Michael McDermott is one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock n roll talent of the last 20 years.” - Author Stephen King Michael McDermott - St. Paul’s Boulevard

Music makes a deep connection when it strikes that delicate nerve separating the personal from the universal. If the listener can use the songs as mirrors, then the musician has succeeded in communicating their art. Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael McDermott has spent decades riding that artistic balance, and he does it again with fresh potency on St. Paul’s Boulevard.

St. Paul’s Boulevard is a concept album, of sorts. It gathers its creative momentum by introducing characters lost and found, rich and poor, young and old, and many struggling to survive on a fictional street that could exist anywhere. Recorded from August 2021 to February 2022 at Transient Sound and Pauper Sky Studios in Chicago, St. Paul’s Boulevard is the sonic vision of McDermott and co-producer Steven Gillis.

McDermott knows a thing or two about heartbreak and arrested development. Back in the early ‘90s, McDermott was the new toast of the major label recording industry with his debut album, 620 W. Surf. But in typical chew-them-up and spit-them-out style, McDermott had seemingly been tossed in the never-been bin by the end of that decade. He persevered, though, and built a career fortified by more than a dozen studio albums and critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post, to name a few. Even Stephen King, the master of the best-selling horror novel genre, called McDermott “possibly the greatest undiscovered rock and roll talent of the last 20 years.” But this heartland rocker continues to make music on his own terms. He is the ultimate survivor of the potentially soul-crushing world of money-hungry executives and starving singer-songwriters yearning for stardom. That’s exactly why St. Paul’s Boulevard is as personal as it is universal. McDermott lived those songs, that place, and those shattered hopes.

“Those days are now just a wash of dreams of characters, of drunken and drug-fueled nights wandering all over town looking for an angry fix driven by love, lust, longing, or connection,” he says. “I lost a lot of people on St. Paul’s Boulevard. Many never made it out, but I’m lucky to have. It’s a place that brings out our best and our worst in equal measure. It’s the landscape where the doggedness of the spirit rises above the grim realities that surround us.”

Heather Horton is the fiddle player, background vocalist, and wife of critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, Michael McDermott. After the birth of their child, Horton put her solo career on hold while continuing to tour with McDermott and with their highly acclaimed side project, The Westies. All the while, the urgency for Horton to get back to her roots, remained impending. Horton came out of virtual nowhere last September with, Don’t Mess With Mrs. Murphy - unapologetically, swinging for the fences with every word, every nuance, every secret…opening the eyes, ears, and hearts of every critic that chose to press ‘play’. The comeback record received among several accolades, a rare 10 out of 10 from Americana UK, as well as year-end Critic’s Choice Album of the Year.

Doors open at 5pm

Dinner served from 5pm to 6:30pm (Not included in ticket price)

Show begins at 6:30pm

Must be 21 or older

For more information contact us at 815-434-4406 ext 1

*Artists/details subject to change