Jim O’Keeffe is a native of Athy, a small rural town in the midlands of Ireland. Born in 1954 he has spent his life listening to and playing the blues, his greatest musical influences are Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton, Robbie Robertson and of course the great bluesmen of previous years like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Having played the bars and the college circuit during his college years, Jim has now turned his full attention to writing and recording.
Jim’s guitar sound is based mainly on Fender stratocasters with the occasional use of Guild and Rickenbacker guitars. Acoustically he favours Takamine, and of course his old cheap pawnshop dobro for slide.
Factory town :
The fifth cd from Jim opens at breakneck speed with “Snakewind” - a Rory Gallagher-esque guitar driven blues rock number. Influences of Bruce Springsteen can be heard in the base drum driven number “Factory town“. “Once was a line” sees Jim tipping his hat to the gutsy ballad style of Tom Petty. And if it’s pure blues you want just listen to the haunting harmonica cutting through “Suburban serenade“.
All in all - these ten original songs are a tribute to the many influences of this songwriter - served up with that unique flavour as only Jim can do.
Guitars, vocals, keyboards, harmonica and drum programming : Jim O'Keeffe
All tracks written by Jim O’Keeffe.
This album is available now for purchase and download on CDBABY
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