Irish Vocal Jazz Artist Jimmy’s Cousin Releases First Track From Upcoming Debut Album

Here's the sales pitch: If Van Morrison and Paul Buchanan had a love child, some reckon it would be Jimmy’s Cousin.

Irish born and schooled in New York with a detour into multiple careers across Europe, Jimmy’s Cousin has been 30 years in the making. His first demo was recorded in 1991 and yet his first album, ‘Waxwings’, sees the light of day next Spring!

Why the long delay? His PR says, "He wanted to wait till he had something to say..."!

The album is produced by Dave Keary whose guitar playing and musical direction appears on records by acts such as Van Morrison, Gregory Porter, Taj Mahal, Roger Daltrey and Bobby Womack. Adding a deep vein of musical pedigree to the arrangement and realisation of the songs.

‘Waxwings’ is an ambitious, melodic, close to the bone and very personal, blend of Vocal Jazz which tells the genesis of a mans journey to find his personal identity and creative spirit spanning 30 years and numerous countries, loves lost and gained, careers and experiences all compacted into this stunning debut.

The first single from the record is titled ‘I Do’ and is officially released on 30 November. It will precede a second single and the album next Spring.

Also playing on the album is Paul Moore (Bass), James Delaney (Piano), Des Lacey (Drums) Micheal Buckley (Brass), plus a host of others.

The result is a personal set of songs with an emotive and supportive soundscape with a reoccuring theme of love and self realisation.

As a teenager Jimmys Cousin loved Rimbaud’s poem “To know the dark”:
“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.”

‘Waxwings’ is an album about acceptance of the risks associated with truly loving someone. It’s an album about the inevitability of loss, about flying into the darkness and touching the face of grief yet finding a new part of yourself on the other side.

How did Jimmys Cousin come to fruition? He was raised in a small provincial town in Limerick, Ireland and had an older brother named Paul. Everywhere he went he was Paul’s brother.

He was always following in his footsteps and had no identity of his own. Striking out for New York in the early 90’s, following the thousands within the Irish diaspora that came before him, he relished the thought of being his own person, with his own identity and moved initially, in with his american cousin Jimmy.

He introduced him to all of his friends and of course everywhere he went in New York for the following few years he was known as…. Jimmy’s Cousin!