Dover’s Barley Pub is stocked with craft beers in fine variety, but doesn’t usually offer mountain moonshine. Last Thursday, though, the Brian McGee band brought in some genuine musical firewater, playing two generous sets of rootsy and rough old-time, country, blues and bluegrass.

Fresh from the fledgling Ossipee Valley Bluegrass festival, the Asheville, N.C., group stopped here before proceeding to points south. Guitar player, singer and songwriter Brian McGee and fiddler Darin Gentry were joined by the Seacoast’s own siren of the standup bass, Mary Dellea.

Taking the stage after a spoken-word slam, the band inherited a motley audience of poets and rappers, roots/country fans and pub regulars. It wasn’t long, though, before they’d won everyone over, causing feet to tap and hollers to rise. “We’re from North Carolina,” McGee said by way of introduction, as the group clustered their three acoustic instruments around a single mike. In plaid Western shirts and jeans, McGee with long sideburns and slicked-up pompadour, their country cred was unassailable. “But don’t worry,” he added, “there’s lots of blue voters there.”

Politics were set aside as the band got down to playing songs anyone can relate to, songs about drinking, gambling, fighting, two-timing, sin, forgiveness, loss and love. The show freely combined Southern genres, including fiddle tunes, classic country and western, Piedmont blues, jug-band and gospel songs. With unpretentious but highly skilled playing, the band pulled it all into a consistent sound. Two hours of music flowed quick and clear.

Originals by McGee were sprinkled among the traditional tunes, his songs so closely modeled on their antecedents that they blended easily with roots music standbys like “Sittin’ on Top of the World” and “Sugaree.” He held it all together under a rough, raw-souled vocal, a howling, growling and wailing style that suited roadhouse blues as well as brokenhearted country. Dead-on rhythm guitar laid a solid foundation for Gentry’s honey-smooth, fleet fiddling and Dellea’s lively bass. 

Like many old-time players, they made the audience wonder who was having more fun, the crowd or the band rocking in the groove of guitar and bass and the hypnotizing fiddle. “That’ll shine your belt buckle!” McGee declared after a particularly smoking tune. Belt buckles might be scarce in Dover, but the crowd did look well shined up by this high-spirited, well-grounded performance of some of the best in American music