Well, summer’s drawing to a close, and that means we’re coming up on the end of wine-tasting-season.

Yes, wine-tasting-season. Some of our fans will be aware that Whiskey Gaels play a lot of wine tasting rooms in the summer. This year, we’ve been at Patit Creek, Forgeron, Airfield, Canon del Sol, Goose Ridge, Zerba, and Cougar Crest. (Okay, only Janine played at Cougar Crest, but that totally counts.) And in a few weeks, we’ll be adding Otis Kenyon to that list.

You’ve still got a few weeks to come out and have a wine flight while listening to the energetic strains of Whiskey Gaels musical makings. Check out the gigs calendar for these last few summer wine days.

Our amazing lead guitarist and his wife have just had a baby! (No pix posted because who wants to stalk a baby, right? Right?)

But! He’ll be back in the country in time for all our St. Patrick’s Day shows. We’ll be working hard all March long with shows at Irish pubs and bars throughout the Seattle area.

Check our calendar to know when we’re at:
A Terrible Beauty (Renton)
Shawn O’Donnell’s (Everett)
The Wilde Rover (Kirkland)
The Olde Pequliar (Seattle – Ballard)
Places you can’t go (aka private parties)

I just heard the master tracks for our upcoming Whiskey Gaels CD. We sound amazing! And we’re thrilled to be able to say, “Why, yes, we do” whenever someone asks “Hey, can I get a CD?”

Okay, it’s not ready yet. We’re doing the final stuff to make it pretty and get a tiny, indie print run. We’ll let you know when you can get a copy.

Okay. Here’s the thing. I’m pretty sure we’ve only just recovered from St. Pat’s. We played 3 shows that day.

Including the set-up, tear-down, and drive: that’s 14 hours on-the-clock. And not the kind of hours where you can chill and have some alone-time with your coffee. Nuh-uh. This was the kind of 14 hours where you’re lending your frenetic energy to your team…as well as to strangers in a bar.

And people think musicians have it easy!

Want to see a million photos from our St. Pat’s gigs? Including snapshots of the Seattle Firefighters Pipe & Drum Corps who “crashed” our second show? Then mosey over to the Facebook page, friends! And, maybe, you could Like us so that we’ll feel more popular. (Kevin, on drums, is a total diva who needs your validation! j/k)

As you might expect, March is a crazy month for a Celtic band.

This month we’ve got:

• 2 private events
• 3 St. Patrick’s Day bars (3 BARS! BACK TO BACK!)
• Our first so-far-out-of-town-we-need-hotel-rooms show

And, in between all of that, we’ve added a few new songs and are hoping to get in another one or two while we’re on the road.

Well, after a bunch of would-be Gaels, we’ve finally got a new bassist. His name is Brysen, and he rocks it hard. (Which means that Celtic is a little bit different for him.)

You’ll be able to see him perform with Whiskey Gaels for the first time this Friday, Feb. 4th, at Paddy Coyne’s in Bellevue. We’re on from 8-10, as per usual.

Yay! Welcome, Brysen.

Okay, that subject line stretches a bit.

Here’s the sitch: Right now Whiskey Gaels play without a bassist! We lost ours recently, and Christmas/NewYear causes schedule problems with auditions. Hopefully, we’ll meet someone amazing this week who can take off where our talented previous bassist left off.

Either way, we’ll be playing Paddy Coyne’s in Bellevue this week as an all-treble show. This means a stripped down, raw sound that might end up being a bit more folk-sounding. Or it might be a hard-core high-note-fest! No way to know till the time comes.

Tonight (Friday, Dec. 10) is our last gig of 2010. In honor of the year’s ending, here are the Top 3 Whiskey Gaels moments of 2010.

Best set list ever

Beers in hand, Jared and Janine wrote this short set list for a backyard party...only minutes before we went on.

St. Patrick’s Day – At our first gig of the day, we got shut down by The Man. No, really. The first department didn’t approve of our location, blocking the exit. While the fire marshals hashed it out with the management at Paddy Coyne’s, we played anyway…under a tent in the freezing rain. Very punk rock, no? Then, we played the Wilde Rover right before the legendary Geoffrey Castle.

St. Pat's - 2010

Recording – Our first recording session. Awwww. Aren’t we cute? We’ll be doing more recording this winter, and hope to have CDs available in the new year.

Sheryl thinks hard about the next song.

At Paddy Coyne’s this week, Whiskey Gaels unveiled some new material.

Welcome to Whiskey Gaels