Gaelic Storm

Gaelic Storm is back with the #1 Billboard World Album The Boathouse, a seafaring album of traditional songs of the ocean, recorded in one whiskey fueled week in a converted boathouse on The Chesapeake Bay. The Boathouse is the first release from Gaelic Storm’s “Small Batch Sessions,” a new series that will offer truly exclusive releases only available for purchase on the band’s website and at their live shows.

With catalog sales of more than 1 million, the group has now had four consecutive albums debut at #1 on the Billboard World Albums Chart: 2008’s What’s the Rumpus?, 2010’s Cabbage, which remained parked in the top slot for three consecutive weeks, 2012’s Chicken Boxer, and 2013’s The Boathouse.

The Boathouse is the sixth album to be released on the band’s own label, Lost Again Records, and showcases the incomparable songwriting and accomplished musicianship of a band that has made their mark bringing fans to their feet two hundred days per year.

The group’s ability to deftly incorporate a rock sensibility into their sound affords them rare crossover appeal. In recent years, they’ve performed on the same bill with acts ranging from Zac Brown Band and the Goo Goo Dolls to Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett, at events as varied as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

With their signature acoustic production, Gaelic Storm blends indie-folk and world grooves with Celtic tradition to bring you twelve tales of plight and plunder, whiskey-drenched pirates, flying cannon balls and the ladies of ill repute. Ready your sea legs; you'll need them for The Boathouse!

On St. Patrick's Day, 1996, co-founders Patrick Murphy of Cork City, Ireland (vocals, piano, accordion, spoons, harmonica) and New Yorker Steve Wehmeyer (bodhran, vocals, digeridoo) officially joined forces with Steve Twigger of Coventry, England (guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, vocals), at O'Brien's pub in Santa Monica, California. Feeling that traditional Celtic music did not have to be boring, the trio focused on the rowdy hand-clapping character of a traditional pub party. They wanted to create a sound that would remain true to traditional Celtic music while adding an original twist of a dizzying whirlwind of live energy - hence the name "Gaelic Storm". Their first performance was such a hit that the crowd refused to let them off the stage for the next act. Adding additional players, the band has fine-tuned their line-up to this day. Currently, Gaelic Storm also includes: Tom Brown on highland Bagpipes (an open grade Highland Piper from Ottawa, Canada), Ryan Lacey on drums and world percussion (graduated twice from the Los Angeles Music Academy, once for hands and once for sticks), and Ellery Klein on fiddle (who holds a MA degree in Traditional Irish Music from the University of Limerick).

Their dynamic stage show features rousing, upbeat vocals, wild energetic dance tunes, haunting ballads and infectious madcap humor. Playing over 125 shows per year, Gaelic Storm has drawn record-breaking crowds at Milwaukee's famed Irish-Fest (in '98, '99, ’01, ‘02 and ‘03), Celtic-Fest Chicago, the Dublin Ohio Irish Festival and the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, as well as Festival Interceltique in Lorient, France (the largest Celtic festival in the world). Gaelic Storm broke the attendance record in June of 2003 at the Albuquerque BioPark, a record previously held by Alan Jackson. The band has likewise played to capacity crowds at countless clubs, theaters and performing arts centers across the country.

In 1997, Gaelic Storm was catapulted out of their formative pub haunts by an appearance in the blockbuster film Titanic. Cast as the "party band" in the steerage scene, they landed the part while still drinking pints and playing weekly at O'Brien's, a pub in their adopted home-town of Santa Monica, CA. After the film’s release, the band was met by huge crowds on their first tour. However, they still pride themselves on remaining as accessible as ever and sharing “a pint” with fans whenever possible.

A mini-documentary about Gaelic Storm airs regularly on Cinemax, and the band has appeared numerous times on national and international TV. Perhaps the best indication of Gaelic Storm's newfound international success came when Michael Flatley (of Lord of the Dance fame) met Gaelic Storm vocalist and songwriter Patrick Murphy in Murphy's hometown, Cork City, Ireland. "I told him he did a superb job of advancing Irish culture throughout the world, like the Chieftains have for years," Murphy says, "and he said, 'In fairness to you, you've probably introduced Irish music to five minutes of fame with that little film clip.'"

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Browse our library of Gaelic Storm music:

Back to Titanic	Bring Yer Wellies	Cabbage	Chicken Boxer	Gaelic Storm	Go Climb a Tree
Herding Cats	How are We Getting Home?	Matching Sweaters	Special Reserve	Tree	What's the Rumpus?