Mick Fury’s “Irish State of Mind” asks us if we’re up for a pint and a bit of revelry
NASHVILLE – Anthony Bourdain’s famous words came to mind as Mick Fury sat, guitar held in lap, at Fitzgerald’s Bar in Dublin. “Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.” Mick had traveled to Dublin’s Temple Bar on a family holiday, questing for the perfect pint and a night off to enjoy music instead of performing it. Fate had other plans, however, and Mick found himself taking the stage to perform a raucous set of originals and Irish covers to an enthusiastic crowd.
Returning to Nashville, Mick was enraptured by the joy that had erupted in the crowd during the pub songs. He gathered together a few of his fellow Nashville songwriters and began-mostly as a lark-writing a few Irish pub tunes. Early performances of these songs at the St. Augustine Songwriter Festival and the Key West Songwriter Festival demonstrated their popularity, and he quickly became known as “The guy who does those great Irish pub songs.”
Mick flicked to life his Furious Library Studios in East Nashville in late 2025 and began recording and producing a full length album of pub songs. His contemporary folk album “Irish State of Mind” had been born. Mick acquired and taught himself to play the Irish bouzouki, the dulcimer, and the bodhran, and the traditional sounds of Ireland’s folk music filled his rooms. Nearing the completion of the record in the late spring of 2026, a wild idea hit him: wouldn’t it make the album that much more interesting and authentic to have actual Irish born performers playing on the songs? As soon as it was a thought, he knew it must be done.
Mick reached out to contacts in Music City, friends in Ireland, connections in his hometown of Syracuse, NY and gig mates in places he’d performed in Key West. With luck on his side, Mick cobbled together a crew of world class Irish performers to be a part of the album. The album kicks off with Dublin-born Patrick D’Arcy lending his haunting uilleann pipes to the Mick Fury and Sean Patrick McGraw penned song “God Created Whiskey,” a highly questionable retelling of Western Civilization’s history. Later tracks find Nashville resident and County Louth Ireland native Clare Cunningham offering her unmistakable vocals. She laments an ever changing world and the hope that the oldest bar in the world – Sean’s – could remain unchanged in the Mick Fury/Arlis Albritton song “Stay the Way That You Are (Sean’s).” Elsewhere Mylo O’Maoláin of Key West/County Kildare breathes fresh life into the fan-favorite “Tullamore Don’t”, and later Deidre McCarthy lends a rash of bodhrans and spoons on the Mick Fury/Adam James Deiboldt laugh out loud song “Irish ABCs.”
A guaranteed smile, a hearty laugh, and the sudden urge to visit the Pub for a Guinness are all in store for those cranking up the 9 track album “Irish State of Mind.”
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