Sunday, 10/22, went without so much as an arm-twist to the Tractor Tavern with the gang to hear Damien Dempsey. Who? Exactly what I said. But it turned out to be a great evening of ballads that protest the hard life and high times of life lived in the gritty Irish urban experience. Dempsey is renowned as a singer of such ballads, having lived the harsh life and lived to tell the tales that he sought to escape through the bottom of a pint or two or three. His set was a great blend of angry young man with guitar, hand drum and penny whistle.
Sharing the bill were two local musicians that provided two very different styles of folkie, indie, accoustic songs. Erin MacNamee sang pretty songs with a voice that I hope will become much appreciated after she release her first album. Her sonorous yet sweet sound should be heard as much as any other young diva topping today's charts. And then out of Bellingham came Robert Blake singing his quirky songs, a mixture of humor and pathos cut straight from the heart with a kind of Tom Waits-ish growl.
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