MICHAEL MCDERMOTT - MISCHIEF & MISTLETOE

City Winery Chicago presents Michael McDermott live on Friday, December 22nd at 8:00 PM!

Music makes a deep connection when it strikes that delicate nerve separating the personal from the universal. If the listener can use the songs as mirrors, then the musician has succeeded in communicating their art. Michael McDermott has spent decades riding that artistic balance, and he does it again with fresh potency on his latest album, St. Paul’s Boulevard.

St. Paul’s Boulevard is a concept album, of sorts. It gathers its creative momentum by introducing characters lost and found, rich and poor, young and old, and many struggling to survive on a fictional street that could exist anywhere. Recorded from August 2021 to February 2022 at Transient Sound and Pauper Sky Studios in Chicago, St. Paul’s Boulevard is the sonic vision of McDermott and co-producer Steven Gillis. McDermott, who also played guitars and piano on his batch of personal songs, is at his most passionate on choice cuts: “Our Little Secret” is a driving folk-rocker that plays like the soundtrack for restless days and lust-filled nights. “Sick of This Town,” with its chugging folk-country bottom beat, is a cathartic ode to busting out of the neighborhood that cages us in. “Marlowe” pays tribute to Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe character in an anthemic heartland rocker. And “New Year’s Day” is one of those brooding tunes that seeps under the skin and rattles the senses.