Raise a pint for Dublin O'Shea

I went to see an Irish band last night and a shipwreck broke out. Isn't it always like that?

A couple of guys at work moonlight in Dublin O'Shea, a fine and merry group of music makers who are Saturday night regulars on the Milwaukee pub circuit. Me and another colleague caught them at the Delafield Brewhaus while quaffing Bloody Marys and pints of Hoppy Holidays.

We were only heeding the band's suggestion 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.

You can check out Dublin O'Shea by clicking here.