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10th May 2020

Dermot Kennedy shares brilliant throwback video of his time busking in Boston

James Fenton

Dermot Kennedy can do no wrong at the minute as his music continues to inspire his ever-growing fanbase both here in Ireland and beyond.

A few weeks ago, viewers of the Late Late Show got a taste of Dermot Kennedy’s talents when he performed a few songs in the studio. Appearing on the show is a pretty big milestone for Irish musicians and the Dubliner has certainly come a long way from busking on a bridge in Boston back in 2011.

The singer has shared a video to his Instagram account which shows him a fresh-faced 19-year-old trying to ‘make enough money to buy food and beer.’ He explains the background to the clip in a lengthy caption which reads:

9 years ago, I spent the summer playing songs as people walked by on the bridge in Boston Common. Just to make enough money to buy food and beer and a shitty fan so me and my friends didn’t boil to death in the tiny place we rented that summer.

‘I had to audition for an Argentinian busker called Davide to be allowed play on this bridge for a couple of hours a day. He let me play here in the mornings, and in exchange I’d get his breakfast for him in Starbucks when he showed up to take the spot back.

‘He was the final boss of buskers in the park. I felt so welcomed by the city and its people. Just down the road from here is the House of Blues, where we had one of our best shows last year to a few thousand people. I like to wonder if anyone who saw me playing on the bridge in the park was at that show.

‘If anyone wants to follow any kind of dream and is feeling discouraged in any way, I would love if this showed even one person that it just takes time and perseverance. But the key to it is I was perfectly happy just playing on the bridge in the park with most people just passing by. Just playing the songs gave me everything I needed.’

Quite the rags to riches tale. The clip has really struck a chord, with one person commenting ‘I remember seeing you on that bridge in Boston, it was my nephews first trip to the city’ while Dermot’s musical colleague Sam Fender wrote ‘The last two lines of this are the most important, absolutely spot on.’ Former Ireland footballer Robbie Keane was also impressed, posting: ‘love this’ alongside a couple of hand-clapping emojis.

You can check out the video below and don’t forget to swipe to hear Dermot having a chat with a couple of eager listeners…

View this post on Instagram

9 years ago, I spent the summer playing songs as people walked by on the bridge in Boston Common. Just to make enough money to buy food and beer and a shitty fan so me and my friends didn’t boil to death in the tiny place we rented that summer. I had to audition for an Argentinian busker called Davide to be allowed play on this bridge for a couple of hours a day. He let me play here in the mornings, and in exchange I’d get his breakfast for him in Starbucks when he showed up to take the spot back. He was the final boss of buskers in the park. I felt so welcomed by the city and its people. Just down the road from here is the House of Blues, where we had one of our best shows last year to a few thousand people. I like to wonder if anyone who saw me playing on the bridge in the park was at that show. If anyone wants to follow any kind of dream and is feeling discouraged in any way, I would love if this showed even one person that it just takes time and perseverance. But the key to it is I was perfectly happy just playing on the bridge in the park with most people just passing by. Just playing the songs gave me everything I needed

A post shared by Dermot Kennedy (@dermotkennedy) on

Let’s hope they remembered the name because it’s kind of everywhere these days.

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