A lot of what’s in this week’s Folk Show is lead very much by a response to the music of our Artist of the Month John Francis Flynn and his album “I Would Not Live Always” (read the review).
In the press release for I Would Not Live Always, River Lea wrote that Flynn “personifies the boundless approach to traditional music the label was set up to champion” and “his commanding performances revealed him to be as much an experimental electronic artist as he is an interpreter of traditional song.” John prefers to describe his music as “if Blade Runner was set in Ireland and Deckard kept turning up at the session in The Cobblestone”.
The playlist features two contrasting tracks from Flynn’s album, opening with My Son Tim under which lies a turbulence that is also reflected in a number of other tracks in the show including the music of the late Martin A. Egan. An EP (Selections from A Man In Full) has just been released on Fourth Dimension Records which features a selection of tracks that would have become Egan’s final album, A Man In Full. The following is an extract from the EP notes:
I met and began working with Martin A. Egan (perhaps best known as a songwriter for Christy Moore and the Hot House Flowers) around 2009, launching into the first recording sessions of – amongst other material – what would become his final album, A Man In Full. The recording of this album was completed in 2011, and it was intended to be the first part of a trilogy. The second part – for which material was recorded but remains uncompleted – was to be even darker in tone and content, even more extreme and experimental in sound, and the third part was to be an entirely acoustic album.
Sadly, Martin died before this album, the first part of the planned trilogy, could be properly released. Now, ten years on from its completion, it can be heard in its entirety on the various music streaming services, and this selection of tracks is available here as a taster. CDs were pressed and do exist, but unfortunately never received the intended distribution.
Other new releases include a track from Folkatron Sessions and their new EP Home No More. Alongside this, are tracks from The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, The Deadlians, Sweeney’s Men, Landless, Ye Vagabonds, Gerry Diver, Sam Amidon, Stick in the Wheel, The Eighteenth Day Of May, Dick Gaughan, Sophie Harris (from Broadside Hacks‘ ‘Our Singing Tradition Vol 1‘) and more.
Folk Show Playlist
John Francis Flynn – My Son Tim
Martin A. Egan – I have heard them knock
The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock – Bóthar Crua Iarthar
The Deadlians – I don’t wanna ride yer aul one anymore.
Sam Amidon – Blackbird
The FLK – Bedlam
Stick in the Wheel – Villon Song
The Eighteenth Day Of May – The Highest Tree
5 Hand Reel – The Maid of Listowel
Sweeney’s Men – Pretty Polly
Landless – Rags Upon the Poddle
Ye Vagabonds – Border Widow’s Lament
Gerry Diver – Famine
John Francis Flynn – Lovely Joan
Folkatron Sessions – An Bonnán Bui
The Woodbine & Ivy Band – Poor Murdered Woman
Dick Gaughan – Lord Randall
The Deadlians – The Thatcher
Sophie Harris – One Morning in May
Photo Credit: Alex Gallacher (Shot on 35mm Film, Wales)