A wee bit better than other Celt-rock fusionists

More filling: Enter the Haggis is hardly at home anymore.

“Thanks for having some interest in our little band,” says Craig Downie, vocalist, bagpiper and founder of Toronto’s Enter the Haggis.

“Little” is a humble way to describe this group, which for the last 10 years has helped fuse the high-energy, Celtic-influenced rock of the Pogues, the Alarm and Big Country with a more subtle — and, at times, Latin-sounding — jam band groove. While some bands may write “little” songs and “little” music, Enter the Haggis’ music is anything but. If other bands are putting out the equivalent of late-night cable-TV shows, Enter the Haggis is producing IMAX films.

Downie’s bagpipes, which usually lead the way with the fervor of a piper heralding a tartan army on attack, sometimes yield to other instruments on the band’s latest album, Soapbox Heroes.

“We’ve got a wide stream of influences in this band,” Downie says. “We are five different guys from five different backgrounds. It’s very difficult to classify our music.” Which (sort of) explains why a band would dare name itself after haggis, a traditional Scottish dish that features sheep heart, liver and lungs. “We ended up sticking with the name Enter the Haggis because it had a Celtic feel to it,” Downie explains. “Also, you can mix a lot of different things together and come up with something that is palatable, or at least we hope that it [is].”

Odd gastric metaphors aside, Enter the Haggis, a longtime pub favorite, is now beginning to play larger venues. The band’s latest tour is no “little” tour, either.

“We just finished a two-month tour,” says Downie. “The circuitry is in place for us to become more of a national act, and I think that is our goal for 2007. I know that last year I was away more than I was at home. I guess that is the best indication I can give of how much we toured.”

On Soapbox Heroes, the band’s fifth album produced by Grammy winner Neil Dorfsman, Enter the Haggis explores many of its influences through original songs. Great harmonies, violins and bagpipes mix with tight arrangements that showcase a variety of sounds: While “One Last Drink” features the band’s trademark Celtic influences, it also includes a frantic ska-like guitar. It’s a big sound from a “little” band.

“A lot of people seem to be catching onto us, and that’s all that matters,” says Downie. “You’ve got to do something for yourself when you are writing music, and hopefully you are going to make it interesting for the people who are going to hear it, because those are the most important set of ears out there.”

So far, those ears seem to like what they’re hearing. In 2003, Enter the Haggis performed for a decidedly un-little audience of 20,000 at the Mayor’s Cup Festival in Plattsburgh, N.Y. The performance was taped and broadcast on PBS stations nationwide, winning a new set of fans for the band’s brand of Celtic rock. Enter the Haggis fans are a dedicated lot, with many of them trailing the band as far as Scotland for its tour there last year. No small journey.

[Jason Bugg is a freelance writer based in Asheville.]

Enter the Haggis plays the Grey Eagle (185 Clingman Ave.) on Saturday, Jan. 13. 9:30 p.m. $10/$12. 232-5800.