An Irish Music Mix Beats Green Beer

It's St. Patrick's Day, so I'm honoring my past and wearing green to avoid being pinched.

I will not, however, be drinking any green beer today (or any beer any day, for that matter) or even drinking whisky.

What I will be doing is listening to my new mix tape gift, a collection of Irish artists to celebrate this day.

Yea, yea, the usual suspects are represented: Sinead O'Connor, U2, Van Morrison, Boondock Saints.

But there's plenty of the less obvious, too, like the Waterboys, Boomtown Rats and My Bloody Valentine.

I even made a few suggestions for the mix that were included, for instance, Guggenheim Grotto (and, by default, The Frames and Swell Season), Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainright on "Set Fire to the Third Bar" and an old 90s favorite, the Devlins' "Someone to Talk to."

I requested that the Thrills be on there and was rewarded with "The Irish Keep Gate Crashing."

The Magic Numbers, Damien Dempsey, the Icicle Works, the Irish bands just keep coming on this mix, to my great delight.

It's a two-hour tribute to my heritage that I'll still be enjoying long after March.

And, sure, you could drink green beer while you were listening, but why would you want to mess up a perfectly good listen like that?

The songs alone should be enough to get you off.

Or maybe that's just me and my Irish roots.