If you have a hankering for a hard-hitting reel or a jaunty jig, consider yourself blessed with a bit of Irish luck.

Fingal, a band of masters of music from the Irish tradition, will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 15 at Thomas Berry Hall. The performance will be recorded for an upcoming CD release.

Island resident Randal Bays is the fiddler for Fingal and has been touring for a year with the band. When he asked fellow band members Dáithí Sproule — guitar and vocals — and James Keane — button accordion — if they wanted to make the first Fingal record in a fancy studio in New York City, they told them they’d rather do it at the Whidbey Institute’s Chinook Center.

The band had such a great experience when they performed there last year in their first performance together that they decided making the record at the center’s Thomas Berry Hall would be best.

Bays is considered one of the foremost fiddle players of Irish music living in the United States. He has been playing the instrument for 30 years and spoke about why Celtic traditional music inspires him.

“Irish music has a breadth of feeling,” he said. “It goes from excited, happy and wild one moment and then in the next it’s so sad you can hardly listen.”

The company he keeps may have something to do with his passion for the music, as well.

Sproule is a native of Derry in the north of Ireland who now lives in St. Paul, Minn.

A master singer in both English and Irish languages, he is also one of the world’s premier guitarists in the Irish tradition. He’s widely credited with pioneering the use of DADGAD tuning in the accompaniment of Irish music, a style now used around the world. He’s worked with many of the greats in Irish music, and has been for some years a member of the famed Donegal group Altan.

Keane, a resident of Queens, N.Y., was born to a musical family in Drimnagh, Dublin and took up the button accordion at age 6. He has established a worldwide reputation as one of the finest Irish accordion players available and has released a series of highly acclaimed solo recordings.

Bays said that besides the musical value of playing with some of the finest musicians in the world, he is drawn to Irish culture. The history of Ireland is pertinent to the music, he said.

The Irish struggle to maintain their life values in the face of hardship, oppression and even famine is a great lesson, said Bays.

“The big thing with the Irish is their humor; their sense of good will with a little bit of defiance thrown in,” he added. “It all comes out in the music.”

As someone who had his first gig at age 8 playing his fiddle on a radio donut commercial, it’s easy to see how Bays would be attracted to the Irish spirit. It’s a spirit he wishes to pass down to the next generation.

Bays heads up the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp every March where students learn the ropes of traditional Irish music from some of the best teachers from Ireland and the United States. Keane and Sproule, among others, taught at the camp along with Bays last year.

“The link between Ireland and America is so close,” said Bays. “And the music, when you get involved with it, you see is really community music.”

The band is pleased to invite the island community to the concert recording of Fingal’s first CD.

A note for parents: Since the concert is being recorded live, please bring children only if you are sure they can remain quiet during the performance.

Tickets are $17 and are available in advance at Joe’s Island Music in Langley, at the door, or by e-mail at tickets@fingalmusic.com. Call 341-3404 or visit www.fingalmusic.com for more info.

Patricia Duff can be reached at 221-5300 or pduff@southwhidbeyrecord.com.