SOUNDTRACK: DERMOT KENNEDY-Tiny Desk Concert #779 (August 24, 2018).
NPR likes Dermot Kennedy (they made him one of their Slingshot artists for 2018). The thing that they seem to like about him is what I didn’t.
He has a powerful raspy voice–he could sing for miles. A voice that works wonderfully with a style of music (folk or rock, primarily). But the songs I’d heard from him were tinged with hip-hop. And, frankly, it’s hard to work a powerful singing voice and hip-hop into the same verse. So to me, it didn’t work, it was like the worst of both worlds.
But at the Tiny Desk, he removes all of that with a live band and, as the blurb says, a gospel choir.
Kennedy took this assignment seriously. The Dublin singer-songwriter wasn’t content with merely re-creating his songs as they sound in the studio, or stripping lavish productions down to simple acoustic arrangements. So he got himself a gospel choir.
More specifically, Kennedy and his band flew in from Ireland a day ahead of time to meet and rehearse with members of Washington, D.C.’s Howard Gospel Choir (Keila Mumphord, Taylor Nevels, Chamille Boyd, Jazmine Thomas). Every arrangement was painstakingly plotted ahead of time, so that every note would be perfect.
Two of the songs Kennedy performs here (“Moments Passed” and “An Evening I Will Not Forget”) pop up on an EP he released this year with hip-hop producer Mike Dean, and both sound radically different in this performance. They’re still forceful — and still centered on the singer’s elastic, bombastic voice — but also looser, warmer, more open.
And I suspect that’s why I like them much more. Without all of that trapping, he sounds, yes, like Hozier or Glen Hansard. And of course he was a busker.
They open with “Moments Passed.” It was weird that the song and concert opens the way it does with the choir and Kennedy singing at the same time. His voice is the centerpiece of the music and it was obscured not only by four other voices but also but a disconcerting echo effect (from Kieran Jones on keys). But as soon as that ends, his voice works very well with the piano (Jonny Coote) and drums (Micheál Quinn).
And so when the chorus comes in and he songs his only lines while the choir sings, it works very well. You can also hear his accent a lot more than other Irish singers, it seems.
“An Evening I Will Not Forget” has more of a hip hop delivery style, at least the way he sings, but he doesn’t try to cram it all in, he lets his voice and melody flow over the dense lyrics. The song is one of regret and it works perfectly as just piano and his powerful voice.
After the song he jokingly asks for a towel and he laughs when he gets one (and gives it to Jones, “you;re a sweaty guy”).
For the final song, “Glory” he plays guitar on this it’s a pretty melody. The drums are weirdly electronic and big and I like the big boom but not the ticky ticky electronics. However, the high female voice in the chorus more than makes up for it. The way all of the music swells together on this track is really terrific.
Sometimes you need to hear a musician live to really appreciate him.
[READ: January 3, 2017] “Gender Studies”
Sarah loves Curtis Sittenfeld, although I had never read her work before this.
I really enjoyed this short story both for its story and for its politics.
The plot is quite simple. Nell is an almost divorced woman (she was with Henry for years with the intention of getting married, then he up and left her for a younger woman). I really enjoyed this self-description of her and Henry “because of the kind of people they were (insufferable people, Nell thinks now).” She is a professor of gender studies and is going to a convention in Kansas City. Though she lives in Wisconsin, she has never been to Kansas City or even to Missouri.
The shuttle driver starts talking to her about donald trump. He says “He’s not afraid to speak his mind, huh?” And I love this description of her reply:
Nell makes a nonverbal sound to acknowledge that, in the most literal sense, she heard the comment.
Despite her obvious discomfort talking to him (when he calls Hillary “Shrillary” you know she is fuming), she can’t be bothered to say anything more than “There’s no way that donald trump will be the Republican nominee for President” (this was written after he was, of course). (more…)
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When this show was announced, I immediately planned to get tickets to see Hozier again. My son and I had seen him in a small intimate show, but I imagined that seeing him from (ideally) the pit or (otherwise) in the lower sections would be amazing.
I Just Read About That... 