Matt Large presents: NYC-based Irish songwriter Niall Connolly and special guest Speedy Johnson

Name: Matt Large presents: NYC-based Irish songwriter Niall Connolly and special guest Speedy Johnson
Start: 2025-03-10T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Casa del Popolo

Schedule

Mon, 10 Mar, 2025 at 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Casa del Popolo | Montreal, QC

Matt Large presents: NYC Based Irish Songwriter Niall Connolly and special guest Speedy Johnson
Monday, March 10
Casa del Popolo
doors 7:30 p.m. / Show 8 p.m.
$20
GET TICKETS:
https://www.venuepilot.co/events/131432/orders/new
Niall
magnificence and misery of being alive. “When I sing, ‘It’s a beautiful life, most of the time,’ I mean it,” he says. “I mean both parts.”

Though he’s known as one of the busiest live musicians around—“I used to play 150 to 200 gigs per year for years and years,” he says—Connolly was forced to pause when the world shut down in 2020. As he gradually gathered songs for The Patience of Trees, he skipped stones with his young daughter and tried to summon serenity and forbearance from the forest that surrounded his Catskill Mountain home: “I was reading about how trees can communicate with each other and send out distress signals to warn and support each other within the forest. That felt like a metaphor for what everyone had to do during the pandemic.”

Connolly has been a fixture of the NYC songwriting scene since he put down roots in the city in 2007. For 18 years, he has been presiding over Big City Folk, a songwriter’s collective that pops up in pubs and cultural centers several times per month. Performers have included Lucius, Anais Mitchell, and Lana Del Ray (before she was Lana Del Ray, on a Leonard Cohen night in the song club’s early days). As Connolly explains it, he’s just importing a tradition from Ireland: “It was very common at the end of a party at home to have a singsong, share the guitar, and share some songs. I missed that when I moved here.”
The Patience of Trees is Niall Connolly's 9th album. Guests include Javier Más (of Leonard Cohen’s band), Mick Flannery and Anna Tivel. The album was produced in New York by Len Monachello, with some notable assists from Brandon Wide, E.W. Harris, Chris Foley and M.J. McCarthy. Mastered by Ruairi O' Flaherty (Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift).
Speedy
Speedy Johnson has been the frontman and ringleader of Ol' Savannah for many moons going back to late '08. In that time, they have been acclaimed on the international stage, nominated for GAMIQ's Folk EP of the Year in 2016, and continually rank among the best Montreal folk bands according to Cult MTL. Speedy has been devouring and spewing out words since the age of 16, always in search of learning new ways to speak to truth and beauty. Growing up in the US Midwest, Speedy moved to Montreal in 2007 in search of singing and playing all the time. Since then, he has graced stages from northern British Columbia all the way to the tip of the boot in Italy. Folk, roots, and blues are the mainstay of Speedy's repertoire, however his 2017 release, Before It's Dark, puts on display his love for rock n' roll and psychedelia as well.