Category: Music

My annual St. Patrick’s Day recording:

A father & son, Thanksgiving rendition of the Irish song “The Auld Triangle.”

Fun fact: “The Auld Triangle” refers to an actual, metal triangle that was used to waken inmates at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. In fact, the namesake triangle is still at Mountjoy Prison, although it’s no longer in use (according to Wikipedia).

I covered a few Oasis tunes using the mandolin, Irish bouzouki, harmonica, bodhran, etc.

No digital/midi instruments were harmed in the making of this collection. Everything was recorded live, from the mando to the tambo, the djembe to the hand claps.

When the girlfriend’s away, the boyfriend will play … music.

Pretty sure I’m in 6/8 time here, pretty sure I ended up with a total of five vocal tracks, and I’m 100% sure the percussion you hear in the second half is comprised of 1) clapping 2) bodhrán (Irish drum), and 3) me tapping on a glass.

Could potentially blossom into a full-blown song, but for now, it’s just a 45-second ditty:

Centuries before the Dropkick Murphys screeched out the syllables to “Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced” — a song ripe with tales of chest-beating and one-up-manship — there was “Jock Stewart,” the original bragger’s ballad.

Also known as “I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Every Day,” the song has a somewhat convoluted history. The interwebs tells us that the tune was originally Irish, but then made its way over to Scotland where it evolved into the popular drinking song we know and love today. However, there’s also a chance that the tune actually originated in Scotland, came to Ireland during the colonization of Ulster, and then went back to Scotland. Yikes!

Many moons ago, before I joined the Boston startup scene, I was part of the Montreal pub scene, where I regularly banged away on the Irish bouzouki with my band, Devaney’s Goat.

As Montreal’s premier “drinking band with a Celtic problem,” there was no shortage of Spinal Tap-esque antics and Fleetwood Mac-style romances. But through all the drunken chaos, Devaney’s Goat actually made some pretty damn good Celtic music.

To help get everyone prepared for St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve opened up the Devaney’s Goat vault and have put together a playlist of 10 live recordings from 2009-2010. (Bonus track #11 is a recording of me dealing with a heckler … and, of course, by “heckler” I mean “a guy who requested a song that we didn’t know”.) Enjoy!