Hannah Connolly is a singer-songwriter originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now living in Los Angeles, California. Her debut album ‘From Where You Are’ which drew heavily from the loss of Connolly’s younger brother Cullen who was killed by a drunk driver in 2015, was released in 2020, soon to be followed by her forthcoming second record, ‘Shadowboxing’. We’re delighted to premier the video for new song ‘Bags are Packed’ here on AUK today, written by Hannah herself and Jordan Ruiz.
Hannah told us: “Bags Are Packed is about escaping the pressures and stresses of everyday life, to go into nature and connect with friends. It became so fitting because we wrote this song before we knew where we’d record, but it’s the exact feeling I had every time we packed up all of our gear to go work on the album up in Idyllwild with friends. Just this lightness, hope and joy. Kind of youthful. I am hoping this will also be a song that people will connect with as they are getting ready to go on adventures of their own. I’m deciding to release it second, so that it’s out during the summer also feels fitting as the world is opening up again and many people are getting to finally take trips they have been wanting to take for a long time.”
The video is a beautifully shot bucolic affair, performed by Connolly with musicians Jordan Ruiz and Ben Greenberg, recorded/mixed by Jon O’Brien, and filmed/edited by Ryan Neal Cordwell. Hannah told us: “It was filmed in a treehouse built by Jon’s family in Idyllwild, CA. It was just up the road from his studio, The Music Box, where we recorded a majority of the album. It felt like the perfect place to capture this live performance, because so much of this song and video makes me think about what it was like recording up there. Idyllwild is a small mountain town, about three hours outside of Los Angeles and it felt like an escape every time we made the drive up there. I wrote and recorded these songs while working a full-time job, and during the week I was really looking forward to getting off my laptop and out into the woods. In some ways this song is also about the draw I felt to follow music and a desire to tour more.I hope it can be a song people put in their pocket when they are about to start a trip, adventure, or new chapter.”
You can pre-save ‘Bags are Packed’ here.
