With rave reviews of their first CD piling up and a reputation for putting on some of the most exciting live shows in the local music scene, Yoke Shire is poised to reach greater heights with their multi-instrument power rock and blues, Celtic, classical fusion.

     Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Craig Herlihy and his brother, guitarist Brian Herlihy along with drummer Brad Dillon grew up in suburban Chelmsford and played together for years before forming Yoke Shire in 1994.

     Riding high off of the media attention they gained from their U-Mass Lowell auditorium concert last April, Brian and Craig Herlihy found time for a joint interview about where Yoke Shire is heading with their full length CD release.

     "We're a progressive metal band but we cover more forms of music than just metal," Craig said. "We always try to blend new ideas from Celtic music, or blues, or classical. It's not just about rock. It's a blend of stuff. A fusion." The concept of blending ideas inspired the name of the band. Yoke Shire combines yoke - which means union and shire, an old English word that has a sound they like. "Shire came to us in a moment of divine inspiration," said Brian. "When you're choosing a moniker to live by, you choose very carefully. We thought Shire added color. It's an old English word that has a flair we think is coming through in the music. We meditated on it for a while after we looked at a lot of word origins."

     Influenced by Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Rush and other bands from the early 1970s, Yoke Shire's power rock exuberance leaps out of the stereo speakers with vibrant lead guitar playing, rumbling bass lines, and flowing keyboards.

     "There's something about the music from that era that really works for us," Craig said. "We also work in blues from the early part of the century. And part of our CD was influenced by Gregorian Chants."

     The Herlihy boys said they enjoy playing the kind of music they grew up with. Being in their early to -mid-thirties, those bands include all the metal greats, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Kansas, Rush, and Iron Butterfly.

     "They influenced us mostly from the inspirational end of things," Brian said. "Those people put their all out heart and soul into doing the best they could by taking the time to rework compositions until they had it just right. That inspired us to find our best possible sound. That's why we go that extra mile to get it down as best we can."

     The attention Yoke Shire has been getting from the press of late seems to be the fruit of honest toil. Their CD single release was praised for originality and quality, three-part guitar harmony as well as three-part vocal harmony, and their ability to successfully blend things into the power rock genre that you don't usually find there. The two songs on the sampler was added to 44 radio play lists through out the northeast.

     "We feel really good about those reviews," Craig said. "It's nice to know our material is being received so well. We really try to go that extra mile to come up with something that's not the same old thing people have heard before. Our first concern is the impression our music is going to make on the listener. We don't want to be like anyone else. When we go over a song and rework it a few times until it's perfect, we feel more confident about it."

     Yoke Shire maintains that their sound defies categorization because it's important to them that they experiment and expand upon the power-rock genre. "The first challenge we set for ourselves is to defy the categories," Craig said.

     The Boston music scene has been supportive of Yoke Shire, but the band members are suburbanites and the suburbs is where they find most of their support. "Our best show ever had to be the concert at U-Mass Lowell," Craig said. "It was a two and half hour show and many of our long time supporters were there. We're definitely rooted in the suburbs because that's where we’re from. You always get your earliest base from your own area. We've been expanding into Boston, though. We've played the Middle East, Mama Kin's, The Rat and The Hard Rock Cafe."

     Like the early days of Rush and the band Boston, Yoke Shire eschews the techno equipment of drum machines, sequencers, and pre-recorded parts. In fact, Craig Herlihy can often be seen throughout the live shows playing flute with one hand and the keyboards with the other while manipulating bass pedals with his feet. The extra effort stems from what the Herlihy boys say is the integrity of playing earthy music and composing all of their own material.

     "It's a cool thing," Brian said, "to see Craig playing all those different instruments at once. It's a visual thing. But it also comes from our sense of wanting to do something nobody has done before. If we use sampling, we'd only be building a melody around someone else's rhythm or a rhythm around someone's melody. Prerecording is another thing we avoid. It just sounds better live, and having to play it again means we can come up with a new way of playing it each time. We wouldn't get that chance to experiment and keep it fresh if we were playing around a taped playback."

     The other striking thing about Yoke Shire is the other worldly lyrics that accompany their music. Coursing through the smoky organ chords and eerie flute melodies are tales of grand and glorious people who have lived in other times. "Maiden Voyage" is sure to receive as much attention for its lyrics as its grooves and power chords. "She kneels by the water gracefully / In the reflecting pool a transparent gown / She listens, slow flowing secrets, vibrations telling a tale more profound / Words with no sound, words with no sound."

     The synthesizer and flute melody accompanying those verses create a haunting yet inviting tone before the verbal imagery carry the listener off. The Herlihy brothers said their songwriting inspiration is very much inspired by the real world.

     "I'm into poetry and literature," Craig said. "I just try to carefully blend my poetic ideas and my love for literature into my music." Brian added that the band likes to commune with nature and observe living things while they're out walking. "But we also like to throw in some sex, drugs and rock and roll," Brian added gleefully.

     Working with one's brother adds to the harmony and the ability to play together without stepping on each other's toes, they said. "We've been friends with Brad for years," Brian said, and we played together in different bands over the years before forming Yoke Shire. So we have a real family feeling when we're working together. We don't have the kind of dissension you see in other bands. We have stability."

     Like many of their favorite recording artists from the early seventies, Yoke Shire has recorded a three part song that clocks in at almost 17 minutes, something unheard of in this current age of radio formatting. Track 5, called "Maiden Voyage," can stand alone as a radio release. In fact it was one of the two songs on the sampler CD released in advance of the whole album. But it segues in track 6, which is titled "The Brook, the Mirror and the Maiden" which segues into Track -7 which is titled "Return Voyage".

     "That song just sort of evolved over several years, " Brian said. "it sort of has a life of its own. We always played it at our live gigs, and people liked it so we would make it longer. At one rehearsal, Craig just came up with a piano intro off the cuff. At one point it was a 10 minute song. Now it's up to 17 minutes. When we're jamming, we want to try to come up with a different arrangement of our stuff."

     Craig also said that people who have really enjoyed listening to the radio edit of the song "Maiden Voyage" have been pleased to hear the 17 minute version of the number. "They get more of something they like," Craig explained. "We played the song for 32 minutes at our U-Mass Lowell gig and we got a standing ovation. People appreciate that number for the work we put into it. We're not just jamming on three chord changes. And, as Brian said, "we like to shake it up a bit. It's more exciting when the audience doesn't know where we are going."

     The Herlihy boys do not hesitate to share the credit with drummer Brad Dillon for their success as composers, saying he brings a solid pulse to everything Yoke Shire writes. "He's completely rhythmic," Craig offered. "He carries us through different time signatures and odd time signatures with ease. That's absolutely rare. He's absolutely the backbone of our music. Because he also plays the glockenspiel, he has real appreciation for melody and tones. He's a backing singer too, and that helps him to be more informed about where the melody is going. He's really good to play with when we are experimenting with our music."

     While Brian plays many startling lead guitar solos, Craig plays everything from bass, to keyboards, flutes, and harmonica. A combination of expert lead guitar work and solid bass playing and melodies from multi-instruments produces a dense texture of sound. Craig doesn't make much of his ability to play numerous instruments with skill and precision.

     Using the flute in their melodious power rock sound is partly a Jethro Tull influence, Craig concedes, just as using synthesizers is something they picked up on from listening to Rush during their younger days. But the overall collection of edgy rock artists from the early seventies is their true influence.

     "There's an organic edge to the music of that time," Brian explained. "It's a flowing thing in that music. The music from the early seventies wasn't formatted or programmed. It wasn't at all calculated. That style of music comes with its own adrenaline."

     The brothers say they can connect spiritually with their audiences during a live performance despite having to concentrate on complex arrangements while playing a multitude of instruments, an unusual feat, since bands like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Rush were often criticized for being too busy trying to impress the audience with technical skill and their equipment to reach their fans on a personal level.

     "There's a high level of spiritualism at our shows," Brian said. "There's a high energy level in the house and the audience is in sync with that. It's a core vibe the audience is in tune with. It's also a lot of fun for them too."

     Their most memorable experience so far would have to be their Durgin Hall concert at U-Mass Lowell. "That was a great show," Brian exclaimed. "It was a great place for our light show, and the acoustics are great there. We used a grand piano. We played our entire album and we got a standing ovation. We really got to show off our sound."

     The Herlihy boys have also played some of Boston's best known clubs, and they've been surprised to see how many new people come out to see them. "It's a blend of familiar faces and new faces," Craig said. "In some places it's the same dedicated folks we've known for years. Other places, people I've never seen before come up to us after the show asking for our autographs. The great thing is I'm seeing all ages. People 12, 14, 16 are still showing up and then there's people in their 40s and 50s who really dig the show."