What People Are Saying About Ben Connelly's, "You Burn Hotter"
"Irrepressibly fun and scathingly witty tunesmith...chock full of highly skilled guitar" -Pulse
"a heaping helping of sweetness, sorrow, spirituality and lust channeled through a well-worn heart." -St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Ben Connelly delves deep into love and spirituality" -Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"After the first lines I was sold...Connelly writes songs that glow after repeated listens." -Chicago Daily Herald, IL
"A melancholy tribute to a backwards life. Connelly's smart humor shines through." Dayton City Paper, OH
"Let me say this: if you want an example of mature songwriting, or if you don't know what mature songwriting is, take a listen to "Never Really Yours." There's spookiness beneath the surface here that can raise goose bumps if you're receptive to it. In his songwriting are elements of Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen at their best....This was a tremendous show, and Connelly's new CD is frighteningly good." howwastheshow.com
The archetypal resonance of folk songs, spirituals, and fairy tales, the subtle power of lyric poetry, and a raw passion for rock and roll, all pour into to the indie-folk mold of Ben Connelly's sophomore CD, "You Burn Hotter" to form a beautiful, cracked, joyous, and troubling mess. Connelly's passion for storytelling and blazing finger-style guitar are carried on a river of shimmering lap steel, churchy organ and piano, buoyant drums (courtesy of Meleck Davis) and sometimes sweet, sometimes screaming cello. Arcane rhyme schemes and bizarre lyrical conceits live happily next to workaday imagery and chant-like anaphora. Radiant hope wrestles patiently with cynicism and despair. We find songs narrated by hedonistic and suffering young women (The Falling Feels Like Flying), a song that denies the Cartesian equation, "I think therefore I am" (Keep Dreaming, Sleep), a song where Cinderella's prince might be either a door-knocking nutcase or a charming romantic (Door to Door Again), and in the end a song which reminds us that no matter how painful things feel right now, to look up, it's all still beautiful (Raise Your Eyes).
Ben Connelly spent the nineties investigating bars, studios, and late night parties in South Minneapolis and across the Eastern half of the United States with his rock band Steeplejack, who put out one full length and three EPs for a variety of record labels. His solo debut "Big Red Throbbing Heart" launched his solo career in 2001. His songs have appeared on college, commercial, and public radio, as well as national television and theatre and film productions. Live he transports audiences across the northern Midwest and East coasts with what Minneapolis's City Pages describe as "furious finger-picking and top-notch tunes."
What People Said About Ben Connelly's Debut:
"Packed with a lethal dose of charm."
-St. Paul Pioneer Press
"Stripped down tales of quiet desperation."
-City Pages
"blessed with urgent musicianship, passionate vocals, entertainingly off-kilter compositions, and an overall feeling of immediacy. He's an uncut gem, dingy as often as he is glittering, but beautiful when he sparkles."
-Nashville Scene
"The incisive humor doesn't overpower Connelly's bright songwriting or able guitar."
-Performing Songwriter Magazine
"minimal and whimsical aching heart songs"
-Washington Post
"...will charm the pants off of you."
-Minnesota Daily
And his old band, Steeplejack's record:
"3 ½ Stars,"
Rolling Stone, German edition
"This years most accomplished and compelling debut,"
Lansing Capitol Times, MI
"These boys have been granted their hillbilly license for a reason,"
College Music Journal
"It's not depressing, it's vital"
Austin Chronicle, TX
"There's a power that separates Steeplejack from almost anything in the pop-rock canon."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Songs that feel like desperate kisses"
St. Paul Pioneer Press
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