Anso is Ansúd / Here and There, 199?
Blood Drops in Snow, 1998
Thall is Abhus / Far and Near 2006
Guth Aneas, 2007
Augusta, 20 Years of Irish Music, 199?
Anso is Ansúd/Here and There
Click here to read reviews of Jim's first album.
Blood Drops in Snow
Click here to read reviews of Jim's second album.
His first album, bilingually entitled Anso is Ansud/Here and There, was recorded at Sulán Studios in Ireland in 1995 and released in the U.S. in February 1996.
"A generous selection. [Flanagan] goes for less beaten paths and has thus given us versions of some seldom-recorded gems".
"Several beautiful songs in Irish...make this an even more diverse and delightful collection".
Writing in Ceili, Betsy Cummings says:
"His material selection is varied and well-grounded in many areas of Irish culture and tradition. There is definitely something for everyone: Love, emigration, tragedy, melancholy, and comic relief."
As honest and engaging a listen as one could have with a singer and his guitar...I would recommend you get a hold of it. Mike Dugger
Jim Flanagan’s voice is bright and engaging as he relates the songs of his Irish homeland. He sings with such sincerity, one feels they have entered a special intimate place with him. I am especially moved by his singing of "A Song for Ireland".
In his gracefully articulated Irish, Jim captures the poetic beauty of the language and the sean nós song tradition. Janice Maloney -Brooks
Down Erin's Lovely Lee -
A Fenian song, written in the U.S., it forms a part of the repertoire of many West Cork singers.
I Know My Love -
A Cork version of a widespread song about the lover lamenting that her man is out carousing.
Buachaill on Éirne -
A love song in which the hero laments a life spent sporting with young women rather than taking care of real business (herding cattle, etc.).
John Twiss -
On Fbruary 9, 1895, John Twiss was hanged in Cork despite his claims of innocence and the protests of Cork city people. I learned it from my sister, Aileen.
The Boys of Bárr na Sráide - (Sigerson Clifford)
This song laments the disappearance of the old neighborhood of Bárr na Sráide ("the top of the street") in the town of Cahirsiveen in County Kerry. As the neighborhoods go, so go the old characters.
Coraigh mo Leaba -
This is an Irish version of the song "Lord Randall" or "Henry my Son". When asked "what will you leave your lover?" the young man responds, "a high hook to hang her and a good stout rope".
The Errant Apprentice - (Watkins, Stewart, and O'Breirne; Strathmore Music)
Learned from the singing of Andy M. Stewart, this tale of deception, infidelity and international intrigue deserves to take it's place among the great tragedies of European literature - if only it weren't so funny.
The Lakes of Ponchartrain -
This is the only song I know in the Irish tradion that mentions Jackson, Mississippi. The hero must have been passing through Hattiesburg, where I now live, as he "rode the rods 'til evening."
The Limerick Rake -
Another song of a man who loved not wisely but too well, which I learved from Mick Moloney. The song lists the towns and villages in Limerick where the hero found his loves.
Lawless - (M. Curry; Bal Music)
A song of deception, disloyalty, and murder that reminds us that the real victims are very often the children.
The Rocks of Bawn -
The poet, Sweeney, curses his life and wishes he could escape the drugery and, perhaps, bring glory to Ireland. I heard it from Eoin O Suilleabhain (Eoin Maidhci) of Coolea.
Lonely Waterloo -
Unusual in that it is not pro-French, this is one of the most beauriful Napoleonic era songs. I learned it from the singing of Dáithi Sproule.
Séan O Duibhir a Ghleanna -
"After Aughrim's great disaster", July 12, 1691, some Irish, like Séan O Duibhir (John Dwyer of the Glen), fought on, but their defeat and exile to France, where they might fight for King Louis, under Sarsfield, were assured.
Gile Mear -
A song of longing for the "Bonnie Prince" (Prince Stewart), it focuses on the plight of the Irish since he fled into exile.
The Banks of Sullane -
The river Sullane flows through Ballybourney to Macroom. This song of unattainable love is one of the many fine songs in the repertoire of Ballyvourney singers.
Song for Ireland - (P. and J. Colclough; Misty River Music)
Perhaps the most beautiful ballad to come out of the revival of traditionalist writing in Ireland in recent years.
Jim’s second CD, Blood Drops in Snow was released in 1998.
SteveWinick, writing in Dirty Linen:
This one’s for lovers of folk songs who have heard the more common material one time too many. [It has] a gentle acoustic sound, full enough to be interesting, but not enough to distract from the songs.
Writing to the Irish Traditional Music List (IRTRAD), Janice Maloney-Brooks says:
Flanagan’s second CD is all that a second album ought to be. His recording of Mná na hÉireann is the best I have ever heard. I think the highlight of this CD is Jim’s sean nós singing. This definitely belongs in everyone’s collection.
The Last of the Gleemen - (O'Connel)
Blind since infancy, Michael Moran (known, after one of his most famous characters, as Zozimus), a Dublin street entertainer of the late 18th and early 19the centuries, compensated for his lack of sight with his memory and wit. W.B. Yeats called him the last gleeman. Robbie O'Connell has created a wonderful calling-in song drawing attention to both the continuity and change in Dublin where the bustle of the present lives alongside the ghosts of the past
Mná Na hÉireann (Woman of Ireland) - (Ó Doirnín, Ó Riada)
The words are by the Armagh poet Peadar Ó Doirnín (1700-1769) and the music is by the great composer and arranger Seán Ó Riada (1931-1971) to whom the revival of Irish traditional music is forever indebted. The poet finds himself in the unenviable position of being attracted to far too many beautiful women and, in the end, "sees no cure for his disease," but to go and get drunk.
The Bodhrán Song - (O'Rourke)
The open-backed, hand-held, goat-skin drum, the bodhran, provides the beat behind much contemporary Irish dance music and is both the heart and, in some people's opinion, the curse of Irish music. Before it's revival in the early 1960's, due to Seán Ó Riada, and John B. Keane's play Sive, few, if any, bodhrans were being made and played outside North Kerry and South Limerick. I learned this Brian O'Rourke song from the singing of Tim Dennehy (a Kerryman now living in Clare) who is one of my favorite traditional singers. The song finds the young goat in an optimistic mood, despite parental objections, as he contemplates his posthumous musical career.
The Banks of the Bann -
Based on a much older hymn Be Thou my Vision, this great Northern Ireland song was included in the Sam Henry collection Songs of the People. Despite his poverty and his "night rambling and courting", the young hero is determined to win the heart of this beautiful and affluent Northern Ireland woman whose "cheeks are like roses or blood drops in snow."
The Red Haired Man's Wife (Bean an Fhir Rua) -
this is a translation from the Gaelic and is, in my opinion a fine example of how dangerous poets can really be. Undaunted by the fact that the woman is already married, and armed with the knowlegde that "the Patriarch David had a number of wives," the poet sets out to capture the affections of his ladylove. For her part, although she recognizes the powerful urges of nature she is determined to "stay as the red haired man's wife".
Na Connerys (The Connerys) -
Although the song mentions three brothers, transportation records show only two brothers named Connery from County Waterford who wer convicted in 1836 and sentanced to seven years in the penal colonies in New South Wales. i got the Irish verses from the poet Nuala Ní Dhómhnaill and the English (translation) verses from the singing of the Dublin balladeer Al O'Donnell.
The Graenmore Hare -
While fox hunting on horseback was the sport of the gentry, following the beagles on foot was the sport of the common folk. The song turns on the instrumental break. Before the break, the song is an account of the joys of beagling and in praise of the hounds. After the break, however, one's sympathies are strictly with the hare. This leaves the listener with the idea that it is the chase, not the kill, that excites the poet. I see this song as the other side of the image of "blood drops in snow."
The Slip Jigs and Reels - (Tilston)
Writing about this song, Steve Tilston says it was "written as a kind of link song between the old world and the new." It is a powerful image of the young immigrant turned outlaw, who finds his greatest pleasures still in the dance music of his native land. His own death, after leading a Billy-the-Kid type existance, is finally discovered when a Mescalero Apache is found wearing the coat into the lining of which is sewn a "ten shilling note."
Sweet Inniscarra -
Just west of Cork city, Inniscarra lies on the banks of the river Lee. Nowadays it is better known as the site of the hydroelectric dam than as the site of a great romantic house. For the emigrant, the song is a statement about how we can never really return home.The poet returns to his native village, having wandered the world, only to find his home destroyed and his love already dead and buried. I learned the sond from the singing of Paddy Berry.
An Poirtín (Di ai di a di) - (Ó Tuama)
Written by Diarmuid Ó Tuama from Scrathan (near Coolea) this song tells of the encounter between the poet and a beautiful young woman on the banks of the Sullane River when he is on his way to help his sick uncle. She is consumed with her sewing and her little lilt (poirtín) "di ai di a di, di ai di a di, di ai di di." he returns heartbroken and uttering the same refrain to his mothers's house never having even seen his uncle. As is only fitting, fifteen months later, in the final verse, the young lady (stuaire alainn - gourgeous creature) and her mother shou up to ask the young poet if he is interested in marriage and his only response is a dismissive "di ai di a di, di ai di di."
Bagenal Harvey's Farewell -
Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey was commander-in-chief of the United Irishmen in their rising in Wexford in 1798. Thirty six years old, a protestant landlord, educated at Trinity College Dublin and a memeber of the Irish Bar, he was convicted of treason and hanged on Wexford Bridge. Bagenal Harvey remains a symbol of the values of brotherhood and justice for which the United Irishmen stood.
The Green Willow Tree -
Another song of treachery and betrayal. The promis of a daughter in marriage leads the young cabin boy to rish his life. Although he drowns, due to the treachery of the captain whose life and vessel he had saved, we are uplifted by his nobility and his courage. It is also known by such titles as The Golden Vanity and The Turkish Reverie. Mick Moloney gave me this version of the song and I thank him.
Autumn Has Come - (Healy)
I have loved this song since I first heard it on an album by Emmet Spiceland in the 1960's. Songs that use the yearly cycle as a metaphor for love and life are not rare, but in this song Shay Healy can put a shiver down your spine as he conveys the bleakness of both fading love and the fading year.
Thall is Abhus / Far and Near
Mary Ellen Carter
Spancil Hill
Maid drom Ballinure
Black Dog and Sheep's Crook
Crooked Jack
Cailín Gaelach
The Spanish Lady
The Flower of Magherally
Mystic Lipstick
Do Bhí Bean Uasal
Oh the Rum
Islander's Lament
Arthur Mc Bride
High Germany
Guth Aneas
Bímís ag Ól (Ó Liatháin, Ó Suilleabháin, Ó Riada)
Amhrán an Steampaí
A Mháire Ní Laoighre (Ní Laoghaire, Ó Loingsigh)
An Capaillín Bán
The Pup Came Home from Claodach (Ó Súilleabháin)
An Ciarraíoch Mallaithe
Na Clagganaí
The Plains of Drishane (Twomey)
Hide and Go Seek
An Poirtín (Ó Tuama)
One Day for Recreation
Cath Céim an Fhia (Ní Laoghaire)
Ar Bruach na Carraige Báine
Táimse ‘na Arrears (New Words Flanagan)