Howdy Hive,
Today I'd like to highlight a singer/songwriter who's talent deserves to be highlighted. I discovered 'Dermot Kennedy' via a social media message, sent from a friend, who knew I was going through a difficult time and was trying to kindle my soft burning flame with a spark of musical inspiration. To say that her intent served its purpose cannot be understated. Its honestly one of those moments where I will always look back and distinctly remember the first time I ever heard what would immediately become one of my all-time favorite musicians, at the exact moment I needed to find it, hearing words and melodies sounding as if they had been ripped from my own bleeding soul. Aside from his talents, it just so happens that the vocal range presented falls right in the sweet spot of my voice when singing, giving me an even deeper connection to the music when I'm letting it explode out of me during those vocal sessions vs just taking it all in.
I'm tempted to turn off rewards for this post, as I feel like anything I try to write here explaining Dermot's voice and lyrics will come nowhere near close to note its unique creative sound & genius.. so honestly I feel like the best way to proceed is to try to provide some video's and let the reader have that same unprompted "Wow!" moment that I had.
I suppose the best way to proceed while NOT shutting off rewards is the host a video of just one of his (not so easy to get ahold of) records that I own, playing on my home setup. That way, alongside of these few paragraphs, there is some 'originality' presented here that allows me to leave the rewards turned on, and still sleep at night not feeling like I'm trying to 'game the system' (Hey man - these turntables, cartridges, stylus, slipmats, cases, records, + shipping on it all IS expensive!). That said: It would be a complete failure to not let you see the man in action performing live, so I think following the first homeshot-fanmade-musicpron video, I'll also share just a few of his actual music videos below that.
My intent here is to share an artist who's music has really helped me center from being way off-base, and hopefully it reaches someone else who may be needing to see/hear/find/heal with it, as I did. And of course, I'm sharing just to help spread exposure to someone's music who may be currently flying under your radar yet instead deservedly belongs to be reverberating within your ears/mind/body/soul.
Cheers,
~GG
(Edit: Ok.. so that was WAAAAAYYY more difficult that I was expecting it to be. I went into this thinking "yeah, I'll list that vinyl vid and maybe 2 others", which was naïve at best. You ever ask yourself "What's your favorite Artist's top 2 tracks?". I'm finding it to be a near impossible question to answer, in that I think I've spent more time deciding what tracks to share than I did composing the body of the post. Whatever the formally plotted course may have been, I had the best of intentions of not spamming multiple videos, but now notice the reality of the Seas I'm sailing in. Please note there may be a minor storm of just a few additional videos more than we originally intended, on the horizon. I both apologize and will accept any pending gratitude's, as they evolve. Either way... away we go!)
Dermot Kennedy - 'Lost in the Soft Light' sessions
2-sided duplicate press on thick vinyl (video shot on my setup)
Tracklist: 1: All my friends, 2: Outnumbered (4:20), 3:The Corner (8:22)
Dermot Kennedy - Lost (Official Video)
Dermot Kennedy - NPR Music, Tiny Desk Concert
(This is the first video I ever saw of Dermot. Watching again as I'm posting, it still gives me chills)
Tracklist - 1: Moments Passed, 2: An Evening I will not forget (4:38), 3: Glory (9:23)
Dermot Kennedy - Boston (Live at House of Blues, Boston MA)
Dermot Kennedy - For island fires and family (Raw)
Dermot Kennedy - Giants (Official Video)
(This is Dermot's current radio single. Its very, very catchy)
Dermot Kennedy - Giants (Daniel Blume Remix)
(And lastly, since I'm a DJ, you know I've been keeping my ear to the ground in search of remixes I can later incorporate into a dance music set. Thankfully, 'Giants' has produced many viable candidates, including this remix which is likely my current running favorite)
