JAM SESSiON

My close friendship with celebrated guitarist Connor Kennedy is something else. So is he.

BY MARTHA FRANKEL PHOTOGRAPHY BY FLETCHER MOORE

If you’ve ever been near Connor, you know this—he’ll find the best restaurants in any town he’s in. He’ll know the food scene better than the locals after a week. When on tour in 2017-19, he went to every barbeque joint he could find. He met the pit masters. He got schooled in vinegar mops.

By March 10 there was no denying it. And a couple of days later he started the drive back across the country. “No one’s on the road,” he texted from each state.

In the summer of 2020, when it was clear musicians wouldn’t be touring or playing live in concert anytime soon, he approached Steve about building a barbecue smoker. They worked on it for more than a month. Connor moved it to Mount Tremper, to Catskill Pines, where he served a once-a-week, alwayssold-out outdoor barbecue that was invariably the talk of the town.

A few months ago, he called to talk about Ken Burn’s country music documentary. “It’s like 30 hours long,” he said. The next day he asked if I was ever in the VFW on Albany Avenue in Kingston. I had. “It’s a great room,” I said. Within days he had booked it for every Wednesday in April for honky-tonk. It was Connor and the guys he’s been playing with for a decade: drummer Lee Falco, bassist Brandon Morrison, keyboardist Will Bryant, plus the incandescent Cindy Cashdollar on pedal steel. The second week they put up a disco ball and turned down the lights. Week three they hired a dance instructor and people started driving from as far away as Boston to two-step around. It got extended into May and then through June. Who knows, it might still be happening!

Brandon Morrison, Will Bryant, the incandescent Cashdollar on steel. The second week put up a disco ball and turned down the Week three hired a dance instructor and started from as far away as Boston to two-step around. It got extended into and then Who knows, it still be

We stopped at Eataly to discuss steaks. We

So, in the Vegas mornings we went to his breakfast spot and damn, he was right. In the afternoons, we drove deep into the desert. Or into the neighborhoods where “real” people lived. We found the Asian section of town and bought him an enormous molcajete (a mortar & pestle) that would come back to Woodstock with his guitars. We went to Pok Pok for Chef Andy Richter’s wings. We stopped at Eataly to discuss steaks. We went to dinner at Roy Choi’s Best Friend,

Now, when he texts and says, “You know what you should do?” I just throw my hands up and say, “Whatever you tell me.” what you should do?” I throw my hands up and say, “Whatever you tell me.” soul mates The author’s close friendship with guitar virtuoso Connor Kennedy features a significant age difference, a non-issue for the BFFs. Here, Kennedy lights up the stage with Little Feat in Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium.