The Drovers

The Drovers
The Drovers, 1998 at Chicago's Annoyance Theatre L to R: David Callahan, Paul Bradley, Mike Kirkpatrick and Merritt Lear
Background information
Genres	Celtic music, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, folk
Years active	1988–2002
Labels	Tantrum Records/Thermometer Sound Surface
Associated acts	Big Hat, Black 47, Big Buildings, Fairport Convention, Pentangle (band) Boiled in Lead, Joker's Wild
Website	[1]

The Drovers are a Chicago-based rock band whose original songs are influenced by Irish traditional dance music.

Founded by Irish traditional fiddler Sean Cleland in 1988, the group recorded four albums and soundtrack music for the motion pictures, Backdraft and Blink. Songwriters Mike Kirkpatrick (guitar) and David Callahan (bass, vocals) drew from Irish rhythms to craft songs that became increasingly psychedelic over a 12-year period until the band ceased performing in September 2002. Kirkpatrick, in particular, created uniquely Irish compositions, often including reels and jigs of his own invention. Callahan's songs, while obviously influenced by Celtic/American folk music, tended toward a less ethnic-sounding psychedelia.

Driven by the powerful fiddle playing of Cleland, his successor, Chris Bain and multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, Kathleen Keane, the group is remembered for its unpredictable, incendiary live performances as the "house band" at Chicago's Cabaret Metro during the early to mid 1990s. They exported this act and won ardent fan bases in Upstate New York and New York City, the rust belt, and Midwestern college towns from Oberlin, Ohio to Omaha, Nebraska. Even though they gained worldwide exposure through the release of 'Blink (1993), in which they appear onscreen as themselves, the band toured exclusively in North America.

The Drovers' 1991 first studio album, World of Monsters, featured Keane on flute, vocals and button accordion and Jackie Moran, in addition to Cleland, Callahan and Kirkpatrick. "Book of Songs" brought the Drovers their first commercial radio exposure. The songs, "Boys and the Babies" and "When Fortune Turns Her Wheel", would later be re-recorded on the Blink soundtrack.

The follow-up to Monsters was the 1993 EP Kill Mice Elf, noted for the epic, acid-drenched "She's as Pretty as Brian Jones Was". The disc includes contributions from vocalists Yvonne Bruner (Big Hat), Atalee Judy and Chantal Wentworth, and cellist Eric Remschneider.

In 1995, the Drovers were at the top of their game, sharing bills with some of the 1990s' most interesting bands, such as The Coctails, Yo La Tengo, Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco and Poi Dog Pondering. The continuous touring left them little time to record, so when they released the Steve Albini-produced Little High Sky Show, their increasingly psychedelic sound took many fans by surprise. The album includes Minneapolis musicians Robin Anders (Boiled in Lead) and Linda Pitmon (Steve Wynn and the Miracle Three, Baseball Project), plus Chicago percussionist Doug Brush.