Biography
Born in Massachusetts, USA, American singer-songwriter Kevin Connolly grew up inside the Irish working-class enclave jokingly nicknamed the ‘Irish Riviera’ that stretches between Boston and Cape Cod. Half-Irish by heritage, he gravitated at once toward Van Morrison’s music and cultivated a parallel method of spontaneously shaping lyrics while the instrumental backing drifts along unexpected routes, all without severing the song’s continuity. He compared the technique to shaping musical textures that could ‘bend’ in response to the song’s evolving direction, yielding a relaxed, free-spirited atmosphere that frames his literate and perceptive verses.
A year spent in Marino, near Rome, Italy, beginning in August 1991, framed the writing of his first two albums; the unhurried local rhythm supplied ample time for new material. The 1993 release drew on several Massachusetts musicians, among them Steven Paul’s expressive slide guitar, Dana Colley’s saxophone and clarinet, and Jim Fitting’s blues harmonica. In addition to honoring that Italian period (‘a celebration of that time and the people that we met’), the album took partial impetus from Connolly’s reading of Dylan Thomas’ poetry. Produced and engineered by Dicky Carlisle, My My My placed him at the leading edge of the cohort of fresh American singer-songwriters surfacing in the 1990s. On 1995’s Little Town he turned instead to his Boston upbringing, the city where multiple polls had already voted him Best Folk Artist.
A year spent in Marino, near Rome, Italy, beginning in August 1991, framed the writing of his first two albums; the unhurried local rhythm supplied ample time for new material. The 1993 release drew on several Massachusetts musicians, among them Steven Paul’s expressive slide guitar, Dana Colley’s saxophone and clarinet, and Jim Fitting’s blues harmonica. In addition to honoring that Italian period (‘a celebration of that time and the people that we met’), the album took partial impetus from Connolly’s reading of Dylan Thomas’ poetry. Produced and engineered by Dicky Carlisle, My My My placed him at the leading edge of the cohort of fresh American singer-songwriters surfacing in the 1990s. On 1995’s Little Town he turned instead to his Boston upbringing, the city where multiple polls had already voted him Best Folk Artist.
Albums
