All 20 Dady Brother fingers capably dance over a multitude of instruments. This legendary southpaw folk duo is proficient at guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bodhran, uilleann pipes, harmonica, and penny whistle (which, Joe Dady is quick to point out, is a $4.95 whistle nowadays). You'd think they'd want to show off a little.

"It's more about getting the story across," says John Dady. "Getting a song, whittling it down, keeping it simple. It makes it more accessible to people."

Whether it's a Wednesday night crowd hoisting a pint at Johnny's, little kids clapping and singing along at a school performance, or crowds in Ireland where the Dadys tour annually, the accessibility and appeal of their Irish folk is undeniable and immense. They have mastered Irish music's exuberance, deceptive simplicity, and charm.

"I don't think it's biased in saying Irish music has an international appeal," John says. "A lot of our fans are Jewish or Italian."

"I think we've created our own niche, really," Joe Dady says. "Because we play good music and fun music."

You can blame it all on The Fab Four. Or "Bonnie and Clyde."

John and Joe were the youngest of six kids. Their dad was a big band trumpeter. He played Harry James around the house.

"Then we saw The Beatles on TV," John says. "They were having fun, chicks dug them. I said, ‘That's what I want to do when I grow up.'"

The brothers played in folk rock trios and quartets at school, youth groups, and churches. But when Joe heard "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" during the chase scene in "Bonnie and Clyde," he went right out and got himself a banjo.

"From that point we kinda went from rock to bluegrass," he says.

It was the late 70's and The Irish Inn in Charlotte was a hotbed for Irish and folk music. The Dadys got their foot in the door with the help of the half-Irish, half-American duo The Emigrants. It wasn't long and, for the Dadys, the bluegrass began to turn green.

"I remember hearing it [Irish folk] for the first time," John says. "I just knew it. It was like a slap in the face. ‘This is what I want to do.' I just hadn't been exposed to it yet. The only Irish music we had heard was mom playing the Bing Crosby record every St. Patty's day morning."

By the early 1980's the Dady Brothers broke off from the other members and slimmed down to a duo. "At that time, it wasn't a popular thing to do," John says. "But we stuck with it."

Flash forward today: the Dadys ain't flush. But they pay their bills. They consider the bigger payoffs.

"To make a living making music," John says. "To make a living putting smiles on people's faces. I mean, what the hell else is there?"

And those smiles beam from ear to ear, often on little faces.

Last Wednesday, The Dady Brothers played for the children at Listwood School in Irondequoit. It was a K-4 stampede into the gym, where the children positively ate the band up. Clapping, singing along, and more importantly, eyeballing musical instruments for the first time. The Dadys are sowing seeds.

"The kids are the best," says John. "They're my favorite audience. They're so inundated these days. There's just so much stuff in their face. It's rare that they get to see folk music performed live; hearing what a fiddle really sounds like, what a banjo really sounds like."

The Dadys help big kids, too, wherever they play.

"The people that come into those places," Joe says, referring to bars. "They've got lot of problems. They've got a lot of stuff on their plate. And if we can help them forget their problems for a couple of hours and they walk out of that place happy... there's a lot of satisfaction in that."

When Joe suffered a stroke three years ago, those he had helped through music returned he favor at a spectacular benefit thrown at Hochstein School of Music.

"When I was in need a lot of those people we made happy came to bat for me, big time," he says. "It was the biggest day of my life. My gosh, there were over 900 people. They were turning people away. You don't know how much you're worth to people until something like that happens. Music is the big healer."

The brothers have just released "Irish Folk Fest," their seventh album. It's textbook Dady, with their sturdy harmonies, unobtrusive instrumentation, and a heady teeter-totter between Irish joy and melancholy.

They play constantly, with precious little time to squeeze these platters out. Still, they plan on doing a children's album and an album of songs their dad taught them. They seem so happy working and traveling together, with a tolerance and bond only blood can bring.

John explains the secret to their longevity: "Besides interviews and gigs, we don't talk to each other," he says. They both laugh. "And we live in different counties." 

The Dady Brothers

w/Mitzie Collins & Roxanne Ziegler, Mary O'Keefe & Ted McGraw, Gan Ainm, and the Young School of Irish Dance

Our Lady of Mercy, 36 Armstrong Rd.

Friday, March 14

7 p.m. | $10-$12 | 865-0775, dadybros.com