Opening for The Lumineers is not a small thing. The Denver folk-rock band have spent the better part of a decade filling arenas on the back of songs that feel less like performances and more like communal moments — and the audiences they draw are exactly the kind that Darren Kiely’s music was made for. The announcement that the Co. Cork-born singer-songwriter will join them on select dates of The Automatic World Tour this June feels like a pairing that makes a lot of sense.
Kiely has been building steadily for a few years now. Signed to Free Flight Records — the Sony Music Nashville-backed label for artists whose sound lives outside traditional country lines — he’s released two EPs, Lost and From The Dark. The debut produced “Mom & Dad,” which broke into the Top 40 on the Irish Singles Chart, and “Sunrise,” which hit the top of the charts. Last year, his Never Been Here Before World Tour stretched across Ireland, the UK, Australia, South Africa, Switzerland and Germany, along with a run of US festival dates. For an artist still in the earlier stages of his career, the live mileage is already substantial.
The backstory is a good one too. He picked up the tin whistle at five years old, the fiddle at eight, and eventually taught himself guitar. He started singing in 2019 and within a few years had made the jump from Co. Cork to New York, then on to Nashville’s songwriting community, where his folk-rooted sound found a natural home. The Lumineers are among the artists he cites as an influence, which makes this particular support slot feel less like a stroke of luck and more like a logical next stop.
He also dropped a new single today — “White Flag,” a self-produced track about letting go of old hurt to give love a real shot. You can read more about that one here.
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