Live Review: Kiernan McMullan -
The Grand Social, Dublin, Jan 2nd
Photo Credit: AK Photography
The first Friday of the New Year and Nashville based nomadic Irishman Kiernan McMullan throws on a gig for his Dublin friends with support from singer-songwriter Mark Darko.
Kiernan described Mark Darko as 'James Taylor doing soul music' and this perfectly describes what Mark is about. His deep voice and soulful tones is completely unique in Ireland and deserves to be heard everywhere. Mark let the crowd know about an imminent EP release in the coming months. For now here's a demo version of 'More Than Physical'.
I've been a fan of Kiernan for years. Yes he's a good singer, talented guitarist and can write a good melody but Kiernan is a man who has much to say and uses his music to say it. Hes not pretentious and he's certainly not out to change the world but because he's lived the "dream", toured all over the US and delved into the music scenes of places like Nashville and Dublin, Kiernan has so real life experience to relay back through his music.
With three full length albums and two EP's Kiernan has a full back catalogue of songs to choose from for his setlist. Within those twelve tracks he performed a few brand new songs, many from his current album 'Common Sense', a couple of older tunes and a few covers. For some in the crowd Kiernan was simply breathtaking and drew comparisons to Jeff Buckley. Selfishly I was waiting for 'Fireworks', 'That Afternoon' or 'Kickin' Rocks' and maybe another dozen or so awesome songs from Kiernan that I know and love so well.
Within the three covers there was an obscure one from someone we've never heard of. The Ryan Adams 'Sweet Carolina' which sounded awesome and he finished with a rendition of one of my favourite songs ever from Foy Vance 'An Indiscriminate Act of Kindness'.
Kiernan McMullan is one of the reasons why I keep writing about music. His music is awesome but because he doesn't have the financial backing to bump him onto radio playlists in Ireland he may never get to find new fans. However if you're reading this and his music impressed you then let your friends know about how wonderful this artist is.
Links: Kiernan McMullan
http://kiernanmcmullan.bandcamp.com/
http://www.kiernanmcmullan.com/
Mark Darko
https://www.facebook.com/markdarkoofficial
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