Dermot Kennedy: 2026

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

I was introduced to Dermot Kennedy back in the summer of 2021 when my friends and I went to Brooklyn Mirage for a pent-up-pandemic dance session featuring the Italian house music group, Meduza. Dermot was the featured vocalist on a track called “Paradise” and he actually showed up to the set to sing live in the pouring rain on a hot and sweaty New York City summer night. His voice totally hooked me and, since then, I’ve followed along with his career and watched as his solo work caught fire.

Kennedy joined WFUV in Studio-A to play three songs from his third solo album, The Weight of the Woods, and to chat with me about how the new record was influenced by his native home, Ireland, what it was like to work with producer Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan, Lana Del Rey) on this project, and his early training in classical music and how that colored his journey to becoming a singer, songwriter and musician.

The Weight of the Woods has all the elements that make a Dermot Kennedy album special: vulnerable and intimate lyrics filled with rich scene setting, traditional Irish instrumentation and influence, and Dermot’s muscular and raw vocals. His three-song set in Studio A consisted of one older track, “Lost,” from his 2019 album, Without Fear, and two tracks from the new project —  “Blue Eyes” and “Funeral” — both of which feature his emotion-filled powerhouse voice that stamps his signature sound.

While the new album features plenty of layered and complex production, this session in Studio A was a stripped-down acoustic set, which Kennedy says is not only his specialty, but also his favorite way to play. The Weight of the Woods is freshly released, so make sure you get your hands on this album as soon as you have the chance.

Kennedy will spend most of 2026 touring Europe, so if you’re across the pond be sure to see him live, and in the meantime, don’t miss videos of his performance in Studio A.

[Recorded 3/18/26; Engineered by Jim O'Hara, Erin Merriman, James Higgins, and Stacy Tran. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Olivia Iannaccone, Lily Crean, Olivia Iannaccone and Erin Malley.]