CONTRIBUTED BY SUNDILLA

AUBURN — Michael McDermott will make his Sundilla debut on Friday, Sept. 23. Showtime at Pebble Hill is 7:30 p.m.

Advance tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Spicer’s Music, Ross House Coffee and online at sundillamusic.com. Admission at the door will be $25.

McDermott might be something of an unknown in some places, but don’t be fooled into thinking that he’s a complete unknown. Stephen King said, “Michael McDermott is one of the best songwriters in the world and possibly the greatest undiscovered rock ‘n’ roll talent of the last 20 years.” The Washington Post predicts “McDermott may well become one of his generation’s greatest talents.”

And he’s no newcomer, not a Johnny-come-lately. In fact, McDermott’s brand of music brims with the kind of well-honed style and wisdom that can only come from a career on the road and a pedigree in the studio. Effortlessly blending natural folk sensibility, pop hooks and honest rock, McDermott’s music is as much for the outcast as the congregation. It’s an exploration of the dark corners of life’s journey, and it resonates middle-class truths through the passionate filter of a child that grew up on Chicago’s Irish South Side.

“I’m from Chicago, like eight miles from where John Prine grew up, so this is how we do Americana in Chicago,” he said with a laugh. “I gave Nashville a little bit of a try, but decided why would I want to be around a bunch of people like me?”

More evidence that he’s not as unknown, as some think, is his string of successes. 2016’s “Willow Springs” went to No. 1 on the European Americana chart, and the string of critically acclaimed albums goes back to his major label debut, “620 W. Surf,” in 1991.

“Yeah, that was the gamechanger,” McDermott mused. “Critics were calling me the next Dylan, next Springsteen. I got into Rolling Stone, the New York Times, CNN — all that. And as soon as it came, it was gone. It’s a funny feeling to be 23 or 24 and washed up, you know? It kind of sent me sideways.”

Washed up? No, just finally in the right place at the right time.

For more information, go to www.sundillamusic.com.