TomFlannery.com

Music. Thank your favorite deity for music.

It’s what makes this bearable for me. I mean…I’ll Netflix as much as the next guy, but sometimes I miss not having to conjure up images in my own head. I don’t always want the work done for me.

Since being locked down, I’ve binged-listened to everybody from Blaze Foley to the Damnwells to Marah to Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers to Uncle Tupelo to the Jayhawks…..NRBQ to Danny Gatton…….new Pearl Jam and old Woody Guthrie and the last 2 great records from my friend Kris Kehr. I’ve cried to John Prine and laughed with the Gourds. I’ve revisited Toad the Wet Sprocket records and fell in love with the Drive-By Truckers all over again and listened to my departed friend Neal Casal and pulled up numerous versions of “Ave Maria” and decided that Van Morrison’s version of “Comfortably Numb” is the best one and spent an afternoon with Mozart and that evening with the Band’s first 2 records and would have to flip a coin to tell you which was more thrilling and has had more influence on the human race. And that was probably all in the first week.

I have a new favorite song in the world about 7 times a day.

As much as I despise Spotify because it screws me over as an artist….I ADORE having the entire music world at my fingertips. Which makes me a complete tool. But we’re in the midst of a global pandemic sooooo….gimme some slack, hypocritically speaking.

Anything that pops into my head…..it’s a few clicks away. It’s magical. It’s the best medicine. And there are no side-effects other than getting yelled at by my kids when they are trying to sleep and I’m listening to “Live at Leeds” while reading.

(I can’t listen to music or TV with headphones….because as soon as I put them on I become totally paranoid that something bad is happening that I cannot hear.)

I’m not much of a car person. Can’t drive anything larger than a mid-size. It once took me over an hour to figure out how to pop a hood. I sometimes get lost in the town I live in, and 3 times in a calendar year I sat down in somebody else’s car thinking it was mine because they were the same color. That’s what we’re dealing with automotive-wise. But I miss the music in the car…..way up loud. With me singing along like nobody is watching (or listening) because nobody is. Wobbling to stay on-key….and not always succeeding. I miss that great song that comes on that I replay over and over because it makes me feel more connected to the human race. I miss driving to nowhere just to clear my head and to re-fill it with new ideas. I miss chasing the sunset on 380 on my way home from my daughter’s college on a Sunday……with a carefully prepared soundtrack for company. I hate this virus for a lot of things. Taking these things away from me is one of them.

I’m not sure why….but since this all started my nightly walks have not included musical accompaniment. I’m usually out there at dusk….and it’s pretty quiet. I’ve been feeling like I need to savor the music that gets made by birds and the breezes and my own breathing and the klip-klop of my boots on the ground. I stroll through neighborhoods, and rarely do I see another person. It’s a bit eerie, like a black and white Twilight Zone episode. But the sounds are always there…..and it can be very melodic if you’re open to them.

The more I read, the more I write.

The more I listen, the more I write.

I’ve got new songs all over the place. Lyrics in this tablet and scrawled on that legal pad and verses scribbled on the back of those encyclopedic-sized CVS receipts. Sample verse-chorus-bridge snippets recorded on my phone so I don’t lose the melodies to the cosmos. Ballads and rockers and whatever fits in between. Some are abominable and some might be saved with beer and an intervention and some will surely see the light of day….someday and in some form with a feast of friends.

Stay safe friends. Stay home. Don’t be a dick. We’re gonna get through this.

Give a good listen.

In a bit..

–tf