Mick Flannery (born 28 November 1983) is an Irish singer and songwriter.
His debut album Evening Train resulted from his time spent studying music and management at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa in Cork. It featured tracks which had previously won Flannery two categories at the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville, Tennessee. He was the first Irish musician to win in this event. In 2019 this album premiered as a musical by the same name.
Flannery's second studio album White Lies was released on 12 September 2008, achieving a top ten position on the Irish Albums Chart. It later went platinum and was nominated for the Choice Music Prize.
Flannery grew up outside Blarney, County Cork.[2][3][4]
Coming from a family with a keen musical interest, Flannery was introduced to folk and blues music at a young age.
My mother's side were big into music, more than my dad's side. My mother is a singer and she plays the guitar. She recorded an album of her own actually two years ago. And it was her brothers and sisters that kind of got me into music. [...] At those family nights there was a good bit of Tom Waits, a bit of Dylan. Most of the singers would be female, my aunts, and they would sing Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell.[5]
Flannery cites an encounter with the music of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana as a direct influence on his desire to become a musician.[2][4] Seeing Cobain perform "The Man Who Sold the World" on MTV Unplugged he promptly purchased a copy of MTV Unplugged in New York.[2][3][4] He soon bought the album Blonde on Blonde as well.[2] Flannery claims to have written his first song at the age of fifteen.[6] His first completed song was called "Mad Man's Road", a tale of a murder which took place on the road in which he lived.[6] He has been dismissive of his earlier material, referring to it as "tripe".[7]
However, he is keen to express his fondness for stonemasonry and its position alongside his music: "I wasn't going to sit in a room and write songs seven days a week and live on bread and beans. I liked doing stonemasonry as well".[7] He still does it on an occasional basis: "We wouldn’t be carving gravestones or anything. We’d do the fronts of houses, entrance walls, stuff like that".[8]
Career
Evening Train
While undergoing a music and management course at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa in Cork, Flannery commenced writing the album that would become Evening Train, an eleven-track concept album about the exploits of two brothers.[2][9] His original intention had been to write a musical but this endeavour proved unsuccessful.[2]
Before its release Flannery and a friend who worked alongside him in the stonemasonry business embarked on a three-month trip to the United States, living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[6][10] Flannery spent his time performing in New York.[6] His sister was present for one of the months and assisted him with organising his performances.[10]
Evening Train was received positively by critics in Ireland and the United States.[2] Reviewers noted its "astute and sophisticated lyrics", its "strong, imaginative melodies", its Tom Waits sound.[3][9][11] The RTÉ Guide later said, "His voice was like Tom Waits meets the howling of a grizzled freight train hobo".[12]entertainment.ie reviewer Lauren Murphy described it as "an album dripping with maturity, poise and potential" and that "the most astounding thing" was his age of 21 years.[6][11]
Flannery signed with EMI Records in 2007.[2][6] That same year he was the subject of a programme called Mytunes, broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 on 29 November.[9] He performed on RTÉ Two's Other Voices television programme in 2008.[2] This appearance led to increased interest in Flannery's music in Ireland.[13]
Evening Train Musical
In June 2019, as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival, The Everyman and Rosa Productions presented the world premiere of Evening Train, a new musical inspired by Mick Flannery's acclaimed concept album of the same name.[14] Flannery’s album, written from different character perspectives, suggests the main figures: two divided brothers, Frank and Luther, and a spirited, forlorn young woman, Grace, all dreaming of some form of escape from dusty realities and unpromising futures in a small town of gamblers and strivers. Playwright Rani Sarma developed this theme into a love triangle saddled with questions of debt and fate, where parents are either haunting absences or demanding presences, and a younger generation stews in fragile promises and ruinous addiction.[15] Gambling being a focus of the musical, the game of bluffs and tells, requires working out characters within a strict economy of expression. The cast of Irish actors consisted of Charlie Bonner, Brian Doherty, Deirdre Donnelly, Ger Kelly, Ian Lloyd Anderson, John McCarthy, Kate Stanley Brennan, with a live band accompanying them consisting of Mick himself.[16]
Flannery's second studio album White Lies was released on 12 September 2008,[6] achieving a top ten position on the Irish Albums Chart and later going platinum in Ireland.[3][17] On the day of the album's release Flannery performed "Tomorrow's Papers" on The Late Late Show.[18][19] The song contributed to the increasing popularity of the singer-songwriter.[20] entertainment.ie's Lauren Murphy said: "White Lies may not be a perfect album, but it's certainly a promising step forward for a real talent".[11]RTÉ reviewer Harry Guerin commented: "If you're adamant that Ireland may sink with another singer-songwriter on tour, then this is a record to seek out; you won't notice the time passing and the nation will remain afloat".[13]
Flannery began a tour of Ireland after the release of White Lies.[7] He performed a duet of "Christmas Past" with Lisa Hannigan in December 2008 after Today FM's Tony Fenton paired them together for a radio show broadcast from a rooftop.[10][21] He joined Hannigan at a show in Vicar Street to perform the same duet that month.[22] "Tomorrow's Paper" was translated into the Irish language for a CD titled Ceol '09, an annual compilation released by Seachtain na Gaeilge.[23] The Irish version was recorded in forty minutes at a studio in Dublin's Merrion Square.[23] Flannery performed a cover version of "The River" on The Ray D'Arcy Show's Discover Ireland Feel Good Tour stopover in Carlingford and Cooley Peninsula in March 2009.[24] A deluxe edition of White Lies, which featured a duet of the song "Christmas Past" with Kate Walsh, was released in 2009.[10][25]
Flannery's largest headlining performance in Dublin at this stage occurred at Vicar Street on 25 May 2009.[26] He performed alongside John Spillane at Live at the Marquee in Cork on 9 July 2009.[20][27][28][29] Flannery said being asked to perform there was "daunting [...] In many ways I have drifted into this career and still have to pinch myself regularly to make sure I am not imagining it all".[30] He also performed at the Bloom Festival as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Rose of Tralee in 2009.[31] He made an appearance on the Crawdaddy Stage at Electric Picnic 2009.[32][33][34] On 31 December 2009, he performed a date at the Cork Opera House as part of celebrations marking the end of the decade.[35][36] He has sold out several other venues around Ireland and has also toured the UK.[19][37]
Red to Blue
Flannery released his third studio album, Red to Blue, on 30 March 2012. It spent three weeks at number one in the Irish Albums Chart and singles "Gone Forever" and "No Way To Live" enjoyed a lot of airplay. His song Up The Hill was covered by Shawn Colvin and Emmylou Harris.[38]
The Red to Blue tour was a major success for Flannery, featuring sold-out shows all over Ireland, most notably the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, one of Flannery's biggest venues to date. The tour finished with two sold-out shows at the Róisín Dubh in Galway.
By The Rule
Flannery's fourth album reached number one in the Irish Album Charts.
I Own You
The fifth instalment from Mick Flannery was released on 14 October 2016. The album is described as having '50% more social awareness' than his previous album.[39]
The title track "I Own You" was featured in "Tin Star" featuring Tim Roth in season 2 episode 1 Prairie Gothic.[40]
Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen starred in the music video of Mick Flannery's song Cameo.[41]
Rosaleen
In 2018 Mick Flannery released a charity single for a women's support agency. All proceeds from the single 'Rosaleen' went to the National Women’s Council of Ireland. 'Rosaleen' was premiered in May when Flannery performed the track live on RTE Radio One’s 'Ray D'Arcy Show'.[42] He was accompanied by his Aunt Yvonne for this performance.[43]
Mickmas Volume 1
Mickmas Volume 1 was a four track EP that was Flannery's first independently released album. All songs on this EP were written by Mick Flannery, Except 'I have a darkness' written by Casey Black. All songs recorded and mixed by Christian Best at Monique Studios.[44] 150 copies were made available to purchase online, with the remainder only available at live shows throughout December 2018.
A donation from the sale of this EP was made to Pieta House.
Mick Flannery
On 5 July 2019, Mick Flannery's self titled album was released. Mick touches on loose themes of ambition and the search for a meaningful life in the context of a musician’s sometimes feckless and dysfunctional lifestyle.[45] This self titled album was mainly recorded in LA with Australian producer Tony Buchen between July and November 2018.[46] This featured two co-writes with ESCQ of his songs Come Find Me and Fool.[47] This record has debuted at No. 1 on the Irish Charts.[48] This made him the first independent Irish artist to reach the top since January 2018, and the third homegrown Irish act to hit the helm of the Top 50 this year, following Picture This' MDRN LV and Hozier's Wasteland, Baby!.[49]
Mickmas Volume 2
December 2019 saw the second addition to Flannery's four track Christmas EP. Mickmas Volume 2 included the titles Somebody else, Just like me, Rising tide and Lisadell.
A donation from the sale of this EP was made to Cool Earth.
Run a Mile
In May 2020, Mick Flannery teamed up with New York-based director Samantha Scaffidi to collaborate on Run a Mile, a new song and video to raise funds Women’s Aid, a national frontline organisation helping victims of domestic abuse.[50] By re-contextualising Scaffidi's short film 'BOUND' accompanied by Flannery's song, they made effort to raise awareness of domestic abuse during the COVID-19 lockdown.[51] Flannery says ""This song was written as an attempt to empathise with a woman who has lived with disappointing men all her life, from her own father to the father of her child, to subsequent relationships."
Alive - Cork Opera House
Mick Flannery's seventh album, 'Alive - Cork Opera House', was released on 24 July 2020.[52] This project, a lot less premeditated than normal, is a reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic’s decimation of the live music sector.[53] This fully independent release sees all proceeds shared among Flannery's band and crew.[54] Capturing the magic combination of raw talent, nervous energy, and deadpan, self-deprecating humour that makes his gigs so special, the album serves not only as a celebration of the joy of live music, as well as support in the fallout of lockdown. The album is a compilation of 17 tracks ranging from his earliest work in Evening Train to his most recent self titled album. This album joined many of his past ones in going straight to No. 1 in the Irish Independent Charts.[55]
Mickmas Volume 3
December 2020 saw the addition to Flannery's Christmas EP, Mickmas Volume 3. The single "Minnesota" on this album saw a collaboration between Mick and Anaïs Mitchell. All proceeds from this went to Fair Fight in aid of voting rights. Anaïs describes Mick Flannery as one of her "very favourite writers in the world."[56]
In The Game
A collaboration album with up and coming artist Susan O'Neill, and following the success of their song Baby Talk, the pair released this full album of duets. Recorded during the lockdowns of 2020 remotely with producer Tony Buchen, it reached No. 2 on the official album chart in Ireland. After a closely fought battle for the top spot with Drake, the pair knocked Metallica out of the No. 2 spot and charted ahead of Kanye West's Donda and Olivia Rodrigo's 'Sour'. In The Game received numerous accolades from the press on both sides of the pond with American Songwriter calling it, 'A sorrowful Masterpiece', Irish Times proclaiming, 'Two Stars are Reborn', and UK Publication The Line of Best Fit saying, 'Every song on in the Game takes you on a journey, each player has their moment, each instrument sharing the weight of the record’s gloriously heavy sentiment'. The pair toured the record in the U.S. directly after it was released sharing dates with Kathleen Edwards, appearing at the Americana Festival in Nashville, and were also invited to open for Phoebe Bridgers at her Philadelphia show at the Mann Center. Mick and Pheobe are mutual fans of each others work, Bridgers said about in the Game, 'I love this fucking record'.
In The Game was nominated for Best Folk Album at the RTÉ Folk Awards, Chain Reaction the album's lead single was also nominated for and won 'Best Original Song'. It was also on the shortlist for the 2021 Choice Music Awards.
In The Game although only releasing towards the latter part of 2021 has racked up the most independent sales of an Irish record in Ireland for 2021.
Night at the Opera
In February 2022 Mick released A Night at the Opera,[57] an album depicting some of history's most famous chess games. The songs on the album are structured by following the moves of these games, each piece having a corresponding musical cord. The lyrics of the songs deal primarily with the often complex lives of the grandmasters. 20% of all profits go to effective altruism.[58]
This album was accompanied by an NFT minted on 22 February. These consisted of videos illustrating how these chess matches formed the songs.[59]
The Irish Times placed him at number forty-six in a list of "The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now" published in April 2009,[66] commenting on his album White Lies: "With this stunning exhibition of the gravel-voiced musician's abilities, Flannery turned his hand to mournful piano ballads and catchy guitar tunes with a flair that far surpasses his 25 years".[67]
International Songwriting competition
Flannery won in two categories in the International Songwriting Competition in Nashville, Tennessee: "In the Gutter" in the category of Folk Singer-Songwriter and "The Tender" in the category of Lyrics Only.[2][4] This came from a panel of judges which featured several renowned songwriters, including Flannery's idol, Tom Waits.[2][3][6][7] He was the first Irish musician to win in this competition.[2][9] The two songs featured on the album Evening Train.[19]
Year
Nominee / work
Award
Result
2004
"In the Gutter"
Folk Singer-Songwriter
Won
2004
"The Tender"
Lyrics Only
Won
Hot Press Reader's Poll
Flannery was Hot Press's Most Promising Act in its 2009 Reader's Poll.[3]
Flannery lost to Jape, though he was mentioned in the acceptance speech, as frontman Richie Egan mentioned what his mother had told him before the award: "They all deserve the award – sure my mother even told me that Mick Flannery was going to win, she said you're good, Ritchie [sic], but he's gorgeous".[74]
In The Game, Flannery's album with Susan O'Neill was nominated for the Choice Music Prize Album of the Year.[75][76]
^Eoin Butler (1 August 2009). "Talk time". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. You have two well-received albums under your belt, but you're actually a stonemason by trade. Are you finished with all that now? No, I did two weeks helping a buddy finish a job before Christmas. He'll call on me now and again if I'm not gigging and ask me if I want to come out and do a day. We wouldn't be carving gravestones or anything. We'd do the fronts of houses, entrance walls, stuff like that. Using a lump hammer and chisel? Yeah. It's hard work, especially in the winter. But, I'll tell you, when I left it to do music . . . it was weird at first. In stonemasonry, you'd do a long day's work and sleep soundly at night because you're properly tired. When you're doing gigs, you're more mentally tired than anything else. You have a couple of drinks and try and get to sleep. But it's not the same. So getting back to stonemasonry for a day or two when I can is always nice. [...] It's a bit of a culture shock then, isn't it, moving from that into the world of media or public relations? God yeah, there's so much nonsense. Take MySpace and Facebook and all of that, for example. I don't get on a computer often, but I have people working on those sites on my behalf. From time to time, they'd send out messages to people. So then these people approach me at gigs to thank me for wishing them a happy birthday and I have no idea what they're talking about. I find that really sick, you know? [...] Your third album is mostly written. Do you have particular ambitions for it? I'm not hung up about record sales, but I've always wanted to record one of those albums that lodges itself in the public consciousness, that has its own stamp creatively, rather than commercially. Something like Tom Wait's Closing Time, Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska or Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. That's what I aspire to.
^"Mick Flannery for Dublin headliner". Hot Press. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2010. The singer's sophomore White Lies release made the top 10 in Ireland, with a healthy amount of national radio play building him an enthusiastic following.
^"Etc: Choice gigs". The Irish Times. 30 January 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Choice music prize nominees Mick Flannery, Halfset and Messiah J The Expert have all booked gigs in Dublin. Flannery plays his biggest headline gig at Vicar Street on May 25th; Halfset team up with Adrian Crowley for a Whelan's double-header on March 13th; and MJEX hit The Academy on the same night.
^"More names for Marquee". The Irish Times. 20 February 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010. More acts have been announced for the Live at the Marquee series of gigs in Cork. The additional acts are Blondie (June 17th), Simple Minds (25th), Bell X1 (25th), Boyzone (28th), Crosby, Stills & Nash (29th), Anastacia (30th), Des Bishop (July 5th), and Mick Flannery & John Spillane (9th).
^Jim Carroll (28 August 2009). "Pick of the Picnic". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Also playing: Damien Dempsey, Amadou Mariam, Fionn Regan, Echo the Bunnymen, Okkervil River, Mick Flannery, Villagers, Halfset
^Tony Clayton-Lea (31 December 2009). "Rocking out the decade". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. In Cork (Opera House), Mick Flannery does his accomplished singer- songwriter thing, while in Galway (Róisín Dubh) Fight Like Apes, Messiah J the Expert, Disconnect 4, Le Galaxie and Feed the Bears pave the way for a sore head on New Year's Day.
^Tony Clayton-Lea (24 December 2009). "Going out: The Gig guide". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. New Year's Eve best bets around the country include Mick Flannery (Cork), Jerry Fish (Dublin) and Fight Like Apes (Galway).
^ abcGenevieve Carbery (18 April 2009). "My Holidays". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. I visited my sister [the former Young Scientist winner Sarah Flannery] in San Francisco. She's lived over there for the last couple of years. [...] I like going down to Kerry. My mother's family live down there in Coolroe, outside Killarney. It's nice there, with beautiful mountains, lakes and natural landscape.
^Jim Carroll; Tony Clayton-Lea; Sinéad Gleeson; Lauren Murphy (3 April 2009). "The 50 best Irish music acts right now". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2019 – via Wayback Machine. 2008 was a good year for Mick Flannery. The former stonemason had hung up his chisel in search of musical fulfilment several years back, yet his 2005 debut album (Evening Train) failed to make any huge impression, despite the Corkonian's talent as a writer and performer. Last year's Choice- nominated White Lies changed everything. With this stunning exhibition of the gravel-voiced musician's abilities, Flannery turned his hand to mournful piano ballads and catchy guitar tunes with a flair that far surpasses his 25 years.
^Ronan McGreevy (18 March 2009). "Meteoric rise continues for The Script". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery pulled off something of a surprise, winning best Irish male in a strong field and ahead of the highly-tipped Duke Special and Choice Music Prize winner Jape.
^"7 of 10 acts to play at Choice Prize show". The Irish Times. 13 February 2009. Retrieved 9 January 2010. Fight Like Apes, Mick Flannery, Halfset, Jape, Messiah J The Expert and R.S.A.G. will perform at the ceremony, which takes place at Dublin's Vicar Street on March 4th. Lisa Hannigan, Oppenheimer and The Script are unavailable due to prior touring commitments, and Belfast DJ/musician David Holmes does not perform live.
