Flavin in flying form for Tuam concert
Only a few months ago Country star Mick Flavin was rushed to hospital, but he says he is fighting fit again, fully recovered and in flying form for headlining a Summer Country Concert with the Stars in Tuam next week.
“Ah sure I had pneumonia which knocked me back for a few months but I’ve been back again for many weeks now playing concerts as well as some social dancing dates,” says the big man from Longford nonchalantly.
On the Tuam show at the Ard Rí Hotel on Wednesday August 12 he will be joined by five other stars of Irish Country including his fellow Longford singer Declan Nerney and his band.
Declan was the man who produced Mick’s first ever cassette recording many decades ago as apart from being a singer Declan is also a record producer, lead guitarist and banjo player.
The other stars on the Tuam concert are Gerry Guthrie, Patrick Feeney, John McNicholl and TR Dallas.
“I enjoy doing those concerts with the other singers and it’s nice to meet up with them as well even for a chat before we go on stage as we are a bit like ships in the night only meeting occasionally when doing our own gigs around the country and abroad,” mused Mick.
“The songs that I will be singing on the Tuam show are ones that have proven to be most successful with my audiences over the years both at live shows and on the 25 or more albums that I’ve released during the 50 years that people have kindly been ‘travellin’ to Flavin’,” he laughed.
The Old School Yard
During that time songs such as The Old School Yard, Home to Donegal, Jennifer Johnston and Me, Connemara Rose, Travellin’ Light and many others have all become indelibly identified with the strong Country vocals of Mick.
His hit, The Old School Yard, was written about the country schoolhouse he attended in rural Longford and even if its “wild and more overgrown than ever now” according to Mick, he still wrings every ounce of feeling out of that song.
He says that one of the favourite videos that he did over the decades was the one they filmed in his early days as a singing star outside that old schoolhouse, which even then was falling down as the children moved away to a more modern building.
While he has played for sit-down concerts here and in England over the years, as well as in Australia, most of the time Mick and his band were hugely popular among dancers of all ages and that continues now even if he has cut back on his workload.
“The concerts that I do now are usually as one of a number of stars such as the one coming up in Tuam, but I also play some selected social dancing dates with Donegal musician and record producer Brian Kerrigan who produced my last album titled 50 Years of Country Music,” said Mick.
Potential New Album
After recording so many albums over the years, and now at a time when music fans, Pop, Country, Trad, Folk or Rock no longer buy many physical albums but get everything online, I asked if he has any ambition to go back into the recording studios again?
There is a certain amount of enthusiasm in his reply, but it’s also tempered with some doubt regarding producing another physical album at a time of seismic changes in the way people get their recorded music.
“I have a few songs lined up to try and get into the studio again to record, some were written by that great singer-songwriter PJ Murrihy from Clare.
“I’ve a few others from Vincent Soy who wrote a fine song for me years ago titled You’re Never Too Old to Feel Young at Heart which we also did a video of in my earlier days of recording,” offered Mick.
To paraphrase lines from that song Mick still feels young at heart even if he will have just passed his 76th birthday a week before the Tuam gig.
“I know it’s a cliché, but sure age is only a number, or is that what we all say when we clock up a high mileage from all the travellin’ we’ve done,” concluded Flavin with his hallmark hearty Longford laugh!