Back by popular demand, Appalachian Celtic Consort from Charleston, West Virginia, will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a performance of Celtic and folk music on traditional instruments at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Ohio University Southern in the Collins Center Bowman Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.

The band was formed in 1998 and plays for a variety of events around the Tri-State. The group consists of Dewey Sanderson on hammered dulcimer; Dave Gladkosky on mandolin, guitar, bass and vocals; Sheila McEntee on bodhran and percussion; Mark Watson on whistles, Irish bouzouki and octave mandolin; and Mark Nelson on pennywhistles, bagpipes and vocals. Visit the Appalachian Consort website and watch video clips of their music at http://www.acelticconsort.com/.

“A wee bit o’ the Celtic Isles in the hills of West Virginia” is how Appalachian Celtic Consort describes themselves on their web site.

They play mostly traditional Irish and Scottish music, but they also perform old-time and original compositions. A die-hard traditionalist might notice that their music has a little different sound than some Celtic groups – hence, the word “Appalachian” in their name. Our hills and mountains were settled by Scotch-Irish immigrants, and the music they brought with them has picked up a bit of local flavor.

Sanderson has been playing the hammered dulcimer for over 20 years and is a founding member of the band. He is also a member of the Rail City Dulcimer Society and regularly jams with a local “pickin and grinnin” group.

He frequently entertains, accompanied by a keyboard, at nursing homes and retirement and senior centers in the Tri-state playing Celtic selections as well as traditional music from the 1940s-1960s. Dewey is a professor emeritus of geology at Marshall University.

Gladkosky is a music teacher in southern West Virginia. He is also well-known in old-time music circles and is a member of the Presby Pickers. In his spare time Dave works on restoring a vintage German car, the Goliath. Our friend and hammered dulcimer master, Sally Hawley, wrote a song called David and the Goliath, which is on our third CD.

McEntee has been active in drum circles in the Charleston area for many years and is well-known for her djembe playing. When she is not playing drums, Sheila enjoys the outdoors and is editor of Wonderful West Virginia magazine.

Watson is a biology professor at the University of Charleston (WV), but has long been interested in music. He discovered an interest in Celtic music in the late 1980s and has been playing it enthusiastically ever since. Mark joined the band in 2004 and made many of the instruments he plays.

Nelson has played a plethora of instruments over the past 25 years including oboe, saxophone, recorder, guitar and bagpipes. He has been a member of the Kanawha Valley Pipes and Drums competition unit and performed with the Presby Pickers. He works as a chemical engineer during the day.