By Monk
Despite hailing from the bleak back streets of the ‘Windy City’, Chicago troubadour Michael McDermott plays the sort of ebullient country and folk-infused Americana more associated with the deep south of the USofA, drawing on influences such as Steve Earle, Tom Petty and Marc Cohn as much as he does the blue-collar rock ‘n’ roll heritage of the likes of ‘The Boss’, with heavy measures of Dylan and Young thrown in for good measure.
This opening statement should serve as a more than heavy clue to the eclectic nature of this, an album which eloquently reflects the life story of a songsmith and musician who has been around more than a few blocks more than a few times over his 30+ year career, leaving him with plenty of stories to tell – stories which he relates here with passion and inherent personality.
‘St. Paul’s Boulevard’ is a concept album, of sorts, introducing a cast of characters lost and found, rich and poor, young and old, and many struggling to survive on a fictional street that could exist anywhere. As McDermott himself says: “Everyone has their own St. Paul’s Boulevard, the place where we left pieces of our hearts, our innocence, where we suffered heartbreak, came to learn about shame, where we struggled to find our place in this world. It’s a place where we struggled to nurture love and light in a darkened world. It’s where some of us were permanently arrested in our development and our social and emotional intelligence.”
McDermott brings this fictional yet all too realistic place, and its characters, to life in fine style, his rich sense of observation accentuated and highlighted by an equally accurate and astute sense of subtly directed drama.
Opener ‘Where The Light Gets In’ sets the mood in triumphant style, a joyous country-rock anthem propelled by a stomping clap-along beat to which you can’t help feel your cowboy boot clad feet tapping and jiving along, those clashing studs sparking an electricity which matches the feel of the song. Lead singles ‘Our Little Secret’ and ‘Sick Of This Town’ both manage to combine a sense of hope with a dark lyrical undercurrent: the thumping beat of the former, contrasting with the breathless vocal, is perfectly counter-parted and counterpointed by the dense cathartic chug of the latter, demonstrating how much thought has gone into the running order of the album.
As mentioned above, ‘SPB’ is an eclectic album, switching from the pathos of the likes of the huge-sounding ‘The Arsonist’ and the later title track to the joyous optimism of ‘New Year’s Day’ or ‘Pack The Car’ respectively with the ease of Carlos Sainz swinging into the final corner at Silverstone.
Along the way, McDermott tells tales of challenges and survival, stories which match his own, reflecting his journey from being the toast of a major label’s boardroom back in the early ’90s to being chewed up and spat out in true industry style to in turn ploughing his own defiant furrow through more than a dozen albums of declarative, defiant, middle finger raising rock ‘n’ roll which definitely place him up there with some of the greats of the genre, and especially those mentioned earlier in this review.
McDermott may invite us to meet him halfway, but I for one will go all the way to have a cold beer and another listen of this superb, revelatory album.
- ‘St Paul’s Boulevard’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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