Violinist Eileen Ivers performs Saturday at the Lied Center.

Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers loves touring throughout the year, but there’s something special about doing a Christmas concert.

That’s not to say it’s all good, though.

“The shopping suffers a little bit, to be honest with you,” the New York-based Ivers says. “We love playing music live, and then you couple that with a really beautiful message in the music and a positive outlook on things, and it really makes for a really special month of touring.”

Ivers, the daughter of Irish-American immigrants, has been called the “Jimi Hendrix of the violin” by The New York Times, and the Boston Globe says she “rocks the house” everywhere she plays.

This weekend, that includes the Lied Center, where she has a show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

This week’s Pulse Podcast, found today at www.ljworld.com, focuses on Ivers and her music, including her latest Christmas album, “An Nollaig.”

Ivers began playing the Celtic fiddle at age 8, when her parents wanted her to learn more about her heritage – and she didn’t enjoy and wasn’t very good at dancing.

Today, though she likes to expand the horizons of her instrument, she realizes there are limits to how experimental she can be, playing tunes that have such a rich history.

Her Christmas album – and her Christmas concerts – include a wide range of music, including traditional Irish tunes (“The Wexford Carol”), traditional songs Americans would be familiar with (“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”) and more offbeat selections (“Christmas Time is Here,” known from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”).

“It’s very enjoyable,” Ivers says. “It’s a great time of year. People are obviously a little bit more upbeat and in a good frame of mind.”