Eamonn McCormack

This is Eamonn McCormack’s seventh album and I feel slightly ashamed that I don’t know him but I will remedy that – he is really rather good!

Me McCormack is a Blues and rock guitarist who writes all his own songs and sings in a strong Irish brogue. Edgar Karo plays bass and Max Jung-Poppe plays drums while Arne Wiegard produced the set and added keyboards.

This album is not exactly a revolution but crossing between the worlds of Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, George Thorogood and Walter Trout shows that he is not afraid of his influences – rather he revels in them.

The album kicks off with a very strong number – emotionally – in ‘The Great Famine’, dealing with the Irish Potato famine of the mid-19th century. An almost folk-like opening builds gradually into a rock ballad with some soaring guitar work – a slightly odd way to start the album but I can see it getting great aiplay on the rock radio stations.

All through the album his voice hammers out at you, strongly Irish that is a little at odds with the music on occasion but it sounds quite fresh and different from all those I-Wanna—be-American voices you hear all over the Blues scene. His guitar playing in the meantime is excellent.

My personal favourite song is ‘Tie One On’ which sounds almost like a merger of Jojo Gunn and Phil Lynott and really hits the mark.

It’s a very good album and the more I listened to it the better it sounded.