Herb Dee – the self confessed ‘grump’ – lines up Stables date

Herb Dee is a grump, though he is referred to in HotPress as a ‘cult artist’. He means well when he writes poetry in retweets to RTÉ’s late debate, and while they often ‘like’ or retweet, he is never left short of material.

Herb will be the first to admit though, that it’s a tough gig trying to get people to listen to the words when everything has to be short and sharp and gone in 30 seconds.

Twenty years ago, he fronted a band called Bullit and was the token Dubliner in what was ostensibly a Mullingar band and the brainchild of Eddie Reynolds. They had three albums and played Ireland and the UK for a few years before young family took centre stage.

During the 2020 lockdown, Herb returned to the guitar and the pen for sanity. Now, after 11 albums and multiple singles in that time, he is trying to entice audiences out of the gridlock that is the modern social media climate, with hour and a half sets of acoustic commentary and poetry put to music.

Sonically, Herb is now closer to Christy Moore on the spectrum than the raucous rock of Bullit, but the words are no less hard hitting and the music is no less out of place.

He has notched up a few accolades along the way, including ‘Album of the Week’ on a French radio station and a sold out show in January at one of the Dublin Whelan’s stages.

Now, in a bid to reach as many corners of Ireland and beyond before Artificial Intelligence puts the final nail in the coffin of original music, Herb is playing the Stables in Smiddy’s, Mullingar on Friday, March 1 (tickets are available on Eventbrite).

You can listen to Herb’s music on most streaming sites (except the big one due to conscientious objection) and a good place to start is herbdee.bandcamp.com.