Next month, RTÉ Folk Awards winner John Francis Flynn is on tour in the UK. In 2021, Flynn released his debut album, I Would Not Live Always (reviewed here), on Rough Trade’s River Lea imprint (run by Jeannette Lee, Geoff Travis & Tim Chipping). In his Folk Radio UK album review, David Weir described it as “bracing, unpredictable and without a doubt one of the most deeply affecting folk debuts of recent years.”
While opening for Lankum on their 2019 European tour, Flynn caught the label’s attention; as outlined by David: …alone onstage, he cut an imposing figure. Here was an artist who could mine metaphysical depths and sing with the same emotional heft as the evening’s headliners. A voice deep as submarine canyons and a few laboured notes on his acoustic proved all he needed to transfix his audience, as demonstrated on sea shanty Shallow Brown. Topic Records’ David Suff once called Lankum ‘the pure drop’ – referring to the moment when you hear an act, and you know they’ve got something that works – and it would seem many in attendance thought the same of our man Flynn.
Here he is performing Shallow Brown, which Flynn sourced from the work of sailor, artist, performer, and England’s last shantyman Stan Hugill. He says: “Stan Hugill’s book, ‘Shanties from the Seven Seas, was the source for this song. It was a slave song in origin and most likely made it’s way into the sea shanty tradition as slaves were rented out as crew for America’s mercantile marine during the winter months. On board these ships everyone would sing everyone else’s songs and so they all became part of the one thing.”
It was recorded live for This Ain’t No Disco, a series Directed by Myles O’Reilly (who recently released his solo debut album, reviewed here).
While Flynn has been surrounded by Irish music all his life, David noted how the current hype around the Dublin scene was something new, noting that: Perhaps the recent appeal is down to how Irish artists are harnessing the traditional in bold and unconventional new ways. 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 Cobblestone is a venue close to the heart of many Dublin musicians, and Flynn was quick to rally the support of the public to oppose the redevelopment of The Cobblestone pub into a hotel.
In our interview, Flynn reflected on the rise in interest in Ireland’s traditional music and the success of bands such as Lankum.
“It was a very underground thing, not that we were thinking that it was as such. Traditional Irish folk music hasn’t been mainstream in Ireland for a long time. I’d always played it, but when I started playing songs it was encouraging to find other musicians that weren’t necessarily from a trad background singing songs as well. Many bands started out of that. But I don’t know how far we actually thought that would take us. We weren’t setting up bands to take over the world or anything like that. We didn’t think many people would be interested; we were just doing it for the craic. I suppose when people started really taking notice of Lankum that opened the doors for everyone else to say, ‘actually maybe this is a goer, perhaps we can do something here.’”
On next month’s tour, Flynn is supported by Iona Zajac, a member of the Glasgow-based duo Avocet on which traces of the British folk revival, including Bert Jansch, could be heard (read our review of Lend Your Garden). Her solo work takes on a more unique form, with poetry lending more of a foundation (the poet Louis Sachar inspired a song on the last Avocet album).
Below is the video for her single Red Corn Poppies, from her debut EP ‘Find Her in the Grass,’ (released on 20th May).
Of the song, she shares: I was living in Woodlands, Glasgow in November 2018. The streets were a mass of wet cardboard and browning curtains, getting anywhere felt like trudging through wet wool. One evening I went into a local fruit and veg shop after a very long day, to find everything inside had gone off, just filled with moldy vegetables and wilting flowers. But for some reason I couldn’t Ieave without buying something – I think I salvaged a single plum. ‘Red Corn Poppies’ is about the thing that wills you forward when all you want to do is sit down on the pavement, and let it all go.
As mentioned, poetry plays a prominent role in Zajac’s music. She quoted Hannah Williams (The Work of Revision, Three Poems) as an influence and the songs on the EP, although not initially intended, began life as poems before she later transformed them into songs. Here is the poem from which Red Corn Poppies is taken:
She sits in the middle of her shop, surrounded by rotting vegetables and red corn poppies.
If red corn poppies are the flowers of love then why have you let it all go?
She looks me in the eye and lets out a squawk, I turn and search in a box of ladies fingers. My hands return as claws.
This happens each time, but it’s the only shop around,
In this decaying town.’
John Francis Flynn UK Tour Dates
with support from Iona Zajac
09 August – Sunderland – Pop Records
10 August – Leeds – Mill Hall Chapel
11 August – Suffolk – The Dome Stage
12 August – Manchester – Gullivers
14 August – Bexhill – De La Warr Rooftop
16 August – Guildford – The Boiler Room
17 August – London – Lafayette