After Rag ‘N’ Bone Man sold so many albums in 2017 it’s been hard to navigate among all the gravel-voiced solo men attempting to steal some of that man mountain’s thunder.
Lewis Capaldi has appeared in the lower reaches of the charts, Tom Grennan spent a week in the top 10 with his debut album, and Tom Walker has had a platinum single and is now on Rudimental’s album.
Meanwhile Dermot Kennedy is yet to have a hit but is doing impressive numbers online and on tour. Thanks to early appearances on prominent Spotify playlists, the Irishman is on over 50 million streams for his acoustic ballad After Rain and around 40 million for the similarly intimate A Closeness.
A spring tour will see him playing the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy as well as selling out four nights at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.
He has talked about his hip hop influences, and has covered Kanye West’s Heartless, so future releases may set him apart more dramatically. For now, there’s no denying the raw power of this particular set of pipes.
May 8, O2 Academy Brixton, SW9. o2academybrixton.co.uk