Why I’m Excited #10: Michael McDermott
In a continuing series on the blog, we're going to be hearing about parts of the Lineup for 2010 that people are particularly looking forward to. (For all Why I'm Excited posts, click here.)
If there's something on the Greenbelt 2010 programme that you're particularly looking forward to, do email us a paragraph or two saying why, and we'll put it up here on the blog...
In this post, Steve Foster welcomes back singer-songwriter Michael McDermott, who is on in the Performance Cafe and at The Rising this year...
I knew Michael McDermott for three days before I ever heard him sing a note; I had to introduce him on stage and hope he knew what he was doing.
By then, we were friends. Now we are brothers, and I don’t remember what life was like before the night we met, over Jack Daniels and laughter. Over the last few years we have talked about anything and everything; like brothers we are fearless about our love for each other.
I once watched him learn a Prince song in five minutes flat on a whim, then play it with passion halfway through his set. I've seen him walk out of airport security without his bag or guitar and then look like a bemused child as he realised what he had done. I've driven him through the night as we put the world to rights and swapped the stories of our souls.
When he sings a song he has written, the speed with which the words wrap themselves around my heart is breathtaking. The song "Carry Your Cross" [see video below] from his new album is one of his most hauntingly beautiful. I will leave him to explain the back story of the song but for me it speaks of all the things he has taught me.
