Gaelic Storm

• Genre: Celtic Rock
• Hometown: Santa Monica
• Gaelic Storm Website

About

Gaelic Storm were catapulted to a fame -- of a sort -- when they made a cameo as the band performing during the steerage party in James Cameron's epic film, Titanic. The scene was symbolic in some ways: the group has always spanned two continents, founded by native Cork man Patrick Murphy and New York's Steve Wehmeyer -- both of whom play an astounding array of instruments that includes bodhran, piano, accordion, digeridoo, spoons and harmonica. With the addition of Englishman Steve Twigger, the band first hit its stride in live performances in Southern California, where they discovered that audiences responded instinctively to their rollicking mix of Celtic folk and rock 'n' roll. (It can't hurt that Murphy's singing voice bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the famous, groundbreaking Irish singer Christy Moore.) Picking up an assortment of members over the years, the group has now swollen to six members and has seen several albums soar to the Top-5 of the Billboard World charts.

- Sarah Bardeen