GU alum shares experience as a musician during COVID-19
Published: July 19, 2022
Author: Brian Connelly
Brian Connelly ’18 shares his personal experience during the pandemic working as a musician and how he made connections that led him to playing with Christian singer/songwriter Francesca Battistelli.
I graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in audio engineering and immediately moved to Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. I knew I wanted to be in the Christian music industry, and Franklin is the home to most of the CCM artists you hear on the radio! I had an internship at Dark Horse Studios, and then moved into a position at the historic Franklin Theatre. I wanted to be involved in the playing side of the industry as well, so I auditioned at a local church and played on the team my first Sunday in town. Fast forward about a year and Covid happened. The entire world shut down, and with that, my job at the theatre ended. I had taken on the lead worship role at my church about two weeks before everything shut down, and that brought new challenges as well. I went from leading a team of about 30 people, to being one of three people in the building during a service. I was new to the position and had to learn to do the whole service by myself. That went on for about three months. Tennessee opened back up a bit earlier than other places, so as soon as I could I got Shannon, my sister, and Cammi, my girlfriend at the time (now my wife), back on the team and singing with us. Now it’s a booming church and I wouldn’t dream of having any other job! I built up a small home studio which keeps me busy most of the time, and I spend my free time writing and touring out on the road with some amazing artists! On June 5, 2021, I married my best friend Cammi, who I met my freshman year at Greenville University, and on May 17, 2022, we had our first baby, Liam Timothy Connelly.
Making connections
The Francesca Battistelli gig was just a lot of small God things, that looking back I really can’t take credit for. When Covid happened, I watched a lot of my really good friends make permanent decisions in a temporary time. When we signed our lease in June of 2019, we had five guys living in my apartment. By May of 2020, I was in the apartment by myself. I decided I didn’t want to just pack up, so that’s when I hit it hard. As it turned out, touring and the music world shut down as well and now all these big musicians were stuck at home with nothing to do. Many of those were eager to help out younger musicians looking for work. I had a friend reach out and say he had someone he wanted to introduce me to, and it turned out to be the guitarist for Danny Gokey. He in turn introduced me to a big music producer, who introduced me to one of the guys from Anthem Lights, who then introduced me to my (now) good friend Toby. Toby is the lead guitarist for Jeremy Camp, and on top of that used to play with Francesca a lot. That is a gross over-simplification of what happened. I had to really sell myself which isn’t something I’m usually comfortable with. On top of that, I had to ask for recommendations or to be introduced to people which also is incredibly uncomfortable for me. I just knew I wasn’t called to pack it up and move back to Illinois.
Playing with Francesca Battistelli
A couple months went by, and I got a call from Toby and Seth (the lead guitarist from Skillet), saying Colton Dixon is looking for a guitarist. My name got thrown around a lot, and in the end, I didn’t get the job. I wasn’t even given an audition. It was a little upsetting, but I just had to keep my head up and keep pushing through. About six months later is when I got the call from Franny’s husband Matt, that she was looking for a guy to play guitar for an acoustic show in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was told it would just be me on acoustic guitar and background vocals, and Franny singing. I had a couple weeks to learn the setlist and know it by heart, and I found myself on a plane headed for North Carolina sitting next to Francesca, her husband, and their newborn baby. The first time we actually played together was on stage for soundcheck where we had about 20 minutes to rehearse an hour and a half long set. To anyone who is curious
