Greetings from the B-Side Brewery! Have you drank enough water today? Gotten out of the house? Walked down to the polls? Taken five deep breaths? Smashed your phone against the wall? Okay cool just making sure.

If you still need a distraction from *gestures broadly at the world*, I invite you to check out the latest episode of the Struggling Artist Podcast, featuring yours truly! Host Trev Allen invited me onto the show to ostensibly talk about the history of the Roland High Life, and also how the hell to exist in the world as a creative person. Inevitably, our conversation also spirals out into a talk about ADHD and why Hawkeye is the best Avenger, as these things are wont to do. I like to think our chat has some nice glimmers of hope as well, as we talk pretty earnestly about how to balance artistry and all the various demands of “real life.”

If that’s not enough of a distraction, the fact that the New York Times Tech Guild is currently on strike could also help stop you from constantly refreshing your browser. The Wirecutter Union, of which I am a part, is technically separate from the Tech Guild, but we do stand in solidarity with our colleagues’ goals. While I can’t tell you what to do about or how to respond to this strike, I can encourage you to check out Strikle instead, or maybe soothe yourself with the dulcet tones of Billy Bragg. Or check out some unionized Chippendale dancers, idk.

After the success of last year’s pandemic-produced Irish folk album Forfocséic, Vol. 1, I decided to follow it up with — well, more of the same, I guess. Except this time, the production is even richer, and I stuck to a more coherent theme that’s resonant throughout Irish cultural history: whiskey, and workers’ rights.

And so, I present Forfocséic, Vol. 2 — Whiskey & Work, now available everywhere you stream or download music!

Once again, I had some help from some remote friends (including the fantastic fiddle work of the inimitable Jacqui Cheng). Continuing in the tradition of Irish song mashups, I made a wild medley of “The Rare Aul’ Mountain Dew” and “The Hills of Connemara,” which are both about poitín (basically Irish Moonshine / illicit white whiskey) and both kind of follow the same form anyway.

The other fun thing I did this time (aside from the arrangements, which I’m just generally very proud of) is to twist one of the songs here and make it my own. In addition to the conspicuous Red Sox references in “The Leaving of Liverpool,” I also wrote and added a new verse to “Muirsheen Durkin,” turning it from a more generic immigrant song to one specifically about my own family. Not to give too many spoilers away, but the last verse you hear is indeed something that actually happened to an ancestor of mine, after coming to America from the West of Ireland during the Great Hunger.

Anyway — I hope you enjoy it, and I can’t wait to actually (maybe?) do some live St. Paddy’s Day shows next year (finally!).