Some time ago, I picked up a mandolin and made my way to the weekly bluegrass jam session run by a fellow named Sherriff Bob over at The Baggot Inn in the West Village. It was my first time there with an instrument, and I knew less than little about what I was supposed to be doing. At some point, an older Irish fellow grabbed the mando and started showing me a thing or two about basic chords.
After some time, a younger guy told him to "let the man play the thing," so I returned to my fumblings. After a while, we struck up a conversation and I found out that he'd previously been in a band called Watercress that'd had some success in Ireland. Now, he was in New York and starting a new project, Sonovagun. That was my introduction to Dan Donnelly.
Since then, I've heard him play only a handful of times, and I was fortunate enough to have grabbed some audio from his most recent set at Rockwood. I've included a Bob Dylan-esque tune called "Diamonds In The Road."
One of the fun things about Dan's playing is that his (mostly) solo shows feature him and about half a dozen guitar loops. He's a master pedaler -- sometimes you can't tell that there's only one person on stage. And then there's his, er, Irish disposition. At one point during the set, he noticed a bottle of beer magically had appeared at his feet and he said that he was glad he'd gotten a refill, because he was quickly running out of personality.
Sonovagun is playing at Ulysses this Saturday, Feb. 23rd at 10pm.