Patrick Murphy, What Was the First Album You Ever Bought?

“You know what it was? Depeche Mode. Yes, an album called ‘Music for the Masses’ by Depeche Mode. I was 12 years old.

I never listened to Irish music back home in Ireland. I guess it’s like the people who live in California that take the sun and the swimming pools for granted. When you’re there in Ireland, the music is there every day. My mother and my father had it on the radio all the time, but I just took it for granted. I didn’t listen to it.

It wasn’t until I came to America that I finally put away my albums by Depeche Mode and the Cure, and I started listening to Paddy Reilly, the Furey Brothers and Tommy Makem. Honestly, I mean I had never listened to Tommy Makem.

I had to be separated from Ireland before I really appreciated what I had left behind.”

Frontman and lead vocalist Patrick Murphy – he also plays harmonica, accordion and spoons – joins his bandmates in Gaelic Storm as one of the featured bands at the Irish 2000 Music & Arts Festival at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds this weekend. The fest gets underway at 5pm Friday, and Gaelic Storm is slated to hit the stage later that night at 7:15pm. Friday-only tickets are $15 in advance; $20 at the gate. Two-day passes are $28.