Mandy is bare souled & luminous on stage. With acclaim Throughout the Folk Scene Mandy is admired for her songwriting & delivery. Taking the Declan Affley Award (National Folk Festival) in 2005 and the Maldon Minstrel Award (Maldon Festival) in 2006, Mandy placed at the Port Fairy’s ‘Songs of Peace & Tolerance’. She has toured the UK, formed Trad 5 piece ‘Stray Hens’, & continues to write original music.

Winning the Declan Affley Award (National Folk Festival) in 2005 and the the Maldon Minstrel Award (Maldon Festival) in 2006, Mandey came second at the Port Fairy Songs of Peace and Tolerance Competition in 06 for her song ‘Riots in Redfern’.

Selling out of the 2010 album Tall Tales & Pretty Colours, and due to record the Girl Who Fell Off The Wall in 2015, Mandy has collected a steady following with endorsements from Paul Brady, Weddings Parties Anything, and from well known songwriters Judy Small and Eric Bogle as much for her reinterpretations of their work as for her own songs.

YouTube clips for songs from the 2010 Album Tall Tales are now available, performed with Sally Taylor and Rowena Wise, and James Fahy.

Interviews with Les Thomas (Unpaved Presents) and Derek Guille (ABC Radio 774) , and Mikaela Atkins (Curious Fox Productions) show the notice she has received from those who watch.

“Saw Ms Mandy Connell sing and play at Australia’s National Folk Festival. A great talent with a passionate and compelling voice and a total command of her music! Catch her if you can”..Paul Brady

“I love the album ‘Tall Tales’. It has a beautiful sense of ease about it, the songwriting is excellent. The Jimmy Dowling number really stands out to my ears. That voice is really refreshing to listen to.! ” – Les Thomas, Unpaved Presents

“New Melbourne folk outfit Stray Hens does much more than pay homage to the great songs from the folk revival of the sixties and seventies. Great tunes and great lyrics are re-packaged in a distinctly Melbourne style, with harmonies and time signatures as fluid as the melodies themselves. Mandy Connell has been building a well deserved reputation for her original songs, which spring from her deep love of the folk tradition, both here and in the UK. She has put together a band of young, energetic musicians who share her passion for good music and a good time”. Derek Guille, former ABC Radio presenter.

“Mandy Connell is the latest in a long and distinguished line of talented female musicians to grace the musical scene in Australia. A fine singer and songwriter in her own right, she also has the knack of taking other peoples’ songs, and by virtue of her original and unique interpretations making them her own, the mark of a truly gifted performer…” Eric Bogle

“Mandy Connell is a folk festival favourite. She’s quick, bright-hearted and liable to break into song mid-sentence. On stage she conjures up moods with an ease that comes from living her music. “I identify as folk,” she says. “If there was an ethnic group you could call folk, that would be me. I’m there. I grew up in it, and I’ve always called myself folk… since before banjos were on t-shirts.”- James M Fahy (Wait Long by The River)