With a band like the Young Dubliners, every album, show, song and tour is a step-up from the last. The members don't settle for good when they can reach for great.

"We've never eased up on ourselves — we feel that we're always as good as our last record," said Keith Roberts, lead singer, guitarist and primary lyricist for the band. "So we do the same thing with our gigs. We don't let up, even if there's 20 people or 1,000 people, we're going to give you the same show."

The band, which was formed in California in 1988, takes the Irish and American cultures of its members and fuses them together to create Celtic rock. The band writes originals, as well as performs traditional Irish folk songs with a rock twist.

"We see ourselves as a rock band with an Irish touch, so we see the competition as every band on the radio," Roberts said. "We don't see the competition as Irish rock, we're up against everybody."

In February 2009, Young Dubliners put out its latest album, Saints and Sinners, and has been touring ever since. When this its ends in the fall, the band plans on heading into the studio to write and record a new album.

Great Lakes Irish Music Festival Fifth Third Ballpark, Comstock Park Aug. 7, gates open at 11 a.m., performances start at 12 p.m. $12, kids ages 3-12 are $1 greatlakesirishmusicfestival.com, (616) 784-4131

"A lot of people talk about writing on the road, but writing on the road is difficult with our scheduling," Roberts said. "I don't know where these people say they get the time to write these albums."

Similar to Young Dubliners, Screaming Orphans take traditional Irish songs and flavor them with pop, and vice versa.

Grianne Diver, guitarist and vocalist for the Screaming Orphans, has a background of traditional Irish tunes, but as she and her sisters (also members of the band) grew older, they wanted to branch out musically.

"When we left school, we were our mothers' backing band," Diver said.

"You know when you get into your teens, and you don't want to play Irish — it's kind of uncool, and you just want to be in a rock band."

As a result, Screaming Orphans play whatever genre it feels.

"There was this one song, and when we [originally] played it, it was a rock song. And then when we recorded it, it was a country song. It was a radical change," Diver said. "I actually can't remember the rock version."

Both Young Dubliners and Screaming Orphans will be headlining this year's Great Lakes Irish Music Festival, held at Fifth Third Ballpark.

Pictured: Top: Screaming Orphans; Above: Young Dubliners