Mike McDevitt is an award-winning Delaware-based singer/songwriter performing regularly in the quad-state area. His songs have been played on the radio domestically and internationally and his shows are passionate highlighting his touchingly beautiful and personal songs.
His latest album, Delaware Bay, showcases 17 well crafted songs of love lost, love gained, life adventures and personal reflections. In fact, his songs are often described as "hauntingly beautiful and accessible chronicles of meeting life's challenges head on, of self-discovery, of love lost, found and lost again." He is a self-taught guitarist who has been performing live for many years. McDevitt’s songs tell real stories about real people. He has been singing and playing since “going public” in college and "songwriting came a little later when I realized I could capture something deeply personal and share it others."
McDevitt brings a deep personal understanding and hope to a place where neither is known to exist for very long. His melodies are distinctive, tight and evocative of an age when melody was an important component in all music. As anyone who has ever heard him sing his songs knows, it's his heartfelt performances, the lyrics, and the tunes that carry the moment. And carry the moment they most surely do. Fans everywhere ask for Mike to perform "Delaware Bay," a deeply personal song about coming home. It's filled with references to Delaware, regional landmarks and personalities and McDevitt's audiences frequently know and sing the words with him at shows. His songs come from a place deep in the human heart with unmistakable emotion and unforgettable hooks and atmosphere.
The audience can often be seen bopping and swaying to his melodies at a show. He touches a place where we have all been at some time in our lives and McDevitt sings it as if he personally owns every inch of the terrain and knows every nook and cranny. "Hammer & Nail" is both a vivid description of vulnerability and interdependency in relationships and a declaration of hope through love. This touching ballad is woven together with a gorgeous triple-tracked acoustic guitar and violin soundtrack. The gorgeous "Angels" touches deep in the human soul and is Mike's response to the insanity of school shootings. "Lost in all the so-called personal rights nonsense is the fact that children are killed senselessly almost every day, " McDevitt said.
Then, there is the unmistakable danceability of "All I Wanna Do" with a can't miss lyrical hook of personal feeling right there on the table. From the earlier album, "Storyteller," "All Good Things" is dedicated to all those millions in America who have suffered outrageously because of corporate selfishness and greed and who find themselves kicked to the curb for no reason and no matter what they may have contributed. "Think Before You Speak" brilliantly captures the outrageous and overwhelming ignorance of a pervasive section of American society dedicated to agenda politics and self-absorption over anything factual. As if to counter, there is the underlying hope that resonates even in the most desperate of situations that haunts the listener like the call for social justice and the all-consuming landscape in "Calling All Angels" and "Play On."
Other songs in the growing McDevitt catalog like "How," "Forbidden Trails," (from "Delaware Bay"), "Fantasy," and "Where Are The Appraisers?" create a touching and sometimes all-encompassing atmosphere that leaves the listener deeply affected, personally engaged and wanting more.
Some of the songs leave tears in the eyes of the listener. They are that unforgettable. Mike's songs are sometimes tender, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes in your face but never dull. And they are always real. They grab you, shake you to the core and then live with you. You won't forget them. His stories are about our struggles and our ability to keep going somehow, to find meaning in each other and in our lives. Mike McDevitt sings about us in celebrating our humanity, our daily struggle to keep going, to be better people and our love for each other.
"Every day brings more opportunity to explore why we need love and each other, why we often hurt those closest to us and toss away the good that's there surely is in life for something that we don't really need and can't use."
Mike McDevitt has produced 4 albums of his music, which are available out there now: I Believe, You Don’t Know It Yet, America at the Movies are demo albums and recently Storyteller, a fully produced chronicle of the McDevitt saga and. of course, Delaware Bay. "Sometimes, it's just my Martin and me with a little background percussion. Sometimes, it’s more.”
Mike believes that life provides almost infinite song material. "You need to be a keen observer of and serious participate in life. Because you never know what the tide will bring on any given day," he explained.
"There is an indescribable joy in walking into a recording studio or stepping out on the stage, picking up a guitar or sitting at a piano, turning on the microphones and recorder and just creating something where there was nothing before. Out of nothing, I get to sing about and describe people’s fears, longings, feelings and hopes. I get to connect with something that’s bigger than me. Bigger than all of us. It’s like magic."
"I want people to hear my songs and my stories and be affected by them," said Mike.
As Mike concludes, "So...please, give my songs a listen. Take them with you (for a small fee, of course), comment or contact me. I am happy to hear from you...and will respond...Regards and I hope I passed the audition...." Catch a Mike McDevitt show. It is an uplifting and unforgettable personal experience.
