David Keenan

David Keenan wrote the ode to his hometown of Dundalk on the Irish border “El Paso” at 14. 

Self-educated and guided by his grandfather’s storytelling gift songwriting has always been a full-time vocation. After a number of self-released EPs, his first album “A Beginner's Guide to Bravery" (2020) reached number 1 in the Irish indie Charts and was followed by the critically acclaimed second "WHAT THEN?" a year later. Other works include the live album/concert film "Alchemy & Prose” and the d.i.y “CRUDE” records. With a reputation as a uniquely poetic singer-songwriter/storyteller and relentless live performer he has toured consistently from a young age across Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America and Australia with events including two headline nights in Dublin's Olympia Theatre, the main stage of Electric Picnic, appearances at Lowlands, SXSW, Sydney Fest, Folk Alliance, Eurosonic, Glastonbury and Celtic Connections, residencies in Paris and New York's Irish Arts Centres & a recent headline show in Ireland’s National Concert Hall. 

As a guest, he’s also toured alongside the likes of Hozier, David Gray, Dermot Kennedy, Counting Crows, Snow Patrol, Richard Thompson and Rodrigo y Gabriela. 

“But to describe the music, what are the terms available, folk, trad, blues, rock n’ roll? It is all these things, but the only appellation that suits, the one that best befits all the highest musical expression - is the only one that matters. This is soul music. " - Pat Carty.

2025

“Focla ar Chanbhás” or ‘Words on Canvas’:

2025 will see the release of his fourth studio album as well as the documentary film ‘Focla ar Chanbhás’ or ‘Words on Canvas’ directed by Paddy Hayes. The film gets its world premiere at Chicago Irish Film Festival and will then feature at Capital Film Festival in Washington DC before closing Craicfest in New York and moving back to be seen in Ireland, the UK and Europe.

‘Four years after the breakthrough success of his debut album Beginner's Guide to Bravery, Dundalk songwriter, musician, and composer, David Keenan, is at a crossroads. After touring extensively and building a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading live performers, he returns to the studio to record new music. “Anger is easy to portray, it’s the hurt that’s hard”, he says, as we explore David's wordsmithing over the course of 500 days. This is a portrait of one artist as a young man, which in turn is a portrait of every musical artist as they endeavour to stand out in a world of “algorithm and blues”, and remain authentically and powerfully true to themselves’.