Damien Dempsey

by Dave DonnellyBorn into poverty-stricken Dublin in the mid-'70s, Damien Dempsey has a musical outlook profoundly shaped by the traditional working-class music he was exposed to as a child and by other artists who share his egalitarian social outlook: artists like Bob Marley, Christy Moore, Luke Kelly, Shane MacGowan, and Elvis Presley. Since emerging as an exciting young talent in the mid-'90s, Dempsey has learned to control his wide variety of influences -- which, in addition to the above artists, is heavily informed by hip-hop and electronic music -- and has crafted an extremely original and personal style of folk music, attracting a myriad of all-star admirers including Morrissey, Sinéad O'Connor, and Bob Dylan, all of whom he's performed with in recent years. Graduating in 1995 from the highly competitive "Rock School" at Dublin's Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dempsey was chosen as one of the acts to represent the graduating class with a formal release on the college's label, the Contender EP in 1995. His first commercial single, "Dublin Town," followed two years later, and its immediate underground success was followed by a short-lived spell in the mainstream spotlight. It was three years, however, before Dempsey put together his first solo album. They Don't Teach This Shit in School, released in March of 2000, was a commendable but self-conscious effort that featured a smoother, less visceral recording of "Dublin Town." Despite its relative lack of commercial success, They Don't Teach This Shit in School earned Dempsey a number of admirers within the industry. Sinéad O'Connor agreed to collaborate with Dempsey for the title track of the Negative Vibes EP in October 2002, prompting the renowned singer to include him as the opening act on her subsequent European tour. Released in May of 2003, Seize the Day was produced by former O'Connor collaborator John Reynolds, and featured a guest guitar spot by the legendary Brian Eno, but the album's most striking feature was the performance of its central figure: Dempsey had matured immeasurably as a songwriter and as an individual, better able to articulate his strong sense of morality and no longer apprehensive to sing in his natural, earthy tone. The album was released in the U.K. in May 2004 on the expatriate label IRL, and earned the artist two Meteor Ireland Music Awards. Released in 2005, Shots became Dempsey's first album to be simultaneously released in Ireland and the U.K., hitting shelves in March. Shots debuted at the top of the Irish Albums chart. By the end of the year, it had achieved platinum status, and Dempsey was honored as Best Irish Male at 2006's Meteor Awards. In February, New York-based United for Opportunity began releasing each of Dempsey's albums in the U.S. In May, Sing All Our Cares Away, a compilation of tracks from Seize the Day and Shots, became Dempsey's first release in Germany. In June, he released his first live album, entitled Live at the Olympia, and in February of 2007 he picked up the Best Irish Male award for the second year running. In June of 2007, Dempsey released his fourth studio album, To Hell or Barbados, which debuted at number one in the Irish album charts.