By Jay Scott Kanes
CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI, Canada -- After playing the role of a Canadian musical icon, singer-songwriter John Connolly has taken important first steps toward becoming one himself. This week, he won three Prince Edward Island Music Awards: male vocalist, album and alternative recording of the year.
With a guitar in hand, John starred all last summer as a youthful Stompin’ Tom Connors in a popular Charlottetown Festival production, The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom.
“That certainly was a thrill,” John said. “There’s a lot of myself in Tom so it wasn’t much of a stretch for me.
“It’s all about the musical journey. Tom’s idols were Wilf Carter and Hank Snow. For me, it was guys like Gene MacLellan and Stompin’ Tom, the people from here who made it and on their own terms. Tom’s musical tradition and upbringing are very much in line with where I’m coming from.”
In September, John released his first full-length CD, a self-titled nine-track effort on which he sounds like a fresh, better version of Leonard Cohen. Now it’s an award-winning album.
Listening for more than a few moments creates a sensation of time standing still as 25-year-old John’s voice and lyrics work their magic. At times, he’s almost hypnotic.
“The album was a chance to showcase a batch of songs that I’m very excited to share with people,” said John, who also plays piano. “Another exciting thing is that it runs the gamut from country-folk to straight-up rock to jazz.
“People may perceive me as being fairly new on the music scene. But music formed a big part of my life from the get-go…. It’s the dominant force and my full-time activity, although I take joe-jobs here and there to tide me over. Last winter, I worked in the Liquor Control Commission’s warehouse. Earlier, I cooked at a bed-and-breakfast. Another interesting job was to travel the province taking water samples.”
By now, John has written hundreds of songs. “My favorite ones keep changing,” he said. “Songs have a way of coming back and meaning different things at different times. At the moment, my favorites are ‘For Old Times’ Sake’ and ‘Indian Summer’, story songs with something timeless about them.”
If you’re leaving, get on out of town.
When the summer dies down,
Make your getaway.
Put your head down.
Work a boat on a southern bay.
Earn some decent pay
With a good, steady job
As the Indian summer winds down
In a quiet town.
From “Indian Summer”, John Connolly, 2008
“I’m picky about songs,” John said. “I write a lot, but then put them at the bottom of the heap and don’t play them.”
In 2006 he issued Soul Sessions, a seven-song EP (extended play). From Charlottetown, he first appeared on musical radar screens as a founding member of Elephant Rock, a band with “three friends from away back”.
“Elephant Rock had a weekly gig that became a bit of an institution for a few summers,” John said. “I’ve also played lots of solo or acoustic-duo gigs.”
Always versatile, John produced Changing Things, a popular CD starring fellow singer-songwriter Meaghan Blanchard. By no coincidence, Blanchard won PEI Music Awards too.
Earlier, John wrote Marathon of Hope, a folk-opera about Terry Fox, an anti-cancer campaigner stricken by the disease when on a cross-country fundraising run in 1980. The play has attracted attention from several leading producers.
At age 18, John lived in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of an exchange program. After graduating from Colonel Gray High School, where he played in the band program, he studied musical theatre at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.
“I want to get my music into people’s hands,” John said. “In the future, I’d love to cross the country and continue to write and record. If I can do that, then I couldn’t ask for much more.”
For more information: www.sandbarmusic.com
'Music formed a big part of my
life from the get-go,' John says.
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