who's been in about 10 bands.

So they decided to formally form a band and have been enjoying success locally over the past couple years.

There's been some lineup changes and additions and the band now also includes Jon Pitcher on guitar, Danny Rectenwald on mandolin, Ben Jaber on bass — all from or living in Dormont — and Rachel Karis, of Mount Lebanon, on viola.

The band has twice played the Pittsburgh Irish Festival and will play St. Patrick’s Day at Finnigan’s Wake in the afternoon and Molly Brannigans at 9 p.m. 

The band expects to have its debut self-titled CD of nine songs available for the shows. The CD has five originals and four covers, including "Black Velvet Band" and "Molly Malone."

“It seems like the people who come out to the shows really get into it,” Stocker said. “It’s not just our friends or our demographic. It runs from 18 to 60 or older.”

There is, however, the matter of the band’s name.

When the band was forming, the story goes, the members all had beards.

“Ben just kind of blurted it out,” Smerecky said. Someone added bastard and it stuck.

“I think if we thought (the band) was going to be bigger, we definitely would have come up with a better name,” Stocker said.

When they play the Irish festival and other family-friendly venues, they perform as BBI or the Bearded Irishman.

While they're not sure how far they'll go with the band, Stocker and Smerecky said everyone is having a good time.

“We’re just having fun with it and we’re all learning from each other,” Smerecky said.