New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu



 

Michael McDermott Wins Prestigious Tenco Award for Songwriting

originally published: 09/27/2022

Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Michael McDermott is a 2022 winner of the prestigious Tenco Award for career songwriting, an honor that recognizes artists who have made a significant contribution to songwriting in Italy and abroad. The award, established in 1974, pays homage to the late singer-songwriter Luigi Tenco and celebrates exceptional and impactful songwriting on an international level.

McDermott is now part of a lofty winner’s circle as the Tenco Award has previously gone to luminaries in the singer-songwriter pantheon such as Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Sting, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, and David Crosby. A few international past winners include Caetano Veloso, Jacques Brel, Joan Manuel Serrat, and Milton Nascimento. McDermott will fly to Sanremo, Italy to receive the Tenco Award on October 21 during the Tenco Prize celebration that runs from October 20-22.

“There are a few times when my life felt like a waking dream,” says an elated McDermott, “when I saw my wife Heather as I stepped out of an elevator in Chicago, when I held my daughter Rain in my arms for the first time, when I read what Stephen King had written about me for the liner notes of my album, and now when I heard that I won the Tenco Award. To have my name placed alongside the hallowed company of Tenco, Waits, Mitchell, and Cohen is just so humbling. To me, this is the honor of an eternity.”

The Tenco Award puts a much-deserved crown on McDermott’s artistic career. The Chicago-based triple-threat (singer, songwriter, musician) is now a published author. His just-released memoir, Scars From Another Life, has been described as “a white-knuckle ride from small-town obscurity… from the glitter to the gutter and the long road back…McDermott’s down-and-out determination to transcend his demons is a story of the redemptive power of finding oneself in sobriety, family, and the healing salvation of song.”

Since the early ‘90s, when he released his debut album, 620 W. Surf, McDermott has steadfastly persevered to craft a creative livelihood fortified by more than a dozen studio albums and critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post, to name a few. Even Stephen King, the master of the best-selling horror novel genre, called McDermott “possibly the greatest undiscovered rock and roll talent of the last 20 years.”




Follow New Jersey Stage on social media
Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky



His latest album, St. Paul’s Boulevard, released this past spring on Pauper Sky Records, is a conceptual and autobiographical opus where McDermott introduces characters lost and found, rich and poor, young and old, and many struggling to survive on a fictional street that could exist anywhere. Recorded from August 2021 to February 2022, St. Paul’s Boulevard is the personal yet universal sonic vision of McDermott and co-producer Steven Gillis.

FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


Night

Night Ranger

Thursday, April 03, 2025 @ 7:30pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: music


 

Night

Night Ranger

Friday, April 04, 2025 @ 8:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: music


 

SOLOMON

SOLOMON plays DYLAN

Friday, April 04, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Lizzie Rose Music Room
217 E. Main Street, Tuckerton, NJ 08087
category: music


 

McDonald’s

McDonald’s Gospelfest 2025

Saturday, April 05, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) - Main Stage
1601 Irving Street, Rahway, NJ 07065
category: music


 

Stoned

Stoned Soul Picnic: Joni, Carole, Laura

Saturday, April 05, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Grunin Center - Studio Theater
1 College Drive, Toms River, NJ 08754
category: music


 



Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info





 

EVENT PREVIEWS

Jazz

Jazz at Princeton University presents the 2025 Jazz Festival on April 12th

(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Jazz at Princeton University presents the 2025 Jazz Festival on Saturday, April 12 from 1:00pm to 10:00pm. The lineup includes performances by Roxy Cross, Warren Wolf, Matt Stevens, Princeton University Faculty Septet, and Jazz at Princeton's and the Program in Latin American Studies present the Creative Large Ensemble, directed by Darcy James Argue and special guest Etienne Charles (trumpet).



Grammy

Grammy Award Winners and Jazz Icons the Yellowjackets Come to Bell Theater in April

(HOLMDEL, NJ) -- Celebrate Jazz Appreciation month with the Yellowjackets, which Jazz Times describes as an "electric-acoustic outfit whose smart, often challenging and unpredictable compositions draw from fusion, post-bop and contemporary jazz." These jazz icons are headed to Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel on Thursday, April 24, 2025.



NJPAC

NJPAC presents R&B superstar Tyrese Gibson

(NEWARK, NJ) -- R&B superstar Tyrese Gibson will perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) on Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 7:00pm. He is set to deliver an unforgettable night featuring his chart-topping songs like "Sweet Lady" and "How You Gonna Act Like That." Concert goers can anticipate a memorable experience as Gibson captivates the audience with his powerful vocals and engaging stage presence.



Jersey

Jersey Arts Podcast: Bewitched by Botti - A Chat with the Grammy Winning Trumpeter

Jazz fans, rejoice! Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti will be gracing the stage of the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 12, 2025.



Get

Get the Led Out to Play Three Nights at Scottish Rite Auditorium

(COLLINGSWOOD, NJ) -- Get the Led Out (GTLO) takes over the Scottish Rite Auditorium for shows April 24-26, 2025 at 8:00pm each night. From the bombastic and epic to the folky and mystical, GTLO has captured the essence of the recorded music of Led Zeppelin and brought it to the concert stage. The concerts are presented by the Camden County Board of Commissioners.