Jerry Fish is the alter ego of musician and record producer Gerard Whelan (who also leads the band An Emotional Fish) who founded an independent record label and the band Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club, an eclectic, roots collective of musicians, friends and songs inspired in part by a musical circus troupe from Barcelona, the movie soundtracks of Quentin Tarantino and the music of New York City artists Lou Reed, Marc Ribot and Willy DeVille (Mink DeVille).

Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club released the debut album Be Yourself in September 2002 and had a top ten hit in Ireland with the song True Friends after it was used in a television advertisement for Vodafone,[1] the album went on to achieve multi-platinum sales in Ireland[2] and was released in the U.K. in 2003 to critical acclaim.

[citation needed] Jerry Fish was given an Irish Music Award at the 2003 Meteor Awards for best Roots/Country Artist and went on to present the second series of the music television programme Other Voices produced by Phillip King[3] that same year.

In 2004 Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club recorded and released a live album and DVD Live at The Spiegeltent - floating on The River Liffey, recorded at the Palais de Glase Spiegeltent as part of The Dublin Fringe Festival.

At Christmas 2010, the song Back to Before from the album The Beautiful Untrue featured in a television and radio advertisement in Spain and Portugal for the department store chain El Corte Inglés.