After a decade of writing songs for country artists and performing in Nashville, Tenn., Old Lyme native Connie Cihocki Howard has returned to the shoreline and will be performing local shows this weekend. Both shows will include another Connecticut native, Matt Bednarksky, who is currently pursuing a record deal in Nashville. The two have collaborated on a few songs which they will perform together, in addition to each playing other original songs.
Connie won the Nashville Songwriter’s Association Grand Prize a few years ago with her song “Feel,” which has been recorded by various singers including Jive Record’s recording artist Nikki Clearly.
After graduating from Stanford with a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science, Howard spent the next year playing the piano and singing at a popular restaurant in Aix-en-Provence, France, where she began to dabble in songwriting. She returned to the U.S. to work in investment banking in Manhattan, and recorded her first album of original songs.
During that time, Howard played numerous Off-Broadway shows and original music at cabarets and songwriter nights in the city. A trip to visit her sister in Nashville hooked her on the songwriting community there, and eventually she moved to Music City to pursue writing, teaching piano and performing.
“I am so glad to discover how much great live music there in going on here, much more than when I was growing up,” she said in her recent interview on WLIS/WMRD with Don DeCesare, host of “Best of the Shore.” That interview can be heard on the station’s website at www.wliswmrd.net at ‘On Demand’ where it will be available for the next two weeks.
This weekend, you can hear Howard perform on Sunday, July 6, at Perks & Corks in Westerly, R.I., from 8 to 11 p.m. and at The Black Sheep in Niantic on Monday, July 7, from 7 to 10 p.m.
For more information, visit www.conniehowardmusic.com