Hi, it’s me, Dan “Blind Irish Dog” Smars. I’m the rhythm guitar player for The Finn MacCools. You may be wondering “Who the hell is Dan “Blind Irish Dog” Smars?” Well, I’ll tell ya…
I was born on a snowy December day in 1963 (ok, I have no idea if it was snowy or not…I was just born fer Chrissakes, so what’d I know?). I grew up, learned to walk, talk, sleep, eat…and sing! I started singing along with Beatles records when I was about 5 years old, using whatever was handy as a microphone. When I got a little older I took guitar lessons, then played violin in Jr. High & High School orchestras, started my first band with some buddies of mine in high school, playing guitar and singing. I’ve been in bands off and on since then, recently recorded a cd of 10 of my original songs under the band name One Dirty Dog and then I played with the Steel Bonnets for a few years. When that version of the Steel Bonnets broke up, Dan Brown and I decided to start our own Celtic band and we were fortunate enough to have Jim Kiley join us! Then Tom Hansen jumped in on fiddle and Tom Young rounded out our sound with his bass guitar.
In all the years I’ve been involved in music, this is the best group of musicians I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. We’re writing new music, having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of great people at our shows. Hope to see you at our next show. Slainte!!