Kevin Briody - Buddy Up! - Music & Performance - CD

"Connecticut songwriter Kevin Briody is cut from the honest, artful cloth of the best Yankee ballad-writers. His narrative songs are personal yet cinematic, filled with vivid, pastoral imagery and useful wisdom. He seems to earn new fans and folk-biz boosters wherever his songs travel." Scott Alarik, Boston Globe 2008 Emmy Award Winner Kevin Briody's songs and stories may feel as comfortable as a summer evening on the front porch, but they've taken him to some of the most hallowed corners of the songwriting world. Briody is a three-time finalist in the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Contest in Texas, and winner of the South Florida Folk Festival National Songwriting Competition. His compelling song 'We're All Heroes' opened the Connecticut Special Olympic Summer Games, while Autism Speaks, a national organization combating autism, commissioned him to write the song "Bring Them Back" to help raise awareness. Briody served as Connecticut's Official State Troubadour; a position created by The Connecticut State General Assembly to recognize Connecticut's Songwriter Laureate. He has also been selected by The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism as a Master Teaching Artist; teaching songwriting workshops and artist residencies to children and adults alike. Briody shared the stage with Lyle Lovett, Aimee Mann and Ani DiFranco at The Newport Folk Festival, and has performed The National Anthem numerous times at Fenway Park during Boston Red Sox games. He has also enjoyed great success writing for film and TV. Most recently, his song 'Little Starr' was featured on ABC Television's One Life To Live, and received the EMMY AWARD for "Best Original Song". In 1999 Briody's critically acclaimed debut CD, 'WHEN NO ONE'S WATCHING', was released. Robert K. Oermann of Music Row Magazine selected it as his DISCovery Award, and had this to say... 'This was one terrific discovery. He's a storyteller. A top-drawer troubadour with an earnest, heart-filled folkie delivery. Seek this CD out and fall under it's spell." In 2001, with the help of an Artist Fellowship Grant he received from The National Endowment for the Arts and The Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Briody released his second CD entitled "FAMILIAR". "Like loving the loose banister in It's A Wonderful Life, Briody cherishes it all: the mess, diapers, and compromised plans. Here's a warm album filled with stories of loving family growth." Angela Page, Sing Out! In 2005 Briody recorded his third full length CD, "BUDDY UP!" In 2006 "THE GATHERING - A CHRISTMAS COLLECTION" was recorded and released in 2006. Jim and Pat Kracht are two really nice folks from Florida, and here is what they had to tell Kevin in an email. "What a Gift you have delivered. What wonderful joy you will bring to our holiday seasons in the years to come! Hving over 120 Christmas CDs, and hearing my wife say that this is truly the best and most beautiful Christmas disc she's ever enjoyed, tells you simply but truthfully what we think of it." The list of rooms -- and in some cases ranches -- Briody has worked is a veritable 'Where's Where of American Folk Venues': The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), The Newport Folk Festival (Newport, RI), The Bluebird Cafe (Nashville, TN), Fenway Park (Boston, MA), The Kerrville Folk Festival (Kerrville, TX), The Bitter End (New York, NY), Club Passim (Cambridge, MA). The diverse list of artists with whom Briody has shared the stage is equally impressive: Art Garfunkel, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Loggins, Susan Werner, Don McLean, Sophie B. Hawkins, Bill Morrissey, Smokey Robinson, Dar Williams, Patty Loveless, The Kingston Trio, John Gorka, Livingston Taylor, Greg Brown, Ellis Paul, Loudon Wainwright III, Cheryl Wheeler, Patty Larkin, Tish Hinojosa, Vance Gilbert, Janis Ian, and Tom Paxton. Briody graduated from Colgate University where he studied History and played Division I basketball and baseball. After college he traveled extensively and just before he began his songwriting career, he even spent some time living on a kibbutz in Israel. These days he makes his home in Ridgefield, Connecticut with his wife Lynne and their 5 children.