“The past few months have been crazy and beautiful, but mostly crazy…”says Co. Down Songwriter Matt McGinn .
2020 was the year Matt was to tour his acclaimed album ‘Lessons of War’ which he recorded with musicians from areas of conflict all around the globe. It didn’t quite work out that way as the world went into lockdown.
In lockdown, Matt, along with friend and singer Cormac Neeson , launched a virtual ‘In the Round’ platform in Facebook called ‘COCOONS ’ .
Over 20 weeks later, Cocoons has had performances from over 70 established artists from around the world and raised over £10,000 for various charities.
Between Cocoons and home-schooling, Matt found time to record a new album, and ANNIE (Many Moons Ago) is the 1st single.
ANNIE features multi-instrumentalist Matt McGinn on vocals, harmonies, drums, piano, percussion, guitars. From their Portglenone home, married ‘Beoga’ bandmates Sean Og Graham and Niamh Dunne added beautiful accordion and fiddle. Then over to the Isle of Wight where Jon Thorne glued everything together with his double bass.
Annie (Many Moons Ago) is a snapshot of someone contemplating an old relationship. Matt says,
“I think I’ve written a song that raises more questions with folk than answers them. For me too… I want to know more about these characters. What happened before? What’s going to happen to them next? I suppose I might enjoy finding out myself…”