Album Notes

Dublin O’Shea is a band that describes themselves as “dedicated to preserving Celtic folk music, primarily pub songs from Ireland, Scotland and the Nautical Tradition” and listening to their debut CD “Have Another Drink Boys” a listener can definitely hear those influences reflected there. There are customary drinking songs like “Finnegan’s Wake” and “Johnny Jump Up” and familiar songs of the sea like “South Australia” and “Leaving of Liverpool”. Overall, it is easy to imagine easing back into a comfortable pub chair and listening to this music ring out while folks sing along.
This fine and merry group of music makers who are Saturday night regulars on the Milwaukee pub circuit suggest that “the more you drink the better we sound.” Which is always good advice when it comes to Irish music. (What they don’t mention is — and here is another pub truism — the more THEY drink the better they PLAY.)
Not that they don’t do just fine before the pints start spilling. Featuring a traditional lineup of guitar, mandolin, fiddle and percussion, they frolic through tales of drinking, lust and seafaring misfortune. With stirring vocals and furious strumming they even managed to put some bounce into the Gordon Lightfoot classic “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Another gem they usually save for later in the night when the women and children have left — well, at least the children — is “Debauchery” about a drunken ferry boat woman and five bottles of wine.
Dublin O’Shea reminds us that we shouldn’t wait for St. Paddy’s Day to get our Celtic music fix. It’s there for us every weekend. Good times waiting to happen.