Eamonn McCormack and band had quite a good year despite Covid

The year started out slow for the guys with many venues closed for obvious reasons.
However, the band used the time to develop new sound ideas and expand on the concept Eamonn had being working on throughout lock down in 2020. He first designed his new ultimate guitar amplifier Rig with the help of Hughes & Kettner Amps in Germany and Deeflexx Systems in Austria ( A separate post showcasing the Amp rig coming shortly).

The new sound includes special guitar effects created ( which will be featured on the next album) via Eamonn’s new Eventide H9 pedal supplied by Eventide distributor in Germany. This powerful new sound using two guitar amps and three speaker cabs is then complimented by bassist Eddy Karg adding Foot keys with sample sounds such as Hammond B3 Organ played with his feet as he plays the bass guitar.
Now with this combination alone it sounds like a four piece band. Enter… Max Jung-Poppe on the drums/percussion as well as triggering a sample pad with a backing rhythm guitar track from Eamonn for just a few songs and you have a Power Trio that sounds like a Six piece band in a Trio format. When asked about all this recently, Eamonn smiles! and says, “Well I did have the pleasure of opening for that little Ol’Band from Texas once, Big heroes of mine and lovely guys (RIP Dusty) and I remember watching their show, and thinking afterwards, Hell, if those guys can use a wee bit of technology on stage. I might just try that out myself one day!! It took a while but Lock down re-triggered the thought and I just went for it and jumped in the deep end. Wait till I add a Godin guitar from Canada into the mix, a good friend of mine lent me this beaut to experiment with. Forget sounding like a six piece piece. Try eight piece band!! this guitar is a 3 in 1 axe!! Its an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar and a guitar synth all in one and all 3 can be played at the same time. not to mention adding my harmonica!!!When we started experimenting it became obvious, its limitless what you can do. But I also became aware not to get caught up on it too much where we start sounding like Depeche Mode. So in a two hour show, we’ll make sure that over 50% still remains full on! Power Trio with lots of Blues Rock keeping it Raw with that edgy Rock n’ Roll element intact. But Let me tell you!! the Tech stuff sounds amazing and its actually mind blowing with all the whistles and bells on at the same time.”

Apart from Eamonn writing material and doing arrangments for two new albums to be released next year. The band did go out on one full tour with special guest, American Queen of slide guitar Joanna Connor, and Special it certainly was. They started in Bilbao, Spain and ended in Belfast with Irish guests Grainne Duffy and Davy Kerrigan. The tour also covered Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, UK and Ireland and had great feedback and reviews all round, during a tough year. It was a great boost for the band to get out touring again, even just for a while and in fact, just in time as some lock downs and some harder Covid restrictions came into play not so long after they returned from The tour.

Another highlight during the year was “Storyteller” Album release on 21st May across America and Canada. It was Eamonn’s first ever proper release in America (Not just available via Import from Europe). It was very well received and critically acclaimed by the press. Gained a lot of radio play. So now with the next releases going Worldwide, plans for an American tour for 2023 are on the table.

Management wise, 2021 saw Richard Segers from Holland come into the fold and together with Dutch man Ben Bakker, they form the Personal management team guiding Eamonn and his bands International career.

A shout out to Kevin Cerncic for the wonderful job he did on tour as our personal sound man.

Here’s to a Great New year from Eamonn, Max, Eddy, Ben, Richard, Brian and all behind the scenes of Eamonn McCormack.

Updates of all that’s happening can be found on this website as well as Facebook, youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Happy 2022 to All