San Diego baseball fans fondly remember the night, many years ago, when the San Diego Padres saluted long-time utility infielder (and avid surfer) Tim
Flannery with a retirement ceremony at what was then Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm) Stadium. Flannery's boundless enthusiasm, non-stop hustle, and
loyalty (he played his entire career with the Padres) had made him a fan favorite, so a large crowd gathered for the event. Flannery stood on the
field with his family as highlights from his career were shown on a giant DiamondVision screen. Afterward, he received numerous accolades and
mementos, including a customized Taylor 810 - the team's tribute to Flannery's musical avocation.
Since then, Flannery has released three indie CDs, each better than its predecessor. With 1999's Pieces of the Past, Flannery made the final
transition from being a professional baseball player with a musical avocation, to being a professional-level singer-songwriter whose "day job"
is coaching third base for the Padres. Reviewers and other listeners have heaped praise on the recording, whose heartfelt songs (six of them
written by Flannery) track the emotional journey Flannery made to his father Ragon Flannery's birthplace deep in the Kentucky mountains, after
learning that Ragon was stricken with Alzheimer's (the elder Flannery has since passed away).
Pieces of the Past celebrates the power of deceptively simple, organic music crafted with care and love; of earthy gems sparkling in uncluttered
settings; of emotional depth limned with acoustic guitars, mandolins, fiddles, uillean pipes, banjos, and laundry-room percussion that combine
to forge a sound as unpretentious and bracing as that first breath of morning air on a Kentucky porch, a Celtic meadow, or a California beach.
It didn't hurt the recording process or the project's integrity that Flannery is joined on this journey through his Kentucky/Irish heritage by a host
of musical "ringers," including noted Irish musicians Mick Hanly and Matt Manning (who produced the album); pop maestros Jackson Browne, Bruce
Hornsby, and Steve Poltz; San Diego instrumental exemplars Dennis Caplinger and Chris Vitas, and even San Diego-area Native American musicians.
These collaborations, however, remain dutifully subservient to the album's purpose and never become "star turns". The players contribute their
talents intuitively, generously. The 12 songs run the stylistic and tonal gamut - at turns dark and melancholy, light and jaunty, earnest and
hushed - yet are unified by Flannery's focused vision and realized by empathic accompaniment (Browne's late father also suffered with Alzheimer's).
Pieces of the Past was released in Ireland the week of August 18, 1999, by which time it had received significant radio play throughout Kentucky.
Within weeks of the early-October conclusion of the 1999 major-league baseball season, Flannery and his wife and children will fly Ragon
Flannery's ashes "back home" to Kentucky, where Tim is scheduled to guest on Michael Johnathon's Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour in Lexington.
The nationally syndicated folk/Americana music-variety show, which is produced before a studio audience, goes out to 100 public-radio stations.
