Along with Crossmolina’s Kevin Duffy, James Cramer is one half of the duo Tupelo. But James also has a hugely successful career as a solo recording artist and songwriter.
In the fortnight since its release, his powerful pop song Simple Man has been playlisted on national and local radio stations.
In addition, James’ song The Road to Kinawley will feature in Lenny Abrahamson’s television adaptation of Sally Rooney ‘s award-winning bestseller Normal People. The 12 part series will air on BBC Three in the UK, Hulu in the US, STAN in Australia and RTÉ here in Ireland, bringing James’ music to a huge global audience.
Simple Man by James Cramer is out now on Bohemia Records.
Multi-instrumentalist performer and songwriter James Cramer has been co-writing with some of Ireland’s chart toppers for many years, including Hermitage Green, Luan Parle and Eleanor McEvoy.
James also fronts the alt-folk band Tupelo with Kevin Duffy. With three albums of original music written entirely by James, Tupelo have played sold out tours in Denmark and Holland, played festivals and shows in Ireland, UK, France, Belgium, Norway, Russia and the USA.
As diverse a musician as he is talented, James’ solo music has already captured attention including My World Again, with it’s impacting honest recital and piano led refrain, which featured in Canadian reality TV series Hello Goodbye.
Simple Man, the first single to be taken from James’ debut solo album (to be released later this year) sees him channel all of his skills into this big, bold, soulful pop song.
After teaming up with Norwegian producer Eirik Molnes Husabø, James flew to his studio in Norway to record the song.
James’ prowess on multiple instruments is perhaps even more impressive considering he is almost entirely self-taught. In his own words he ‘never took to teachers’ and ‘just found his way around the instruments’.
James says: “I’ve been navigating my whole life this way. I grew up in Cabra, Dublin and my grandmother bought me an old upright piano when I was a kid. My parents didn’t have any money so my Nana had been working as a cleaner and chipping money off this piano every week to buy it for me. I took a few piano lessons but never really liked being told what to do so I found my way around it and taught myself. Then I moved on to other instruments.”
