Innovation is paying off for John Conneely Inc

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

The nights that surprise you are always the most memorable, and that’s what John Conneely Inc have been doing at the Róisín Dubh every Sunday since last November.

It’s no mean feat, but Galway based singer John has achieved that by bringing an ever-changing line up of musicians to the venue in the past few weeks. They initially started out playing covers, but have now started introducing some of John’s songs to the set.

“At the moment I’m having a lot of fun picking out songs I like from the 1980s, giving them a treatment,” John says. “Bringing it in at the last minute and seeing how it will work. One that I’ve enjoyed is Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer, we did a sort of swing version of that.”

John’s powerful, elemental voice brings Tom Waits and John Martyn to mind. He is joined regularly on Sundays by Kieran Kelly on drums and Mark Sullivan on guitar. Beyond that, the line-up is ever changing, which has helped the event  to gather a growing and loyal crowd.

“One of the key elements of the night is to try and keep it fresh and exciting for everybody, the crowd and the musicians,” John says. “One way that I’ve found to do that is to get different musicians playing different instruments. We’ve had saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, violin, harmonica, dobro  guitar – a lot of melody instruments. I’m hoping to get a few different piano and keys players in the next few weeks.”

Some of the original songs John will be playing at the Róisín are taken from Murmurations, an album that was co-written with Inishbofin singer/songwriter Peadar King.  That album was recorded in the esteemed Grouse Lodge studios in Westmeath. John already had some superb studio work to his name, such as his work with Charis, but he wanted to try a new approach with Murmurations.

“From my perspective, if I was going into the studio I wanted to do something that was more challenging,” he says. “The whole idea was that myself and Peadar would compile songs that we had and we would wait pretty much until studio day to present them in full form to the band. We would use the morning of the recording day to run through ideas.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.