Old Sloop Presents: Scott Cook – Conor Ryan Hennessy opens

In 2007, Albertan songwriter Scott Cook quit his job teaching kindergarten in Taiwan and moved into a minivan. He’s made his living as a troubadour ever since, touring almost incessantly across Canada, the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, averaging 150 shows and a dozen summer festivals a year, and releasing seven albums of plainspoken, keenly observant verse along the way. His latest collection Tangle of Souls comes packaged in a cloth-bound, 240-page hardcover book of road stories and ruminations, equal parts introspection and insurrection. The album spent two weeks at #1 on Alberta’s province-wide community radio network CKUA, and earned Scott his third Canadian Folk Music Award nomination, for English Songwriter of the Year. Its second single “Say Can You See” was the second most-played song of 2020 on Folk Alliance International’s folk radio charts, and took top honors for the folk category in both the 2020 UK Songwriting Competition and the 2020 Great American Song Contest.

Conor Ryan Hennessy is a singer-songwriter from Salem. He learned to play on a guitar given him by his uncle, and his goal is to play guitar like John Hurt, sing like Ronnie Drew and write songs like Woody Guthrie. His songs reflect his keen eye for observation. He was a New Folk Finalist at the 2023 Kerrville Folk Festival, where he met and impressed Scott Cook.

Advance tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for those age 18 and under. Visit oldslooppresents.org, John Tarr Store in Rockport, or The Bookstore of Gloucester. Tickets will also be sold after the worship service September 24. The suggested contribution at the door is $20 for adults, $5 for those age 18 and under, and $40 for families.