When the Pittsburgh Steelers are on a winning streak, fans are inspired to sing their praises, but a local Irish band has taken that inspiration one step further by writing and recording a Steelers fight song.

	Bob Banerjee, left, and Todd Hartman play at Finnigan's Wake on Pittsburgh's North Shore. They and John McCann, members of the band Corned Beef and Curry, have recorded Banerjee's Steelers fight song, "Steelers Rock." Click photo for larger image.

"We always play after the Steelers home games at Finnigan's Wake [on the North Shore], and when it started to look like they were doing well, I told the guys in the band that I thought we should get a Steelers song going, so we started rolling ideas around," said John McCann, lead vocalist for the band Corned Beef and Curry.

The band is made up of McCann, of McCandless, percussionist Todd Hartman, of Cranberry, and violinist Bob Banerjee, of Upper St. Clair.

"There are tons of fight songs, but only two that anyone can name: the polka song and 'Here We Go,' " McCann said. "I wanted us to come up with a song that was so simple that people at drunken tailgate parties could sing along, no matter what condition they were in."

Banerjee took that idea and ran with it.

"We had kicked around ideas about whether or not we wanted the song to sound Irish, and I decided to make it non-Irish," said Banerjee, who began writing "Steelers Rock" the evening they discussed it and presented the song to his bandmates the next day. "I was so inspired that I stayed up until 4 a.m. writing it, and it came out like a torrent. I kind of steamrolled my way with it, but I was lucky that John and Todd picked up on it right away."

The band recorded the song, which has a southern rock flair, and sent a copy to WDVE disc jockey Sean McDowell.

"When [the band members] told me they were working on the Steelers fight song, I was excited," McDowell said. He had heard the band at its annual St. Patrick's Day performances in Market Square in Downtown Pittsburgh and was impressed with its ability to please a rowdy audience.

"That's possibly the toughest crowd you could ever imagine playing, and everyone loved them."

McDowell said he received a lot of fight songs, but that few were good enough to put on the air. "We see a surge when the Steelers are doing really well, and this year, we've probably gotten between 15 and 20 [new fight] songs. Of those, maybe eight or nine are of airable quality," he said. " 'Steelers Rock' is one of the best."

McCann, a self-taught musician from Buffalo, N.Y., performed solo before hooking up about six years ago with the classically trained Banerjee, who was born in Calcutta and moved to Pittsburgh at the age of 3.

The audience dubbed the duo Corned Beef and Curry, and a band was born. Hartman, a music teacher and band director in the Ambridge Area School District and at the University of Pittsburgh, joined McCann and Banerjee in 2001.

The group's audience-driven style of mixing Irish folk tunes with American classics makes the band a favorite at bars around Pittsburgh, including Penn Brewery, Piper's Pub and the Getaway Cafe.

They also can be found at the stadium during Steelers games, playing in the VIP tent, on the lawn or in the great hall.

"We don't worry about looking cool; we just want the audience to have a good time," said McCann. He also enjoys getting the audience into the act by playing requests and sometimes inviting people to join him on stage, which is how he met Hartman.

"I was out at a bar in Zelienople, and John McCann was playing solo," Hartman recalled. "I had some Celtic spoons in my car and invited myself into his performance because he had that open-stage mentality. He was very appreciative of my time-keeping skills, and the relationship blossomed from there."

Banerjee began his musical career with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony and has played with Pittsburgh groups, including the '80s country band Silverado. He toured with the nationally known Gaelic Storm for 14 months.

An experienced songwriter, Banerjee said his inspiration came from trying to visualize how the audience would react to each song.

His latest creation was designed to pump up Steelers fans and, to that end, the group also put together a karaoke version. "This is such an easy song to sing," Banerjee said. "All I could think about was playing it in a club and having people sing the chorus: 'Steelers rock! Steelers roll!'

"We did the karaoke version because I love to sing in the car," he added.

"That lets us all be rock stars, which was important for me because I wanted people to understand that this is a fun tribute song, and people should be able to rock to it."

McCann moved to Pittsburgh in 1991 and was a Buffalo Bills fan before converting to Steelermania after meeting former Steeler Justin Strzelczyk, who had contacted McCann for guitar lessons.

"Justin was from the same part of western New York as I am, and although we didn't know each other, we had a lot of mutual friends," McCann said. Strzelczyk eventually picked up the banjo and recorded a couple of songs with the group on McCann's first CD, titled "This Day."

"Having a friend on the team made the transition to becoming a Steelers fan easy on me," McCann said, noting that Strzelczyk's death in September has made recording a Steelers fight song more poignant for the group.

Strzelczyk died in a traffic accident in New York after a 37-mile police chase.

"The Justin I knew was an extra-thoughtful guy," McCann said. "He was a giant of a man, but he never looked down on anybody."

The trio acknowledged that the success of their song was tied to how the Steelers perform in the upcoming playoffs. "The Steelers are in control of the fans' being happy and wanting to celebrate and sing something," McCann said. "I've thought about [the song] becoming a Pittsburgh classic because it's such a novel thing, but it's very iffy."

"We're grateful that people send us songs," McDowell said, "and there are a million bands that think they're worthy of airplay, but sometimes you get a gem like Corned Beef and Curry. I get a handful of requests a week for it, which is really impressive because I don't get that many requests for Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. They did a tremendous job."