A Beginner's Guide to Bravery David Keenan

• 1 James Dean 03:34
• 2 Unholy Ghosts 04:33
• 3 Altar Wine 03:23
• 4 Love in a Snug 07:04
• 5 Tin Pan Alley 04:07
• 6 Good Old Days 05:18
• 7 The Healing 03:20
• 8 Origin of the World 07:16
• 9 Eastern Nights 04:25
• 10 Evidence of Living 06:48
• 11 Subliminal Dublinia 08:04
• Total Runtime 57:52

Info for A Beginner's Guide to Bravery

David Keenan is a twenty-six year old solo artist from the border-town of Dundalk in Ireland. His burgeoning reputation in his native country has been fuelled by a handful of self-released EPs and live shows which border on religious experiences. He counts Hozier, Gary Lightbody, Glenn Hansard and Dermot Kennedy among his growing number of fans. A Beginner's Guide To Bravery is his debut album. Recorded live in the studio, it is an audacious, unfettered introduction to his singular sound world.

These songs, dreams, séances, confessions, redemptive prayers, acts of rebellion, medicinal hopes, recorded source material. These are all that I was, all that I am and all that I'll ever be. Suspended in space and memory, to thrive and amalgamate until they are forgotten.

I tried to say all that I needed to say, unfiltered and devoid of timidity.

As life gave life to words and melody, they too began to reciprocate and I watched as the characters in the songs began to create their own mythologies, embodying their own personalities, gifting love and abundance and providing arenas in which to vent, in which to float, free of judgement. For that is one of the innumerable savings of Art and the freedoms it provides. With your truth, safe in the expression of that truth. Trusting it as your guide.

I altered as a being throughout the journey, naturally in the flow of it all. It allowed me to expel, to explore and to connect with a collective who I love and among whom I feel that I belong. It challenged us all to be brave, to truly step into situations. It was the catalyst for change within and without, the dissipater of the veil.

The process of sculpting this album and it sculpting me, brought joys and euphorias and pains and sadnesses in equal measure.

All of it was of importance! All of it was of worth, as all of it led to healing, reset & renewal. None of it would have held any merit for me if it hadn't of had to be gráfted for.

Graham Hopkins, drums, percussion & backing vocals
Gavin Glass, electric guitar, banjo, mandolin, hammond organ, pump organ, piano, dobro, lap steel & glockenspiel
Gar Kane, bass & backing vocals
Harry Hoban, piano, rhodes, harmonium
Gareth Quinn Redmond, violin & backing vocals
Allanah Thornburgh, harp
Leon Kane, backing vocals
Brian Larkin, backing vocals
Aidan Shortall, backing vocals
Peter Ashmore, backing vocals
Chris Barry, backing vocals
Jack O'Donoghue, backing vocals
Mark William Logan, backing vocals
Greg Purcell, backing vocals
Bob Hogan, backing vocals

David Keenan
"Not just another young lad with an acoustic guitar, Keenan is the sound of Tim Buckley and Brendan Behan arguing over a few jars, while Kavanagh deals Dylan a suspicious hand of cards, and Anthony Cronin and Jack Kerouac furiously try to scribble it all down" -Pat Carty, Hot Press Magazine.

David Keenan has built a reputation as one of Ireland's leading songwriters and live performers.

A prolific output includes two critically acclaimed albums "A Beginner's Guide to Bravery" released in 2020, reaching number 1 in the Independent Charts & the 2021 follow up "WHAT THEN?" marked Keenan's worth as an artist intent on pursuing their own path. Other works include a published collection of poetry “Soundings of an Unnamed Bird”, live album/concert film "Alchemy & Prose" (2020) and his new album “CRUDE” (2022) followed by the EP “CRUDE BOYO” (2023).

Keenan has toured consistently throughout Europe and North America with notable events including two headline nights in Dublin's Olympia theatre, the main stage of Electric Picnic, residencies in Paris and New York's Irish Arts Centres & writing the music for Evanne Kilgallon's experimental play “AN LÁR”.

The powerful and uplifting single “An Irish Song” was just released before an illuminated headline show in The National Concert Hall, Dublin.

Described by Hot Press…”There is no longer any doubt whether he’ll be able to fit the massive space– in fact, the space moulds to fit him.

It seems he’s finally found a stage big enough to hold him, though the high roof and rows of seats were bursting at the seams from the sheer power within”.

His fourth studio album is due for release in early 2024.

This album contains no booklet.