By all accounts, Todd Hartman is a respected member of the community -- a father, husband, educator, classically trained percussionist.

So, why, pray tell, was he stalking Steeler Aaron Smith outside of a Costco last weekend?

Hartman, a music teacher in the Ambridge district was hoping for some airtime on the Steeler sackmeister's CD player.

The chance encounter with the defensive lineman gave Hartman the opportunity to pass along a copy of his band's newly minted Steelers fight song, "Steelers Rock! (Steelers Roll!)." "I saw him inside and waited for him to come out, then kind of circled around in the car to make it look casual," Hartman laughed.

"I told him what it was and passed it to him and he shook my hand and was all nice about it."

The ditty is "sort of like Charlie Daniels meets Stevie Ray Vaughan" and is the collaboration of Hartman and his bandmates John McCann and Bob Banerjee, who together are the trio Corned Beef & Curry.

Specializing in Celtic music, Corned Beef & Curry was founded three years ago this month by longtime area vocalist and guitar player McCann. The band's name is a play on the Irish music the band plays and the Indian heritage of Banerjee, a classically trained violinist from Upper St. Clair.

Playoff fight songs are a winter tradition in Pittsburgh dating back to Jimmy Pol's "Steeler Polka." "Steelers Rock!" pays tribute to Pol's song with a nifty bit of fiddle freestyle by Banerjee near the song's end.

The southern rock-tinged song is a welcome departure from the annual January drone of the "Here We Go" song, the constant repetition of which could break the will of an interrogation suspect.

"Steelers Rock!" has an enthusiastic fan in WDVE disc jockey Sean McDowell, who plays it on air and told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that it was "one of the best" of the dozens of Steelers tribute songs that the station receives each season.

Ambridge Athletic Director Randy Cosgrove, who moonlights as the public address announcer for Heinz Field, agreed. "This is definitely one of the better ones I've heard. There are like 2,000 of them out there," Cosgrove said, adding that he thinks people have grown tired of the old staples.

"Not that I'm an official authority, but I am an authority," he laughed.

Cosgrove said he'd pass it along to the Heinz Field staff, but couldn't promise that it would get played at the stadium.

Never mind if it doesn't, the song will get plenty of exposure at the band's gigs. Regulars on the local pub scene, Corned Beef & Curry play primarily at Irish-theme establishments such as Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle in the Strip District and Piper's Pub on the South Side.

They are the house band for Steelers Sundays at Finnigan's Wake on the North Shore, and according to the band's Web site, www.johnmccannlive.com, play tonight at The Claddagh, a restaurant in the new South Side Works development.

Hartman's musical legacy runs along family lines. His father, Clayton, is the longtime announcer for the University of Pittsburgh marching band and he currently leads the percussion section, having just returned from Tempe, Ariz., where the Panthers lost to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl.

He spends his days as the Ambridge junior high band director and assistant senior high band director under the tutelage of legendary high school band director Sal Aloe, with whom he led the band's trip to the 2004 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, Calif.

Hartman said the Steelers song may have earned him a little bit of cool currency among his students, like a hip Mr. Holland.

"I'm firm but fair, and I do make an effort to relate to the kids," Hartman said. "I'm in a band and I've got the Steelers song, so the kids are pretty geeked over that. We have fun."