An Irish mate put me onto this bloke and his impending first tour of Australia. Little known here he has a string of albums ,his 2 most recent on his own label and tours either solo or with his own band.
I and about 150 others saw him tonight and he was very impressive. It helped to have had a lsiten in advance as his songs are quite angular and the dense lyrics plus his Irish accent meant I could hardly understand the lyrics live.
It can be annoying to compare artists to others but I could certainly here Glenn Hansard in that hard , loud guitar playing and the, at times, emotionally wrought vocals. Tim Buckley with the power and range and John Martyn in the lazy slurring. A stated influence Nick Cave is apparent in the wordiness, and the love of advjectives. He has written a book of poetry so the words pour out of him, sometimes at the expense of melody.
I got the impression that he is something special I hope he continues to thrive and that we get him down here with a band.
Addendum – I looked up on All music Guide, no biogrpahy and only 2 albums listed in the discography. How can that be?
David Keenan (3) on Discogs. No, that’s not his trio.
He’s been in my peripheral vision for a long time, Junior. Never got around to investigating properly – this might be the prompt I needed.
Heard the name but know very little about him. Like M, will investigate further should the opportunity arise
lots of YouTube stuff @Jaygee
What album is “An Irish Song” on? Thanks
I think Irish Song is a single, perhaps slated for his new album he intends to record on his return to Ireland. He played it here and in radio interviews.
He is quite eclectic in his releases. Albums EPs, acoustic reworks, live albums etc His latest album from 2022 is called Crude featuring ahem a song called Raving Towards Byzantium with Junior (no relation). well covered on streaming services.
He includes lyrics on his website : https://davidkeenan.com
Thanks Mr Wells
This one is amusing , prompted by a dream where James Dean comes back and eschews fame in favour of the quiet life as an engine driver working for Irish Rail. I misheard it originally and thought it was Irish radio!
Here’s a good example of his great use of langauge….”I slept inside Peter O’Toole’s drinking stories”