TOM FLANNERY/Song About A Train (KikoMusic KM-101)

Tom Flannery is a singer/songwriter who hails from the coal mining region of Pennsylvania. His inspiration is a combination of his own experiences as well as those of his Irish ancestors. He has a gift for crafting finely-written songs about everyday occurrences. His writing runs the gamut from serious subjects all the way to pure comedy. He also understands that when it comes to music sometimes less is definitely more.

The disc begins with “Marie’s Song”, a beautiful piece about fleeing the Irish famine and the love that was left behind. A lot of effort went into these lyrics and Tom deserves extra praise for the final result. From the seriousness of “Marie’s Song” we jump right into the comic genius of “Blame It On The Death Of Charles Kuralt”, where Tom sings about the joys of small town life while figuring that we’d have already heard about him if not for the death of Charles Kuralt. He’s got a valid argument there because Tom Flannery is exactly the type of personality that Charles Kuralt spent years searching for and introducing the rest of us to in his reports. In “Johnson’s Station” he sings about the blues of life in a company town. All that’s in just the first three songs! I won’t get into the subjects of each song here but the entire disc is just as interesting and just as well-written.

Tom Flannery’s “Song About A Train” will appeal to the general folk audience as well as the singer/songwriter market, which for some reason seems to be classified differently. If you enjoy well-written, emotional songs about real life events then you’ll love this disc. For information about Tom, and to order his music, use the link to the left of this review and visit his homepage.