Locals gathered around Zack O'Connor and accompanist as they played some covers in the Co-Op parking lot on Tuesday evening. Tyler Macy/Argonaut

Zack O’Connor, a 22-year-old English and French major, stands with eyes closed while strumming the guitar outside the Moscow Food Co-op.  His voice and tunes amplified through a P.A. system stop people as they are on their way in or out of the store. Some of his audience members have squeezed themselves onto a picnic table and others stand in a half circle.
Tuesday evening was O’Connor’s third performance at the Co-op and Dave Billin, the Co-op music coordinator, said that O’Connor can “come back as many times as he wants.”

“Zack has this wonderful knack that when he plays, people show up and they stick around,” Billin said.
O’Connor first got into music as a freshman in high school when his parents bought him his first bass guitar. He joined a jazz combo and got jazz lessons. O’Connor enjoyed it so much he started taking lessons from Aaron Miller, the bass player of the Glenn Miller Orchestra. After seeing Jessie Hadley playing upright bass, O’Connor was wowed into trying it for himself.
“He’s one of the best bass players I’ve ever seen,” O’Connor said.

Using money from the college fund his grandparents had set up for him, O’Connor bought his own upright bass.
When O’Connor performs, he brings out the instrument for a few songs.
In high school O’Connor joined a garage band. He started writing his own material during his junior year when he got his first guitar as a Christmas gift.
“It’s the same guitar I still use today,” O’Connor said.

He wrote much of his material in Belgium, while on exchange his senior year of high school.
“My exchange played a huge role,” he said. “At first I didn’t really know anyone so I played a lot of guitar.”
“Inhibitions,” “Too much,” “Girl on City Bus,” and “Unlooked For” are some songs he composed (at least partly if not entirely) in Belgium and are songs he still performs today. 
His music is influenced by Josh Ritter, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan: “people who tell a story,” he said. His stories revolve around relationships and one particular girl. She is a girl he started writing about his senior year in high school, still writes about, and plans to someday marry.
“His music is hard to explain. It’s exactly what you need on a rainy day,” Britta Rustad said. Rustad is a senior at the University of Idaho and has seen O’Connor perform three times.

“Zack has a distinctive talent,” Billin said. “He’s good with words.”
Zack attributes his writing talent to his English major and said he structures his music around the lyrics. After having heard O’Connor play three times now, Billin has a favorite Zack O’Connor song, called “The Sun is Shy.”
Last semester O’Connor won the Kenworthy Battle of the Bands event and opened at July’s Rendezvous in the Park. 
Currently he’s working on copyrighting some of his live recordings to create a CD he plans on selling for five or six dollars. “Just enough to cover the cost and maybe some extra beer money,” O’Connor said.

“I try to take myself serious. Right now, this is really fun. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing,” O’Connor said. “I can play music anywhere.”
O’Connor said but he has no aspirations to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles to make it big.
As long as people will come to listen, O’Connor is willing to play.
“He doesn’t demand much from his audience, he just want you to listen,” Rustad said.
When he’s not working on his solo act, O’Connor plays with a local band called “The Holiday Friends.”
Samples of his music are available at www.myspace.com/zackoconnor.

	1. 15-09-2008 14:41
	meh. that picture looks photoshopped. Registered

ocon6316

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