Two years ago, Patrick Halloran was playing a St. Paddy's Day Parade bash at Bootleggers in Oakland when he found himself getting shouted down by one of the revelers.

OK, he and his trio, Ceann na Caca (we'll get to the name in a minute) weren't opening the set with a traditional Irish tune. It was, um, their Yankee-Irish Drinking Music twist on "Gin and Juice." The Snoop Dogg hit.

"This guy starts shouting, 'Don't you know there's old people here?' " Halloran says. "He's right in my face but we're still singing, and even after the song he's still yelling at us."

Needless to say, Ceann na Caca doesn't deliver the typical St. Patrick's Day set. But don't rule out "Danny Boy" altogether, as this raucous touring group from Pittsburgh serves up tradition with a side of irreverence.

Six years ago, when singer-guitarist Halloran started playing with singer-tin whistle player Marc Wisnosky, he says, "Marc and I both went to Pitt and we started going to the Harp & Fiddle to see Seamus Kennedy, and after a couple times, I thought, 'Man, I could do this. Not as good as him but the songs are easy and I think I could get on stage and make the jokes.' Wisnosky, who studied Gaelic in high school, knew a ton of songs. He wanted to play the really traditional stuff. I said, 'I'll do it, but I want to be able to write stuff.' "

They started writing parodies like the obvious "Erin Go Braghless," "Iron at the Bar," a local spin on "Whiskey in the Jar," and "Top of the O," a song about buying beer at the Original Hot Dog Shop. Another favorite, more of a polka, has the rousing chorus "In North Oakland, there's no good beer!"

"I don't know of many Irish bands that do a comedy-based thing," Halloran says. "I'm sure there's lots and lots that have some funny songs. I've actually tried to write serious Irish songs and I'm not capable of it. I can't not put in a joke or punch line."

Songs in hand, Ceann na Caca was booked at the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern with a name -- Gaelic slang for "Best of the Worst," to put it nicely -- they didn't plan to use more than once. To their surprise, crowds loved it and not only were they invited back, they started getting gigs in other clubs. And making records.

They are in the process now of recording a third album, more of an Irish rock album along the lines of Flogging Molly, and "the first that we want people to listen to."

The first record, "Key'anna Ka Ka," was a rush job at a friend's new studio on the first day they played with third member, fiddler James Telfer IV. "We were just kind of making stuff up and getting drunk in the studio and breaking bottles and spilling beer and knocking over $5,000 microphones. And it kind of sounds that way."

By the second record, they were starting to get booked in more Irish clubs and wanted to show off their traditional side to go with the Pittsburgh songs. "But there was no editor to say you shouldn't put so many on there."

"Us Drunk Live" was an overly long 18-song set that wasn't really recorded live and certainly not at the prestigious Guinness Fleadh Festival (as the liner notes slyly noted). "The joke was a lot of Irish bands -- like the Clancy Brothers, the Makem Brothers, the Wolfe Tones -- they record albums that you could tell if you listened to them are not actually live albums. We thought we would do the same thing, say it was live, but it would be us, drinking and talking over the album."

A pair of records, a little press and a lot of word of mouth helped Ceann na Caca book gigs all along the East Coast. And how would the Pittsburgh songs go over in Tallahassee?

"Huge," Halloran says. "I think Pittsburgh is one of those towns that has an identity in people's minds that is so specific, regardless of whether it's the same one. They like the idea of Pittsburgh. They all have an idea of what it is. And it's funny how common it is to see Pittsburghers there or people who have friends there."

These days, Halloran is based in New York, where he produces music videos and plays in a pop group with his sister called Peanut Butter and Julie.

He'll be back in Pittsburgh this weekend and next for the St. Patrick's Day festivities, where Ceann na Caca may or may not play songs that are entirely appropriate for the occasion.

"Irish music is a vague term in itself," he says. "A lot of it is really American songs played by Irish people or drinking songs, but that parade crowd is not out at bars all the time, so their taste in Irish music is actually more limited. They want to hear Irish songs, but they don't know too many. They just kind of know what they should sound like."

Scott Mervis
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette