Darlene Graham plays Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington

Long Island family musician Darlene Graham and her Shades of Green Band bring their Celtic Show for Families to the Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington Saturday, March 19, with half the show Irish music in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and the other half the band’s original tunes.

Graham, who sings and plays guitar, tin whistle and glockenspiel, is joined by four other band members, including her husband, Chris, all dressed in green. The Grahams’ four kids will lead the dancing during the one-hour show.

Graham, 40, of West Babylon, grew up in Newfoundland, Canada. “I grew up singing Celtic music,” she says. “I used to perform with a Celtic trio.” She moved to New York at age 24 and was an elementary school music teacher in the Huntington school district from 2001 to 2007. She’s put out two family CDs, “Everybody Dance” and “Big Hugs for Mama.”

The band will perform Irish children’s favorites, including “I’ll Tell Me Ma” and “The Unicorn Song,” written by children’s author Shel Silverstein and made famous by the Irish Rovers in the 1960s with lyrics about green alligators and long-necked geese. They’ll also perform their signature “Big Hugs for Mama” as well as other tunes from their albums that were influenced by the Celtic style, Graham says. “I picked very carefully the music for this show,” she says. “It’s very dance friendly with an Irish lilt.”

The show concludes with the tune “Pop” and a cascade of bubbles — six bubble machines line the stage for what Graham calls Bubblemania.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.