REVIEWS

TUNE-UP, a publication of the Philadelphia Folksong Society

Alice Flynn lives in Bozeman, MT. She loves Irish songs, the old songs that Irish women have sung in their kitchens for centuries. She sings them with the voice of a fairy, with a passion and understanding.
[Often] her singing is unaccompanied so an audience might find her music bare, even empty, but such an audience would be missing the charm and purity of real Irish music, as real as I knew when I lived in County Wicklow. Alice's taste runs to the wistful and the woeful and the wonderful.
- MIKE MILLER, 2002

LIVELY TIMES, Montana Entertainment Newspaper & STATE OF THE ARTS, Montana Arts Council

Flynn, a Bozeman musician and artist (she created the cover art for her new recording), loves Irish songs... Unlike the fast, fiddle-driven Celtic tunes that have infused the American music scene, most of these songs are sung naked, unadorned by any instrument other than Flynn’s high, true voice.

Traditional Irish singing is intended for listening, rather than dancing. The expressiveness of the singer becomes central to the music. For Flynn, this recording effort also pays tribute to the oral tradition. “Most of the songs … are sung as a story told, an oral history kept alive,” she says.

To hear the heart of this music, imagine a time before recordings, before radio. Imagine a cottage hearth. “Hear the voice of the singer,” Flynn suggests, “coming from the shadow of the corner, straight to your heart.”
For details, visit www.aliceflynn.com.   KRISTI NEIMEYER, 2002

JEAN RITCHIE, the matriarch of America’s folk revival describes Alice Flynn’s new CD:

“It is always good to hear the old songs sung again; it is
even better to hear them sung without artifice and
modern-day trappings; it is almost unbelievable, in this day
and age, to hear them sung as Alice Flynn sings them - a
simple telling of the story in a fine clear voice, conveying
respect for the music and at the same time superbly
entertaining her listeners.” - Jean Ritchie www.jeanritchie.com