WOMAD

Damien Dempsey

From Ireland (Irish Republic)

Reading Irish singer Damien Dempsey’s mammoth press folder, it’s clear that the man is seen as some kind of bullshit detector or pulmonary resuscitation device by legions of journalists and Irish music fans who have been feeling suffocated by a surfeit of twee derivative folksy pap these last few years. Indeed, phrases like ‘Ireland’s Bob Dylan’ or ‘heir to Christy Moore’s crown’ crop up so often that you’d be forgiven for thinking that the messiah is alive and well and living in Donaghmede, north Dublin. Like his namesake Jack, Damien Dempsey did a bout or two in the ring for Dublin youth in his teens but his real love was music, a passion planted and nurtured by many a post-pub sing-along with his folks and a healthy obsession with Bob Marley, Elvis Presley and the traditional sean-nós style of traditional Irish singing. After a three-year stint at the Ballyfemoot School of Rock, Damien released his first single ‘Dublin Town’ in 1997. A debut album ‘They Don’t Teach This Shit In School’ came out in 2000 and it brought the young singer to the attention of the Irish music nomenclatura, leading to support tours with Shane McGowan, Hothouse Flowers, Christy Moore and The Dubliners. Albums, ‘Seize The Day’, and 'Shots" followed and his current album 'To Hell or Barbados' is also garnering great reviews. The Daily Express said, 'It's clear from the first moment he sings a note that Damien Dempsey is one astonishingly gifted individual'A huge man with a huge heart and huge talent for telling it just like it is.