Doolin, Ireland is a village of 300 souls that you pass through on your way to the County Clare’s famed Cliffs of Moher on the stark, windswept and treeless west coast of the country.

You might notice Doolin, ponder its tiny gathering of old, spare houses, the harbor where a ferry and tour boats set off for the Aran Islands, and consider the presence of not one for four pubs in the place. But if your rental car windows are rolled down and it’s the right time of day, you can’t help but pick up on the reason the place is famous. It’s the epicenter of “trad” or traditional Irish music.

“The Job of Songs” is a warm, intimate documentary that celebrates Doolin, Ireland’s musical reputation and history through the performers who keep traditional Irish music alive there, who sing and play and relate the history of the music, the songs that are mostly passed down “from the ancestors” for hundreds of years and the performers that came before them.

In modern times, it was the Russell brothers made Doolin famous and a magnet for the music sometimes labeled “diddley-aye” by some who see it as an Irish stereotype. But to the fans and practicioners here, it’s a connection to the past and a universal bond.

“We’re only carrying music. It ain’t ours.”

Lila Schmitz’s film has locals describe the quiet and loneliness of the place, which was even more remote before the Cliffs became one of the world’s greatest tourist attractions.

Traditional music DJ Eoin O’Neill, host of “The West Wind” show on Clare-FM (and online) speaks of “the sadness” that lingers from the long British occupation of Ireland, “the great famine” and the wrenching uprooting of Irish migration.

Several generations of fiddlers, flutists and tin whistlers, drummers and concertina players such as singer/flutist Kate Theasby, recall their “I heard a tune and had a go” learning process.

Others write songs and gather in a recording studio to jam and perhaps lay down a track. And all find themselves evenings, either as a steady gig or just informal gathering, at one of those four pubs or down the road in Lisdoonvarna’s music pubs, playing.

The singer-songwriter Luka Bloom, who changed his name as he’s the younger brother of modern Ireland’s most famous folk singer, Christy Moore, breaks down the function of music in society as it plays out in Ireland, “the job of songs” to “entertain,” touch, to move and spark memory.

Schmitz’s film breaks down the risks of this obsession with music, the solitary melancholy of the place and the alcohol consumption that can accompany a “session” of players jamming at Gus O’Connor’s, Fitz’s Bar, McGann’s or McDermott’s Pub on any given evening.

But for those who overcome that, or avoid that trap altogether like the ancient one-legged wonder, Ted McCormac, performing this music becomes a life-affirming mission, one that no passing tourist or appreciator of the “job” songs perform, will ever forget.

Rating: unrated, discussion of alcoholism, suicide

Cast: Luka Bloom, Eoin O’Neill, Kate Theasby, Christy Barry, Ted McCormac and others

Credits: Directed by Lila Schmitz. A Lila Schmitz release available on iTunes, etc.

Running time: 1:13