New Music - St Paul's Boulevard by singer/songwriter Michael McDermott

Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael McDermott is a survivor.

He started out on his musical journey back in the early 1990’s with some solid records that garnered some critical acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Unfortunately for him, his timing was not so good – Remember, this was the beginning of the end for the ‘traditional’ business model used by the record industry, so that whole push that made some newer artists household names never quite panned out for McDermott. But fortunately, McDermott persevered & continued to release quality music with his signature mix of thoughtful lyrics and superb musicianship.

His latest effort, St. Paul’s Boulevard, which is released today, follows in those footsteps delivering another set of catchy rockers and ballads and, as per usual, deserves some ears turned in that general direction.

St. Paul’s is a bit of a throwback to those earlier days of music when artists released ‘concept’ albums that had a connecting thread or two running throughout the entire record. The strands of characters developed here – some rich, some poor, some young, some old, and some struggling just to survive are all fully realized amongst the backdrop of the fictional St. Paul’s Boulevard. Times may be tough for the folks depicted here, but somehow, the burning desire for survival remains strong within each of them.

As always, McDermott’s writing is spot on and the players that assist on this record – like Will Kimbrough, Grant Tye, & David Grissom on guitars, Steven Gillis on drums, Matt Thompson on acoustic/electric bass, John Deaderick & Danny Mitchell sharing the duties on piano/organ/keyboards, and Heather Lynne Horton on violins/vocals, all bring their A game to the proceedings. McDermott add his own guitar work & vocals to standout tracks like “Our Little Secret,” “Sick of This Town,” “Marlowe,” and “New Year’s Day.”

Author Stephen King once called McDermott “possibly the greatest undiscovered rock and roll talent of the last twenty years”… With just one listen of this latest work from Michael McDermott, you’ll discover why…

Check out McDermott’s “Sick of This Town” here…