About Me
Since its inception nearly ten years ago, Gaelic Storm continue to broaden the musical horizons of the Celtic music genre by creating compelling originals and fresh arrangements steeped in Irish traditional melody and acoustic instrumentation combined with their unique blend of world rhythms. Gaelic Storm will release What’s The Rumpus their seventh album in July 2008. The new album captures the contagious energy of Gaelic Storm’s renowned live performances. Channeling the rowdy communal feel of an Irish pub on raucous sing-alongs, driving pipe sets and spirited fiddle tunes. The album was recorded at The Zone recording studio in Austin Texas. Boasting a mini-documentary on Cinemax, six Billboard Chart topping albums, a DVD, and a track on two EA Sports Games, Gaelic Storm has sold out numerous clubs and performing arts centers around the country and have played to thousands of people.
Touring aggressively and playing over 125 dates a year, Gaelic Storm routinely breaks attendance and merchandise sales records, pushing their popularity beyond the World music genre and into the mainstream music consciousness. Gaelic Storm has been a recurrent favorite on The Rock Boat since 2004 along with mainstream rock bands such as Cowboy Mouth, Tonic, Sister Hazel, and Marc Broussard and has set a new Rock Boat CD sales record. Gaelic Storm broke the attendance record previously held by Alan Jackson at the Albuquerque, NM Bio-Park and they continue to headline some of the largest Celtic and Folk festivals in the world including Festival Interceltique in Lorient, Brittany, the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, and Dublin Irish Festival. Remarkably, the band has headlined the largest U.S. Irish Festival, Milwaukee Irish Fest, for 6 straight years, and has become an exception to the festival’s usual policy of not inviting artists to perform in consecutive years.
Since their self-titled first album which reached 5 on Billboard's World Music Chart in 1998 and their appearance in the blockbuster film Titanic, Gaelic Storm continues to thunder onto stages around the world and climb to the top of the Billboard Charts. The band’s sixth studio album Bring Yer Wellies (Lost Again Records/2006) debuted at 2 on the Billboard World Chart, 16 on the Internet Sales Chart and 31 on the Independent Album Chart. Gaelic Storm’s fifth album "How Are We Getting Home?" (Lost Again Records/2004) debuted at 3 on the Billboard World Music Charts and 10 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and re-entered the September 2005 World Albums Chart at 3. Their previous four albums (Higher Octave Records/Virgin-EMI) have all charted high on the Billboard World Music Chart, including reaching the 2 position on three different occasions.
Gaelic Storm released their first live concert DVD “Live In Chicago†on January 24, 2006. Taped on September 14, 2005 before a packed audience of raving fans at the House of Blues in Chicago, the 2-hour video captures the trademark energetic performance and enthusiastic audience interaction that make the band a front-runner in the Celtic music genre today. The DVD also features artist biographies, short interviews with the band and guest appearances by members of the world champion Trinity Irish Dance group. Produced by NuTech Digital Inc. in Hi-Definition, the release is distributed by WEA Corp. Distribution. Commenting on the production, Lee Kasper, NuTech Digital CEO, said, "I have produced many concerts, but none as overwhelmingly entertaining as this one. There was an amazing exchange of energy between the band and the crowd. The energy from Gaelic Storm stimulated the fans into a frenzy, which fueled the band in turn."
Gaelic Storm recorded a very special version of "Scalliwag", an original song off Bring Yer Wellies, for two EA Games Sims video games. All the words were translated into "Simlish", and re-resung in "Simlish", the official language of the Sims video game world. The song appears in both "EA Sports - The Sims2 Castaway" and "EA Sports - The Sims2 Bon Voyage" video games.
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, didgeridoo) officially joined forces with Steve Twigger of Coventry, England (vocals, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki), at O'Brien's pub in Santa Monica, California. Although Steve Wehmeyer no longer tours or records with Gaelic Storm, he continues to co-write with the band carrying on their endearing chemistry with each new record. Their first performance was such a hit that the crowd refused to let them off the stage for the next act. 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. 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.
Gaelic Storm also includes: Ryan Lacey on drums and world percussion (graduated twice from the Los Angeles Music Academy, once for hands and once for sticks), Pete Purvis of Merrickville, Ontario on uilleann pipes, tin whistle, deger pipes and highland pipes (a Grade 1 piper who toured with award winning pipe bands including the Braemar Pipe Band and played at 2000 Sydney Olympics) and the newest member of the band Jessie Burns on fiddle (originally from Suffolk, England, now living in Colorado).
Beyond their Hollywood cameo, Gaelic Storm is a whirlwind ruckus,
able to knock out an homage to the ocean and to whiskey in
a theater, pub, or barge.
Village Voice
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