Mick Flannery joined us in IMRO today for the presentation of his IMRO Award in recognition of his No.1 self titled album. Mick was joined for the presentation by American artist Mary Bragg, who is currently on tour with him across Ireland.
The IMRO Number 1 Award was introduced to acknowledge IMRO members who reach number 1 in the album charts here in Ireland.
Mick’s sixth studio album is his third chart-topper in total, following 2012’s ‘Red to Blue’ and 2014’s ‘By The Rule’.
An award-winning, double-platinum selling artist, Mick Flannery’s self-titled sixth album, was released on Friday 5th July. Its chart results marks his continuing development as one of the very best Irish singer-songwriters of his generation.
Mick began to write songs as a teenager in his home of Blarney, County Cork. As musical influences from albums by the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits seeped into his creative DNA, Mick absorbed, learned and honed the craft that would send him on his way into the world. The path was smoothed somewhat when, at the age of 19, he became the first Irish songwriter to win the Nashville-based International Songwriting Competition. By the time he turned 21, he had signed to a major label and released his debut album.
With his latest release, Mick touches on loose themes of ambition and the search for a meaningful life in the context of a musician’s sometimes feckless and dysfunctional lifestyle. The central character, he reveals, is someone like him, “although this person achieves more notoriety than I have. He is properly famous, and he has to deal with that.” The loose theme is just that, however. “I’m not going to hammer it home. Facets of the theme are on the album, but the storyline itself isn’t an overarching one – each song can stand on its own, and not need to be part of a narrative.”
Mick Flannery’s self-titled album out now via Warner Music Ireland.
