Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Storyteller , from Irish blues-rock sensation, Eamonn McCormack and it touches on many faces of european rock. Opening with The Great Famine , a folky rock tune with atmospheric backing and tight rock guitar riffs, Eamonn (pronounced A-min) McCormack  leads on vocal and guitar, backed by Edgar Karg on bass, Max Jung-Poppe on drumsand Arne Weigand on keys. Sounding a bit like David Bowie with the Beatles, Help Me To Understand is a sool, low key rocker with a solid bass line by Karg and powerful vocals by Eamonn. Jacking up the rock side of the business, Tie One On sounds like it's heavily influenced by Thin Lizzy with it's snappy drum rhythm and super Rory Gallagher like slide work. Very cool. One of my favorite tracks on the release is hard driving, Cowboy Blues , with it's tight bottom and slashing slide work. Very cool. On blues ballad, In A Dream, McCormack is up front on vocal with solid support from We...

Eamonn was born in the center of Dublin, the capital city of Ireland and was raised on a North side Suburb. He started out on the acoustic guitar at nine years of age. Earliest influences included Slade, Cat Stevens, Neil Young and Rory Gallagher. By twelve he was singing along with his guitar and performing at church folk masses. Soon, finding the church music somewhat restricting the young teenager acquired his first electric guitar (a Guild Starfire) progressed to lead guitar and joined a local garage cover band prior to playing his first paid gig. By now influences extending to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Thin Lizzy and Dutch group Focus. At sixteen Eamonn performed live on a national Irish radio show. Around this time he also won a major high school competition performing his own material. After a short stint playing in various bands throughout Ireland, Eamonn headed off to the U.S.A. where he performed extensively. There he broadened his musical horizons, gained vital stage e...