Dan Donnelly

Dan Donnelly

Dan Donnelly is a singer, songwriter and musician from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He starts performing and writing music at an early age, and first comes to notice as the singer and songwriter in the Belfast band Watercress. With Watercress, he writes some of the group’s best-known songs, including “Candlemaker”, which reaches number 1 in the Irish indie charts, and “Stars Shine On”, which also tops that chart.

Career and collaborations

Donnelly performs in a range of musical settings and supports acts including Air, The Levellers, The Darkness, Duran Duran, Ian Dury and Turin Brakes. In 2000 he moves to New York, where he becomes a regular part of the live music scene and forms the New York-based band Sonovagun, which plays to packed venues across the Tri-State area. He also builds a solo career in Europe and America and supports Seth Lakeman on sold-out tours of Britain.

He is one of the few artists to work regularly with The Levellers, The Wonder Stuff and The Oysterband. He also tours as a solo artist in England, Ireland, America, Canada, Germany, Austria, Denmark and New Zealand, among other places.

Festival appearances and other work

Donnelly appears at many major UK festivals, including Beautiful Days Festival, Glastonbury Festival and The Big Session Festival. These performances lead to a nomination in the 2009 UK Festival Awards Critics Choice category. In 2013, a cover of the Simon and Garfunkel song “Homeward Bound” is named single of the week in the Liverpool Echo. He also plays banjo to his daughter Cecilia.