Alive and Micking!
Arguably Ireland’s hardest working touring musician Mick Flannery is about to drop his seventh full length album, and it’s going to be special.
The award-winning, double-platinum selling Blarney native’s latest work, ‘Alive - Cork Opera House’ is a 17 track beast recorded live in front of a sold out audience in 2019.
The album will feature stand out songs such as ‘Wasteland’, ‘Boston’, ‘Red to Blue’ and ‘I Own You...’, as well as a number of comical interludes such as ‘Brad Pitt from the Neck Down’ and ‘Dead Thing Missing’, written by Mick’s friend, Andrew House, for their side project Christy Skulls.
With musical influences such as Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits, the renowned Corkman has been seducing crowds since the mid-2000s when he released his first record ‘Evening Train’, a product of his time doing a music course at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa.
His newest album follows the release of his number one self-titled effort exactly one year ago last Friday.
Speaking in the build up to the release, Mick said he’s glad the album is coming out and that it will showcase the talents of the musicians he works with.
“I’ve been playing music with this band for quite a while now and this was a particularly nice night to capture on a recording. We had done a tour of promoting a new album and we were familiar with the whole set, new and old,” explained Mick.
Since the release of his last record, Mick has performed nearly 100 shows between Ireland, the UK, USA, and Canada. However, he says that there’s nothing quite like performing to a full house back in your hometown.
“Things happen in live gigs that don’t happen so easily in studio settings, the atmosphere of the room and the audience plays in, perhaps a home crowd helped also. I think this album captures the in-the-moment spontaneity of the musicians, and that’s great to hear.”
Mick’s talented posse of band and crew members are: Chloe Nagle (sound engineer), Christian Best (drums), Alan Comerford (electric guitar, vocals), John Fitzgerald (monitor engineer), Karen O’Doherty (violin, synthesiser, vocals), Matthew Berrill (saxophone, clarinet), Mike O’Connell (bass, vocals), Phil Christie (keyboards, vocals), Sandra O’Mahony (sound engineer), and Yvonne Daly (vocals).
‘Alive - Cork Opera House 2019’ is a fully independent release, with all proceeds being distributed evenly between Mick’s band and crew, who have lost work this year due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Mick Flannery’s seventh album ‘Alive - Cork Opera House 2019’ comes out on 24 July and can be pre-ordered now at shor.by/aSPR.