ALBUM:
God·Family·Friends
TAYLOR USED:
310Mce
SONG CLIPS:
I Will Hasten To Him
28K | 56K | MP3
Waterfall
28K | 56K | MP3
CONTACT INFO:
ADDRESS
E-mail:
tflan @home .com
Web:
http:// tom flannery .net
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"Intensely personal" may be the most fitting description of Tom Flannery's
relationship with music, as evidenced by a spin through Flannery's solo
CD debut, God·Family·Friends. Using his Taylor mahogany-topped 310Mce ("the first instrument on every track - it is my rhythm section"), Tom strums through his songs in a strong, uncomplicated way that serves to offer up his lyrics and fully expose his emotions, whether he's singing about his family history or religious convictions. "Waterfall" embodies the theme of the album, in a series of images reflecting personal events that flow through time like water descends over the physical landscape. In "Waterfall", his father, the Reverend Ragon T. Flannery, buries Tom's grandmother upon her death, and carries her spirit out into the world by starting a mission in the 1940's. He preaches on into the '60s, sometimes with a gun in his jacket for protection, while, "making his family fall deeper and deeper in love." The Reverend "held out his hand to the sick and the dying," and as the family drove across country, he taught Tom to love his brother, to fire a gun, to drink, to smoke, to gamble, to forgive the selfish, and to "find the thirstiest person and buy him a round." "He made each person he touched feel important," says Flannery. "The sound of his words was the sound of a waterfall." As the song winds down, Tom sings, "I see him when I look in the eyes of my children." Tom prays into the night, and leans into the flow of the waterfall.
There are plenty of humorous moments throughout the album, such as in the first cut, "I Will Hasten To Him", a hymn for which Flannery has obviously written some of his own lyrics ("I am resolved to work my ass off to provide for the children that I love"). Another light touch is the song's intro, in which Flannery stoically sings a verse in pure choirboy tones before lapsing into the comfortable folksinger slur he uses for the rest of the album. (Flannery is a high school teacher of vocal music and music theory. He has performed and conducted in concert halls all over the world, and his musical influences range from American church music and Appalachian folk songs to good old Rock 'n' Roll.)
But despite his sense of humor, Flannery never strays too far from the theme of his own family, friends, and their relationship with the Almighty. In fact, to bring it back as close to home as it could possibly get, Flannery concludes "Hasten" with a recorded excerpt of the now-departed Reverend Flannery singing the tune, circa 1983.
Another particularly engaging cut is a bonus track that appears after the last listed song. The words are the Lord's Prayer and "Rest in peace, Ragon Flannery," in Gaelic, with soaring Uillean pipes as the sole musical accompaniment to the recitation of guest vocalist Lindsey Cole.
Flannery is a man with deep convictions, and they shine through his music.
On God·Family·Friends, he is backed by Doug Pettibone on a Taylor 712 and electric guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Dennis Capplinger on a Taylor 410, mandolin, banjo, dobro, and violin.
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