She let the music do the talking on Matt Owens’ The Aviators’ Ball with her spine-tingling version of the Appalachian folk song ‘Black is the Colour (of My True Love’s Hair)’ covered famously by Nina Simone and Joan Baez in the 1960s, Cara Dillon and Christy Moore more recently.
Now County Armagh’s Ríoghnach Connolly, enters the spotlight for real as part of a duo on Carry Your Kin, her highest profile release to date out on jazz-friendly world music label Real World and on which she teams up with one of the north of England’s most creative jazz-into-electronica guitar stars Stuart McCallum who is pictured with Connolly, above.
Connolly has been around the folk scene for a while hooking up with McCallum initially some six years back. According to publicity material she “sings songs of birth and death, women’s rights, first love, the call of motherhood, the death of men at sea and post-colonial wrongs.” The duo also play on the record with drummer Luke Flowers, heard recently in the pocket backing Kandace Springs, and with pianist John Ellis. The album was recorded in Manchester and Wiltshire.
Check a clip of music by the band, above
Photo: Emily Dennison