Sure, Michael McDermott has been compared to Dylan and Springsteen before but one listen to the blistering opening title track “What in the World” will have you thinking Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” one minute, Willie Nile in the chorus, and Petty for the jangling guitars. McDermott’s opener is politically charged with lines such as” new world order, Nazis, white trash, walls along the border, children in cages, executive order.” The others enter more personal territory. Plenty of Springsteen-like moments come later (i.e. “The Things You Want,” and the acoustic Bruce in the gorgeous love song, “Until I Found You”). McDermott is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter who had a brief taste of big-time success, disappeared from radars for a while but has cemented his place among our best singer-songwriters with his recent work. Last year’s Orphans was terrific.
McDermott has been sober and clean for over six years now, conquering his demons with the help of his wife, fellow singer-songwriter Heather Lynne Horton, and their child. Horton sings and plays violin on this self-produced effort featuring such backing musicians as Will Kimbrough, Lex Price and John Deaderick; who all were aboard for Orphans. They bring the bawdy atmosphere of Boss-like rock and roll horns in the joyous ode to youth in “Contender” and again on the rave-up “Mother Emanuel.”
McDermott has a tender side too. “Blue-eyed Barmaid” finds the barmaid confessional and “The Veils of Veronica” is an incredibly sad tale of a deceased former lover. In the beautiful piano-driven “Die With Me” he sings of defiance and celebration in the face of trouble, “All the scars we seem to carry. Well, tonight I’ll set it all afire.” The warm fingerpicking introduces “No Matter What,” his autobiographical anthem to live by with these lines -beginning int his vein – “Down again…/I got back on my feet/Before they counted ten/I was burned out and busted from my rambling/Bitchin’ about all the things I could have been/I was still drinkin’ then” to the ending chorus – “Don’t give up no matter what/You’re worth it/You’re worth it.” As mentioned, “Until I Found You,” imbued beautifully by Horton’s fiddle, fits into this camp as does the gorgeous plea to his lover to escape the doom in “Positively Central Park.”
McDermott may come across to some as an East Coaster given his music’s resemblance to Springsteen and Willie Nile, but McDermott is solidly planted in Chicago. – “I’m from Chicago, like eight miles from where John Prine grew up, so this is how we do Americana in Chicago, mother…rs! (he laughs) “I gave Nashville a little bit of a try, but decided why would I want to be around a bunch of people like me?” Just as Jason Isbell found success after getting sober, so has McDermott, albeit more quietly. His 2016 Willow Springs reached number on the Euro-Americana chart, 2018’s Orphans, a patchwork of songs that previously had no home turned out brilliantly. What in the World is even a tad better. McDermott finds plenty of sustenance in these songs. You will too. If you haven’t discovered McDermott by now, you need to as he’s one of the best songwriters we have.
