Having bid good riddance to a bad year, Callinan looks forward to performing live again. His wife, Ann Shapiro, who runs the Connecticut Storytelling Center in New London, helps him post his work online and perform his virtual gigs. Other than recording demos of new songs he's written so that he can remember them, Callinan hasn't been working on any new albums during the shutdown. The title is fitting since he has written over 100 songs specifically about Connecticut, from “Connecticut: More Than Just a Corridor” to “Connecticut Day at the Old Big E.” In 1991 he was named the first-ever Connecticut State Troubadour. He was able to escape the bar circuit fairly early in his long career and largely plays what he calls “clean shows” at assisted living centers, libraries, schools and hospitals. He's worked full-time as a musician for the past 43 years, averaging around 200 shows a year - until this year. The coronavirus shutdown has hurt Callinan professionally. His 1987 album “Topical Heatwave - Tom Callinan Tunes in the News” (still available on cassette tape) included such titles as “LOTTO Tonite,” “The National Debt,” “The Coastal Conspiracy” and “Gorbachev.” He's written songs for charitable causes such as Save the Whales and written whole albums of songs about Connecticut. While his repertoire can run to sea shanties, folk standards, Irish ditties and patriotic songs dating back to the Civil War, Callinan is no stranger to topical songs. The lyrics recall a year of COVID, Zoom and Facebook Live, masks and social distancing, So good riddance to 2020, we can't wait ‘til you're done/ We're setting our sights on the future – and 2021!” “Good Riddance to 2020? begins: “I'm bidding adieu to this horrible year, I'm tipping my glass upside down/ My hopes have been raised by that shot in the arm/ That I hear is making the rounds. The song, which the 73-year-old singer has introduced via a laidback video of him performing in his Norwich home, is more philosophical than whimsical.
Fittingly, the tune is titled “Good Riddance to 2020.” Connecticut's Tom Callinan bids an unfond farewell to 2020 with new songĪ year that many of us would like to forget has been immortalized in song by veteran Connecticut folksinger Tom Callinan.