Irish music is a seemingly underground movement that has peeked out 
above-ground in Palm Beach County, but that may signal our area catching 
up with national trends. Irish pubs like O'Shea's in downtown West Palm 
Beach, the Irish Cottage in Delray Beach and the multiple Rooney's 
locations have featured authentic music since they opened, but Paddy 
Mac's in Palm Beach Gardens has boasted the same weekend house act for 
the last six years. That is, when vocalist Tracy Sands isn't back in her 
native Ireland or off playing some of the biggest Irish festivals in the 
U.S. 
   Sands returns to Paddy Mac's for an extended stay next weekend after 
playing an Irish festival in Pittsburgh this week. That trip came on the 
heels of a three-week Ireland visit, which came directly after four days 
at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, the biggest such festival in America. 
   "I should've flown from Milwaukee to Ireland," says an exhausted Sands 
after returning to Florida on August 19 (only to fly internationally on 
August 20), "or at least flown from here to Ireland on the same day." 
Such is the frequent-flier schedule of the popular singer, who performed 
in Wisconsin alongside Irish acts like Leahy, Kila, and The Commitments 
(a group spawned from the popular film of the same name). Sands has 
played multiple South Florida Folk festivals; SunFest 2000, and has been 
a featured performer in popular Irish fests from local to Boston and 
Cleveland - as well as the W.B. Yeates International and Fiddlers Green 
festivals in Ireland. 
   At Paddy Mac's, as well as several of these events, Sands plays with 
guitarist, vocalist and harmonica player Rod MacDonald. The two let the 
crowd dictate whether they play traditional tunes, Irish-based rock a la 
Van Morrison, or go the pop route. Sands occasionally adds whistles, 
tambourine or the Irish bodhran drum to flavor the duo's endless 
songlist, which includes material from Sands' two CDs, 1997's Voice on 
the Line and last year's Enchanted. 
   Even the two discs cut a wide path, from Sands' rocking Falling 
Down and The Judds' country hit One Man Woman to MacDonald's 
waltzing I'll Walk in the Highlands and the traditional Red is 
the Rose, a song Sands allowed her Paddy Mac's followers to 
unwittingly re-arrange. 
   "The audiences here started to sing Loch Lomond as I sang Red 
is the Rose," she says. "I noticed that both songs had the same 
melody, and before long I was singing it along with everybody else. I 
decided to record it with the chorus of Loch Lomond incorporated, 
and that's how I sing it now here in Florida!" 
   See Tracy Sands and Rod MacDonald from 8 p.m.-midnight every Friday 
and Saturday this month starting September 13-14 at Paddy Mac's, 10971 N. 
Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens. Phone: 561-691-4366.