COVER FEATURE 

MICHAEL McDERMOTT: 

Wanderin’ The Graveyards of His Mind 

by Tom Lounges

MICHAEL McDERMOTT has been described as a minstrel, a troubadour and a storyteller...  And, he is indeed all of those.  Most of all he is a rocker!    

Though the McDermott experience is quite magical when he spins his words to the simple accompaniment of a piano or acoustic guitar, seeing this 1987 graduate of Carl Sandburg High School perform with his full electric band is like watching a rock ‘n’ roll storm cloud suddenly erupt into a torrent of unbridled fury –– leaving a rainbow of smiles in the end.   

His talented stage mates –– guitarist Rene Reyes, drummer Danny Westman and bassist Dominique Davalos ––  all hail from Los Angeles and only began working with the Chicago artist this past year.

     “My manager knew them all individually and I couldn’t afford to take my Chicago band to Los Angeles for some gigs there,” he said.  “So we hired them to play with me there.  It felt so different playing with them.  We all clicked musically and personally. They are younger and hungrier than the band I’d been playing with [in Chicago] and I needed that spark that they gave me.”

      With their help, McDermott is undertaking his first full band “tour” in nearly ten years. “I’ve done some regional band dates over the years with my guys from Chicago... Playing around the Midwest in places like Madison and Minneapolis, but nothing like we’re doing now to promote this new album [Ashes].”     

McDermott just wrapped up a few weeks of playing in the East –– Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, etc. –– and was calling in from Boston for the first part of our interview. 

     After that call was repeatedly interrupted by a lost cell phone connection [“Can you hear me now?”], we concluded our chat a few days later, once he got back to the Windy City for a brief respite for the road.   

     “I’m home and they’re all back in L.A.  We’re taking a short break and then we’re heading back out,” he said.  “We’ll be doing a series of two and three week runs [through summer].  The show is getting better and better every time we play out.  I’m really happy with the way things are going.”      

The energy level on stage crackles like lightening as McDermott tilts his hat Sinatra-style, flashes a wry grin, and charges with his able-bodied band into a rousing take of “60 Miles South Of Nowhere,” from his Bourbon Blue album of 1999.       

Few artists today have the kind of sheer intensity and raw stage presence of this South Side Irish rocker when he is in “the zone”.   And he is there a lot, since finding a permanent band of kindred spirits with whom  to make music.     

Being a songwriter with an affinity for writing dark prose about sordid situations in life, has drawn McDermott the expected comparisons to Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.  

      To do that is to wrongly short-change McDermott’s uniqueness and generalize his impressive musical output of the last 15 years. Music that is rebellious, uncompromising and driven.       

McDermott has a flair for weaving dramatic and compelling stories within the framework of a song.  His words drip with imagery as he introduces listeners to an array of characters who populate the seedier side of life. 

      “I don’t think I chose the dark side. I think it chose me,” said McDermott of his penchant for immortalizing junkies, boozers , losers, and poor schmucks whose lives are thoroughly dictated by Murphy’s Law.      

McDermott admittedly ran with those kinds of people and was himself a rather wild child in his younger days.  The difference is that he survived to tell their stories, giving a twisted sense of meaning to their respective struggles.      

A guy who gave the street tough troubadour a hand up when he most needed it, was Lance Northcut, who often joins McDermott onstage for Chicagoland performances.  Northcut is known to McDermott fans for beating out a haunting rhythm on a tribal hand drum called a Bohdran, as Michael delivers a stark and minimalist rendition of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.”  The number has become a fan favorite here in Chicagoland.       

Though his new band did not come along in time to contribute to the making of McDermott’s newest album, Ashes, he stressed that the trio will be all over the next effort. 

     McDermott enjoyed the company of several special guests during the recording of Ashes.  Among those who pop up on the album’s 13 tracks are –– Mike Malinin of the Goo Goo Dolls, Joe Karnes of Imperial Drag and assorted session players and sidemen to the stars.   

     After much delay, Ashes, will finally be released at the end of this month via McDermott’s own imprint, Pauper Sky Records, which he owns and operates with his partner, Bobby O’Mullan.   “Bobby has afforded me the opportunity to do this album and tour,” he credits.  “It’s been great!”       

“I like knowing I have control of things,” he confessed on why he opted for the DIY route with this latest album. “These days an artist really doesn’t need a big record label,” he said with a hint of bitterness.  “Sometimes a big label just messes you up.”

      McDermott knows.  At the dawn of the 1990s, at the tender age of 20, he released his smartly produced debut album –– 620 W. Surf –– on Giant/Warner.  The album spawned a hit single, “A Wall I Must Climb,” accompanied by an MTV “Buzz Bin” video.  

Then grunge hit heavy and Michael was suddenly odd man out, after being heralded as “the next big thing” by cigar-chomping moguls.   

Picked up by SBK/EMI, McDermott released two more collections of song –– Gethsemane and Michael McDermott –– which explored darker themes than did his first effort.  The latter album even sported liner notes written by horror novelist and cultural icon, Stephen King, who was turned on to McDermott’s music by his son. 

 Going back to square one, disillusioned but not defeated, McDermott recorded and released Bourbon Blue on his own dime and on his own time.  The spiraling descent from MTV stardom was a good muse for the singer, who got darker and drew deeper from the well of his soul for inspiration while making Bourbon Blue. 

Another false start came a year later, when Koch International Records, took the option on McDermott’s next album, Last Chance Lounge.   The album was not promoted very well by the label and ultimately fell between the cracks, despite spawning a moderate hometown hit when WXRT picked up on the disturbing love paean to a heroin chic ex-lover, “Junkie Girl.”  

 It would be four long years before another slab of McDermott songs would be released, but the writer’s prolific pen has hardly been idle during that time.  “I was writing a lot,” he said.  “A lot of songs on my new album, have been in my live shows for a couple of years already.”  

     Indeed.  Songs like “Grace Of God,” “Baby I,” and “Hellfire In The Holyland”, are instantly recognizable to anyone who has caught the artist live at places like Chicago Street Theatre, Clancy’s Irish Pub, or Abbey Pub over the last 36 months.  

 Though it was recorded over a period of three years, in three studios, in three different cities, using three different producers and a gaggle of guest musicians –– Ashes sounds surprisingly cohesive.  

 “I’m glad to hear you say that. I was worried about it sounding fragmented, but was surprised at how well it all seemed to fit together,” confessed McDermott. 

Radio stations, serviced last month with advance copies of the CD, are turning on to different tunes from city to city.   The most popular among programmers thus far is the upbeat “Everything I Got.”   

 “I’ve been through this before, so I’m just along for the ride, having fun and seeing where it takes me,” he laughed. McDermott said his biggest mistake as a young artist was taking to heart all the B.S. and hype that was tossed at him during his “A Wall I Must Climb” period.

 “I’ve since learned not to buy into all that crap,” he concluded. Jaded? Nope, just more savvy to the well-oiled machine that once tried to chew him up and spit him out.

 In a perfect world, McDermott would already be a superstar, based on the body of wonderful work he has created to date.  Instead, some folks reading this will be scratching their head and asking, “Michael who?” That is a shame that needs to be corrected.

 Pick up Ashes.  It is one of McDermott’s best efforts yet. It is as good a place as any, to start you on a journey to discover one of the greatest American songwriters since... well... Springsteen came roaring down “Thunderoad.”  

Michael McDermott performs with Juliana Hatfield at 6:00pm July 22 on at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.