“Connelly, with his beautiful timbre and artistic candour, delivers a haunting and touching rendition of Nico’s music. Nobody performs quite like this masterful musical chameleon and here, he channels her fabulously, honouring her with depth and personability… impeccable delivery and

smoothness” ~ The Spill Magazine

“Chris Connelly has never been an artist of convention… a thematic mirror, Connelly’s songs follow her story – adventurous, controversial, and misunderstood” ~ Regen Magazine

“Gently stroking ears with its guitar cast melody, the song simultaneously looms up in tension and anxiety… a moment of intense beauty. Connelly’s tones as the music are emotion and tension personified, leaving his own mark on the song whilst equally bringing forth an evocative and haunting reverberation of its original creators” ~ Ringmaster Review

Chicago-based Scottish music legend Chris Connelly presents ‘Union Square West’, the latest taste of his new album ‘Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico’, an exceptional 20-track collection honoring Nico, the iconic muse of The Velvet Underground and one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood female artists in the history of modern music.

Produced by Chris Bruce (Meshell Ndegeocello, Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, Sheryl Crow), this album is a labour of love, empathy, sadness, acting and channeling, rooted in Chris’s adoration of the dark corner of rock inhabited by the Velvets and their peers. Here, Connelly purposefully adopt the personas of Nico, Lou Reed, John Cale and even Andy Warhol makes a cameo!

Filmed by Chris Connelly himself, the video for ‘Union Square West’ recreates Lou Reed’s screen test by Andy Warhol. He notes, “Warhol’s FACTORY was located at UNION SQUARE WEST between 67 and 68. This song celebrates the arrival of NICO at the factory and her profound effect on the artists and characters therein”.

Connelly also recently shared the video for ‘Femme Fatale’ created by Iain W. Mutch / Walkerandwilliam in Scotland. Earlier singles include ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’, heralded by some as Connelly’s finest vocal performance, and ‘Ripcord, Ripcord’, which Connelly penned about Nico’s rape by a military officer and the trauma of being in the rubble of post-war Berlin, both casting a shadow over the rest of her volatile life, creating the haunted spirit of Nico.

In four decades of making music, since his days with Fini Tribe in Edinburgh, Chris Connelly has over 20 solo releases and frequently collaborates with other musicians,including Ministry, The Revolting Cocks and Pigface. He has also published four books (poetry, autobiographical and fictional narrative).

Initially planned as an album of 10 Nico covers, Connelly ended up writing additional compositions spanning her life, from her first Jimmy Page-composed single, The Velvet Underground years and her intense and unique solo recordings until her death. Connelly follows her from Berlin to New York via Paris, Ibiza, and Rome, then back through Paris, London, Edinburgh, Manchester and up to her tragic and needless death in Ibiza.

The album was, in part, inspired by the book ‘You Are Beautiful and Your Are Alone’ by Jennifer Otter Bickerdicke, who contributed to album liner notes. She notes, “This is a record to be played at full blast, all the way through, as a commemoration not just to Nico the person, the musician, but to art for art’s sake, for making something because it is important and needs to be done – an idea that is as rare and precious as Nico herself.”

The ‘Eulogy to Christa’ LP is out now on CD and digitally via Shipwrecked Industries in the USA and Easy Action in the UK, available via Bandcamp, as well as Apple Music and Amazon.