Singer/Songwriter/Band

Sometimes you hear a performance that physically stuns you - you know that it is absolutely of the moment, completely raw and entirely true to itself. On They Don't Teach This Shit In School, from the aching opening track ‘Jealousy’ onwards, the vocal and lyrical presence that is Damien Dempsey arrives in your head and won’t let you go. Love him or hate him, there will be no middle ground on this one. You cannot help but be drawn in.

A working class hero is something to be. Damien Dempsey speaks of urban life with the clarity and precision of a weaver. Threads cross the loom that have references to NWA coming out of Compton, historic respect is paid to Luke Kelly with some colours straight from Bob Marley, all delivered with an uncompromising Dublin accent.

Damien's voice is a global one; he speaks of masculinity, tenderness, poverty, colonialism, the police, boy bands and psycho chicks, without all the usual self-obsession. His work is honest and objective, he is a storyteller, a ‘Seanchai’.

At 24 Damien Dempsey has already had an Irish hit with ‘Dublin Town’ and has recently returned from a series of successful gigs in New York. He is widely recognised as one of the best emerging songwriters in Dublin. People have been calling him 'the new Christy Moore’ and Moore himself has been keen to promote his talent, but no simple label does this talent justice.

Website: http://www.zincfence.com/Damien