Despite a deep love of music and a family full of musicians, there was a time when Terry Walsh, leader of The Belfast Cowboys, was ready to give it up.
“I had just gotten kind of frustrated with playing only, mostly only, original music and not making any headway,” he said. I just thought I’m too old for this, which is hilarious because we’re talking about 30 years ago now. And I thought it was time to put these childish things away and then get on with my life.”
That changed one afternoon while he was dispatching limousines with a Vikings preseason game playing in the background.
“They cut to a commercial and all of a sudden there was my harmonica blaring out of the radio and I went, ‘They’re playing us on the Vikings game.’ I couldn’t believe it,” Walsh said, recalling how an old friend had decided to start using his band’s music as bumper music for all the sports on WCCO AM.
“For about five years, I would listen to the Twins game or the Gophers game and hear myself playing harmonica on the way in and out of breaks. It was really fun. It just put some wind back in my sails,” Walsh said. “I’m sure glad he did that.”
Walsh grew up in a musical house‐ hold. His dad played piano, and his grandmother played in silent movie theaters. Her dream had been to perform in a piano bar, but arthritis kept her from it. Years later, he played six years at Nye’s Polonaise Room in Minneapolis, which famously had a piano bar.
“I feel like I’m carrying grandma’s torch a little bit here,” Walsh said.
Music found him early. He started on a toy drum set, took piano lessons when he was eleven, picked up guitar in his teens, and joined his first band at eighteen. The group played one show, a dance at their old high school.
He remembers the band’s set list clearly: Stones, Who, Kinks, Beat‐ les. He also remembers not being good enough yet to play guitar in that band, which led him to writing lyrics and piecing together songs. Songwriting started before his instrumental confidence did.
Though his brothers had a massive record collection, Walsh’s musical education deepened when he worked at a record store. He wanted to explore the catalog of Van Morrison.
“I just flipped over it,” he said, adding that the customers did as well. “When I put it on in the store, people would come up to the counter and say, what is this? They’d bring the release up to the counter and buy it just because they liked hearing it in the store. So I thought, boy, there’s something here that’s pretty universal in Van Morrison’s music.”
The record store itself was unusual.
“That was a goofy record store,” Walsh laughed. “They made us wear ties. Can you think of anything more of an oxymoron, a record store where you have to wear ties? We fought the machine on that and they finally relented.”
He used the job to dig into Dylan’s catalog as well.
“For my own edification, I wanted to work at this record store and dig into Van Morrison’s catalog and Bob Dylan’s catalog, just because they both had so many albums that I’d never even listened to or my brothers didn’t even own,” he said.
Van Morrison’s influence shaped the Belfast Cowboys, the nine‐piece band Walsh has led for twenty‐four years. The lineup solidified once the group found steadier success.
“There were some really lean shows where we’d be splitting up $40 among nine guys at the end of the night. I had to stop taking those gigs because they’re band killers,” he explained.
A friend took him aside and told him, “You can’t do this. You can’t bring guys out and do this because they’ll stop wanting to show up.”
Walsh listened, booked better shows and created a smaller version of the group, St. Dominic’s Trio, which still plays every Tuesday at the Driftwood Char Bar.
“We call St. Dominic’s Trio, which is where we usually play as a five-piece in spite of the name,” he said. “It kind of gave us room to work on songs as well as a way to be able to keep our chops in between full band gigs, which were harder to find those days before we really made our name.”
Walsh said the Belfast Cowboys’ chemistry is the reason they have lasted.
“These guys are aces. They’re all great players and even greater guys. And I’m a very, very lucky singer to be able to play with that,” he said.
The band’s name came from Van Morrison’s nickname, the Belfast Cowboy, which actually led to a cease‐and‐desist threat before a Times Square show in 2011.
“I get this e‐mail from a guy call‐ ing himself the Internet Sheriff, and they threatened to cease and desist on us for using the name the Belfast Cowboys,” Walsh said.
The bar was going to cancel the gig, but Walsh recalled, “We said, no, don’t do that. We’ll rename ourselves. It doesn’t really matter. We just want to be able to play there. So, for one gig only, we were the Cowfast Bellboys.”
After returning home, he trademarked Belfast Cowboys.
“I filled out the forms and paid the money to trademark the name Belfast Cowboys, and I gave them proof; we put out a CD already with that name, and we played all these shows, and it went through without a hitch, so never heard from the internet sheriff again.”
Walsh also co‐founded Foothold Twin Cities, a nonprofit that provides emergency financial help to families with children. The initiative began when his ex‐wife, an educator, told him about a family whose furnace had broken.
“They needed $600 to fix the furnace in their house, and they had no heat,” he said.
He suggested a benefit, but she pointed out there would be another family next week and the next.
“That led to the idea: what if we just started getting a pool of funds together for these families that were in trouble? And we managed to do it,” Walsh said. “My favorite thing about Foothold is that nobody makes a nickel. 100% of all donations go directly to pay a bill for a family. They have to have at least one kid under 18. And the families have to be referred to us by social workers or teachers or doctors, peo‐ ple like that, can advocate for them. And they feel that the family deserves a break.”
He knows the impact firsthand.
“It’s expensive to be poor,” he said. “You bounce a check for $12 at Wendy’s and it comes back with a $35 overdraft charge. It’s crazy. You can lose a lot of money quickly if you don’t know what you’re do‐ ing and you don’t have the money to cover it.”
This year brought another mile‐ stone. Walsh and the band recorded a version of Billy Bragg’s “City of Heroes,” a song Bragg wrote after Minneapolis’ ice surge earlier this year. “
“He came out with a song called City of Heroes, which was really cool just to have him give his show of support from across the pond,” Walsh said. “And then he came to us and he wanted to do a version with a band on it because he did it by himself in the first recording. And so we got together in the studio and recorded a band version of it. He put his vocal on it and it hasn’t been released at all yet, but as of Friday I have 200 singles at my house that are ready to go out. We’re going to start selling them tomorrow at the Driftwood and all profits will go to Foothold Twin Cities.”
The single is pressed on vinyl.
“It is the first time I’ve ever been on vinyl anywhere, which is a thrill,” Walsh said. “On the B side, the Belfast Cowboys song, South Side, which hasn’t been released yet either, is going to make its first appearance. Billy sang a barely audible background vocal on South Side on our song, which is very sweet of him.”
Walsh has known Bragg for decades, meeting him in the mid-80s and even driving his touring van from Boston to Minneapolis on one occasion.
“He’s gone out to dinner with him many times and he’s come had dinner with my family, my mom and dad back in the day,” Walsh said. “He actually introduced me to Van Morrison once and I got to shake Van’s hand because of him.”
Walsh has never played in Silver Bay, but he is looking forward to the trip.
“I’ve driven through there. The farthest I’ve ever gone up on 61 is to Lutsen. I’ve still never made it to Grand Marais,” he said. “That’s looking like the best weekend of the summer for us because it’s kind of a mini vacation just getting up to the North Shore and getting to play a couple of shows as well.”
Silver Bay’s Music in the Park summer series is produced by Rocky Wall Entertainment, which is bringing six free Friday night concerts to the City Center Park Stage this year. The series focuses on Americana music and continues the organizers’ efforts to book some of the best bands in the region.
“They seem to be rolling out the red carpet for us, which is very sweet,” Walsh said.
Walsh and the Belfast Cowboys will open the 2026 season on Friday, July 17, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at City Center Park, 7 Davis Drive in Silver Bay. The show is free to attend. Rocky Wall Entertainment also hosts Saturday house concerts as benefit shows, inviting Friday performers to stay for a second, intimate event. The Belfast Cowboys’ house concert is already sold out.
The night promises to be one of great music, though Walsh never goes by a set playlist. He calls the first song on stage after he gets a feel for the crowd.
“We never use a set list,” he said. “Coming to a place that we’ve nev‐ er played before, we’ll probably keep it a little close to the vest and play recognizable Van Morrison songs and mixing in a couple of originals here and there, I think, or other artists as well, just because I think my first job is to keep the band entertained. And if the band is entertained, then the crowd is going to be too. I’ve found that to be a truth through all the years.”
The spontaneity is intentional. Walsh remembers something his keyboardist friend, Joe Loskota, shared with him that he took to heart.
“He used to play in a band that would play the exact same set ev‐ ery night, all cover songs. And they would start with Dire Straits, Walk of Life, and Joe would play that opening organ riff. And he would think, oh no, here we go again, three more hours, and it’s the same songs every time,” Walsh said. “I just thought, I’m never going to do that to any of these guys. We’re going to have a different set every night and keep it fresh, as fresh as we can.”
The Belfast Cowboys are looking forward to coming to Silver Bay to open the summer concert series. Walsh said he is grateful for the in‐ vitation and excited to see the North Shore crowd.
“We’ll do what we can to make it a fun time for everybody,” he said.
For more information on Terry Walsh and The Belfast Cowboys, visit belfastcowboys.com. For info on Rocky Wall Entertainment’s Silver Bay Summer Concert Series, go to rockywallentertainment.org.
