CALGARY -- Before The Corrs, there was another family that brought joy to music lovers with their Celtic pop sound.

Lo and behold, that band is Canada's very own Rankins, who may lack the glamour and sex appeal of The Corrs, but traffic in more rootsy, rural pleasures.

Truth be told, their vocal harmonies have lost a little zest with the departure of Raylene Rankin, but their goods were still good enough to royally entertain a jam-packed crowd at the Coca-Cola Stage on the Stampede grounds last night.

Roving Gypsy Boy remains The Rankins' rollicking opening gambit -- it had the momentum of a runaway train and the singalong melody of a boozy pub song.

The Rankins might have pursued country music credibility with their last studio album, Uprooted, but their Celtic-tinged melodies and the homespun, familial harmonies of Cookie, Jimmy and Heather Rankin are as evocative of the East Coast as fisheries and salt-water air.

This was especially true whenever they sang in Gaelic or when they brought out fiddle tunes that had their roots in Cape Breton, not bluegrass.

That said, The Rankins' more conventional country pop songs such as Let It Go and Movin' On were still played with plenty of conviction and blessed with the sort of stick-in-your mind melodies that appeal to country listeners.