The beauty of folk music is that it has a great facility to transcend time, morphing and evolving to meet head on the context of the world in which it finds itself. John Francis Flynn cut his teeth with Skippers Alley and emerged fully formed as a solo artist in 2021 with his (deservedly) much-lauded debut, I Would Not Leave Always. It was a masterclass in industrial bad ass folk, with songs ripped from their roots and reimagined with primeval intent.
Two years on, John Francis Flynn’s drillbit is mining even deeper, though excavating initially closer to the surface with the Dublin song, The Zoological Gardens. Here he melds different versions he’s heard by Ronnie Drew and Brendan Behan. At times the mix of gormlessness and bawdiness in the lyrics is comical, but Flynn takes full possession of it and renders it anew, the brightest light in this dark, foreboding collection.
The nocturnal, muzzy soundscape builds on what he conjured on his solo debut and speaks the same language as both of Lankum’s most recent albums: as befits the ultimate role of folk and punk.
Flynn’s reach is both wide and deep, embracing this time around two songs from Ewan MacColl’s catalogue and layering fresh meaning on both.
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The Lag’s Song starts out as a plaintive meditation on the nature of confinement and its impact on mind and body. “I’ve got time on my hands/ I’ve got time on my shoulders/ I’ve got plenty of time on my mind”, Flynn sings with a remarkably deadened but visceral quality that is utterly in sync with its lyrical sentiments.
He closes with a stark take on Dirty Old Town, a fitting epigraph to this collection and a nod to his impressive advocacy on housing and homelessness and his leadership in the battle to save The Cobblestone. This is starkly amplified by his cover of the American dissident folk song from the 1920s, Mole in the Ground.
The Seasons is a gorgeous pastoral Scottish ballad. A reflection on the passing of time shot through with a jagged-edged unease of someone not quite at home in their own skin, but unquenchably at home in nature. Kitty, a song Flynn heard sung by Shane MacGowan on the Pogues’ Red Roses For Me album, is a Fenian ballad that takes on a darker, nigh-on apocalyptic tone, in this context.
Produced by long-time collaborator, Brendan Jenkinson, this is a collection tattooed with all manner of sonic adventures, including Ultan O’Brien’s chilling fiddle and Ross Chaney’s drums and sundry processed sounds. To be played with the lights down low. Dark, immersive music in keeping with these dark times.
