Opening a world of music without ever leaving home

Musicians around the country have had to be innovative over the last few months. Many have invested in home recording setups or buried themselves in songwriting but it is particularly difficult to engage with an online audience when you don’t have gigs lined up for them to attend.

Galway singer-songwriter Kevin Herm Connolly’s approach has been to make the most of the objects in his immediate surroundings.

Appropriately titled “From the Washing Machine”, Kevin has been releasing covers from various locations around his home.

While Radiohead and The Beatles were among the acts to whom he paid tribute, the most noteworthy track in Kevin’s series was perhaps his translated version of Peruvian classic Cariñito – a cover which has since been featured on the news in Peru.

“The idea came from the fact that we were confined to the home,” Kevin says of the covers. “Sometimes you need those restrictions to get your imagination going and try to work with what you have.

“I’ve never liked doing straight-up videos with normal backdrops or whatever so I’m always looking for a bit of a quirk or a hook. I really liked the way it looked from the washing machine and the way it sounded. That was the main idea and then I just decided I’d try it from a few other places around the house.”

There was no concrete pattern by way of song selection. The covers are new and old, though one in particular stands out as being particularly meaningful. Kevin mentions a song he played with Clancy, a former band that included a friend who has since passed away.

“It’s a bit of a mix,” he says of the covers. “A couple of them are very important songs to me – one of them is by a band called Clancy which I used to be in with a friend of mine who passed away. That’s called Hope in Your Heart and I always love sharing that song around.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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