Although it was less than 10 years ago that she began playing music, singer-songwriter Anna Connolly has been a strong presence on the Washington, DC, punk scene since the early 1980s. Recently, she released her first solo album, After Thoughts, which she’s promoting with a tour of Northeast tour of record stores that will bring her to Rocket Number Nine in Kingston on January 25.
Anna and her big sister, photographer Cynthia Connolly, were already veterans of the LA punk scene when they moved to DC with their single mother in 1981. Once ensconced in the nation’s capital, they befriended Ian MacKaye and other members of the nascent hardcore movement. In fact, they even talked their mom into letting MacKaye’s new band, Minor Threat, practice in the basement of their family’s house (she also took the group photo on the back of their 1981 In My Eyes EP). After Thoughts features backing by Fugazi bassist Joey Lally and others, but is sonically far removed from the thrashing, jagged sounds identified with her, well, salad days. Its hushed, dark songs hint perhaps most strongly at those of Leonard Cohen.
Here’s one of them, “Half Gram”:
Anna Connolly and guest Damian Patrick Cleary will perform at Rocket Number Nine in Kingston, New York, on January 25 at 7pm. A donation is requested. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/287039548675577/.
This article appears in January 2019.
