Robert Connely Farr is a singer-songwriter from Mississippi currently residing in Vancouver, Canada. Connely was born in Alabama & grew up in the small southern town of Bolton, Mississippi, home town of Charley Patton & The Mississippi Sheiks. Prior to moving to Vancouver, he studied architecture at Auburn University & spent 3 years volunteering at the late Samuel Mockbee’s Rural Studio non-profit design build school. Connely writes & performs as a solo act under his own name as well as heading up the Vancouver based Southern Rock / Alt-Country outfit Mississippi Live & the Dirty Dirty. Together, Mississippi Live & the Dirty Dirty have released 3 full length studio albums & one EP.
In 2017, Connely met Mississippi blues icon Jimmy “Duck” Holmes in Bentonia, Mississippi, just miles from where Connely grew up. Jimmy began mentoring Connely in the Bentonia Style of the blues, a style that Holmes learned directly from Henry Stuckey, who taught Skip James & Jack Owens. In early 2018, Connely teamed up with Canadian producer & acclaimed songwriter Leeroy Stagger to record an album of the songs written during this mentorship titled Dirty South Blues.
Set to release September 15-2018, Dirty South Blues includes 10 songs, 8 that were written by Farr. ‘Just Jive’, a song that Jimmy “Duck” Holmes wrote in ’81 & was almost lost forever – is a co-write with Robert Connely Farr & Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. Farr also pays homage to the roots of this album by covering Skip James’ ‘Hard Time Killin Floor Blues’. Songs like ‘Magnolia’ & ‘Dirty South Blues’ are Farr’s attempt to reconcile / question some of the more controversial elements of the South, such as the rebel flag & pockets of racism that are still prevalent.
TRACKLIST
01 Ode To The Lonesome 3:49
02 Dirty South Blues 3:25
03 Blue Front Café 3:56
04 Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues 3:16
05 Magnolia 4:07
06 Lady Heroin 3:39
07 Just Jive 3:31
08 Cypress Tree Blues 4:28
09 Yes Ma’am (explicit) 3:40
10 Hey Mr. Devil 4:56
