If you want to go on a journey from protest songs through love songs to those that squeeze every drop of emotion out of you, then Jimi Cullen is the man for you. You will laugh and nod with understanding when he sings of hangovers and you'll cry when he reminds you of how many of us walk by homeless people on the street.
He does not preach from a high horse, instead he shows us, sometimes not too gently, of what is really going on and then leaves it up to us.
Jimi is a solo musician from Gorey, South East Ireland. He has been writing and performing for about three years and has built a good reputation as one of the hardest working musicians in Ireland with over 500 gigs to his credit. Needless to say such hard work is resulting in an increasing number of fans who are moved by his music and his song "On the Street" has surely got to be the anthem for all the homeless people in the world. When he sings that song you can almost touch the emotion he arouses in his listeners.
It all began with Jimi hitchhiking around Ireland to his first gigs until he could afford a car at which time he started playing wherever he could and has since played some of Irelands finest stages with some of Irelands top acts like John Spillane, Paddy Casey, Declan O Rourke, The Revs, Aslan, David Kitt, Jinx Lennon, Mary Coughlan, Eleanor Mc Evoy, Roesy and the list goes on.
His debut e.p. "Anthems for the doomed youth pt.1" was released to good acclaim in 2005 and has since sold over 600 copies. His Debut album “When the last leaf falls” was released in 2007 and to date has sold over 1,000 copies receiving good reviews in Hotpress and the Evening Herald and has also been picking up good radio play. Jimi's new album "The Junkyard poet" was just released on the 27th of June 08 and has already been getting some good interest both nationally and internationally with one track "Messed up world" being released in California on the acoustika vol.11 compilation album on 272 records.
Jimi's music can best be described as a mix between Folk, Grunge, Blues and Rock mixed with a healthy dose of originality. His music even touches on rap and spoken word. His lyrics are often quite politically and socially aware with songs about War, Poverty, Injustice and the Homeless, but often humorous too with songs like "Hangover Blues" and "Talking Religion Blues" and of course some songs are simply of love's won and love's lost. Jimi has coined the phrase topical folk which he believes is a fair representation of what he does. These days Jimi spends most of his time on the road travelling from town to town spreading the good word, playing wherever there's an audience.
Jimi is truly one of the last unsung Troubadours.
Official Website: http://www.jimicullenmusic.com/
MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jimicullen/