Paul Dempsey: Shotgun Karaoke

One of Australia’s most beloved singer-songwriters, Paul Dempsey, has announced the Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II National Tour this Spring and Summer.

In Dempsey’s own words, these shows will be “a party, just like karaoke should be. Except I'm the boss and I'm singing all of it and no one else gets the mic."

The original Shotgun Karaoke Tour and album, which blitzed the nation a decade ago, were born from a selection of covers performed in various backstage rooms whilst on tour with Something for Kate, which were then uploaded to YouTube.

Now Dempsey is back with Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II. The concept remains beautifully simple and brilliantly ridiculous: beloved songs reduced to their essential elements, performed live with nothing but Dempsey's voice and acoustic guitar.

"I don't really care if they work with my style," Dempsey explains of his song selection process. "I choose them because I genuinely love the song and think it would be fun to sing."

Running parallel to his career writing classic tunes like ‘Monsters’, ‘Captain’, ‘Déjà Vu’, ‘Survival Expert’ and ‘Out The Airlock’ as front-man for Something For Kate and as a solo artist, Dempsey has also carved a niche as a master of the cover song.

As with his jaw-dropping version of “Edge Of Town” by Middle Kids (which was recently voted in at #31 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of Like A Version), and the iconic "Sweet Nothing" by Florence Welch & Calvin Harris, Dempsey is always finding the delicate balance between tribute and bringing something new to the song.

On tour Dempsey will take things even further than he has with Volumes I and II, playing a broad selection of covers beyond what’s included on either album. He’ll draw on scores of covers done over the decades, diving deep into the rabbit hole a YouTube search for ‘Paul Dempsey covers’ takes you to!

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15