Stirring up a Gaelic Storm

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Gaelic Storm has played all 50 states, but they’ve played Wisconsin more than any of the others, and anyone who’s been to any of their many shows at Summerfest or Milwaukee Irish Fest—or virtually any Irish festival you can think of—can tell you that there’s a special bond with their fans here in Milwaukee, and it was on full display at their Summerfest show this year.

Led by their pair of songwriters—front man Patrick Murphy (accordion) and singer Steve Twigger (guitar) from Ireland and England, respectively—Gaelic Storm have been at it for over two decades. They’re backed by a percussionist and a bagpiper, as well as fiddlers who seem to rotate out every few years; their newest fiddler is Natalya Kay, who dazzled her newfound fans at this show.

Their show on Friday was a mix of good-time ballads, sets of reels and drinking songs—often with humorous stories and even a moral or two (even if it’s about drinking)—and Murphy’s anecdotes and observations about life and their experiences on the road. There was the longing for a dreamed-of Irish world, “Piña Colada in a Pint Glass,” and Twigger’s “Slim Jim and the Seven Eleven Girl,” an eternally optimistic song about a guy who won’t give up until he gets a date. In between chastising the High Kings, the Irish group who opened for them, for drinking water instead of beer, and making fun of people in Connecticut, who don’t know how to party like Milwaukeeans, they played fan favorites like “Johnny Tarr,” the tale of a man who drank a pub dry and then died of thirst; “The Night I Punched Russell Crowe,” Murphy’s true epic of, well, the night he punched Russell Crowe; and Twigger’s quintessential drinking song, “Drink the Night Away.”

Among the Celtic music community, the debate rages: are Gaelic Storm really Celtic music or not? Is it cool to like Gaelic Storm if you’re into traditional music? As a traditional Celtic musician, I say: relax, yes, it’s cool to like Gaelic Storm, and yes, they really play Celtic music, and no, sometimes they play music that isn’t really Celtic. Does it really matter though? Their music is infused with it and it permeates all of it, and even if they don’t always play jigs, reels, or traditional ballads (which they do play, a lot), their original songs and showmanship fire up crowds across the country like nothing I’ve ever seen.

But it’s more than that; this band of a Mick and a Brit backed by a bunch of Americans are the first introduction to Celtic music many people get. It leads them to seek out more Celtic music. Is it Irish music? Maybe not. Is it Irish American music? It is!