News - The Happy Out Irish Band from San Antonio, Texas

The Lads at O’Flaherty Retreat

This year, the band attended O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat for the very first time. What a treat! Four days of concerts, classes, late-night sessions, and camaraderie. Every meal had performances from various attendees, instructors, and ensembles, and the schedule was packed with activities (and not quite enough breaks)! Camp Hoblitzelle is a beautiful setting, and it felt downright magical to walk out of our room at any point and to hear musicians practicing, trading tunes, or playing impromptu sessions all around the campus.

In addition, Blair submitted his original song “3 Sheets to the Wind” and won first runner-up in the songwriting contest!

Get Our Beautiful Merch Online

If you’ve been to one of our recent shows, you’ve seen some of the terrific T-Shirts, caps, and pint glasses that our friends at RDE Designs have made for us. Now David and Juli have made those items available online as well, so you can get your band swag from the comfort of your own home! Check out their The Happy Out storefront (and take a peek at their other offerings while you’re there).

New Release: Whiskey in the Jar

Now on your favorite streaming service: Whiskey in the Jar! 🥃 Enjoy the classic musical tale of a highwayman who, betrayed by his beloved Jenny, runs afoul of Captain Farrell. (This is excellent training for our live shows, as you can practice clapping at the right bits.) Give it a listen and let us know what you think!

New Release: The Wellerman

Ahoy, mates! We’re thrilled to announce that our latest release has just set sail on all streaming platforms! It’s “The Wellerman,” an epic sea shanty about a relentless sea captain on a daring quest to capture an elusive whale. Hoist the sails and set course for your favorite music service!

Let’s Pack the Cottage on September 1

Hey friends! We need your help on September 1. The Cottage has hired a videographer to come in and get footage of the venue and of the band for their new website. They’ve generously agreed to share that video with us so that we can use it our our website and other marketing too.

We’d love to have a great crowd that night so the cameraperson can get lots of footage of The Cottage while the craic is mighty! If you can join us, let’s pack the place with your wonderful smiling faces. Hope to see you there!

Thinned Ranks

Hey friends! Unfortunately, Blair is feeling under the weather today, so Klaus and Sean will be playing as a duo. (We’d still love to see you, though!)

WTF in the Jar

Last night, I fired up one of the AI image generators that I’ve been experimenting with to see if I could get some credible cover art for the song “Whiskey in the Jar”. The prompt I used was “A small, well-worn wooden table with one dueling sword, one flintlock pistol, and one unlabeled bottle of whiskey on it. Indoor scene.” Here’s what I got:

While these are hilariously useless for the intended purpose, if I came across any of those weapons for sale at a Ren Faire, I’d snap them up in a minute.

Back in the Studio

This weekend, we were back at work laying down some more tracks to share with y’all. We’ve still got a lot of work to do on them, but thought we’d share a few behind-the-scenes photos for those who like to watch the sausage get made.

An Original Poem

There once was a man from East Limerick
This summer he started to swimmerick
He ate a full bowl
Of strawberries whole
And in a few weeks he looked slimmerick!
Blair Raker

A red-haired Irishman in a garden writing poetry

June 30 Lineup: Blair & Klaus

Howdy, friends! Just to let you know, the June 30 show at the The Cottage Irish Pub will be the Blair & Klaus edition. (Sean will be at a family wedding.) Come on by to give those two a good word and see what shenanigans they get up to!