"Famous" Dave Flynn, a good friend of the show who has already contributed to several episodes with his wit and musical talent, joins us as our guest for this episode. Dave discusses his lifelong love for music, how he ended up moving to Sligo, the time he accosted a less-than-impressed Paul Simon, his work as a teacher and choirmaster and more.
Show Notes
This week's show opens with a version of our theme song that we made up especially for our guest, "Famous" Dave Flynn. This leads to a bit of chat between Kieran, Luke and Rory before they welcome Dave to the show.
After reaffirming his hatred of first-beat-third-beat clappers everywhere, Dave takes us through his musical twenties, a time when he played bass guitar with some of Irish music's most famous names, most notably Paddy Casey and Dave Couse. He recalls the many big shows and venues they played, opening for legendary acts such as Bob Dylan and often appearing higher on the bill than some other legendary acts including Gary Moore. Although he found considerable success as a bass player, Dave tells us that he couldn't shake his desire to be a guitarist which led to him going back to music college to hone his skills.
Dave talks about forming a Stevie Ray Vaughan cover band during his time in college, a band that Kieran was also in. Kieran and Dave remember the confusion caused by Dave forgetting to tell the rest of the band members that his guitar was down-tuned one half step. The musical and personal relationships formed during his time in college with Kieran would ultimately lead to Dave leaving his native Wexford behind and moving to Sligo to be closer to a music scene that he enjoyed.
We listen to Dave, Luke and Kieran perform a version of Paul Simon's "René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War", recently arranged by Luke and Dave and performed as part of Kieran's show "Not A Theme Night".
On the subject of Paul Simon, Dave tells the story of the time he and his friend engineered an encounter will Paul Simon, accosting him while he was doing his grocery shopping. Kieran then hits Dave with a philosophical question, presenting him with the theory that all musicians dream of making it big and then asking him if he has had a reckoning with himself over whether or not this might still happen for him. Dave assures Kieran that he's still fully intent on being a rock star and that he'll never give up hope.
Dave discusses his work as a choirmaster, how Sligo's Hawk's Well Theatre initially gave him an opportunity to do something he hadn't done before and how it eventually led to him appearing on TV in the show "David Brophy's Choir Of Ages". We take a listen to a choral arrangement of one of Kieran's songs that he co-wrote with Kate Winter. The song, called "Meadhbh's Call", is heard here performed by the Heart's Desire Choir with an arrangement by Dave.
In the final segment of the interview, Dave talks about what he would do if money was no object before Luke and Dave reveal their mutual desire to obtain a private pilot's license which leads to a small bit of aviation chat on our otherwise music-centred show! We close out the interview with a blues piece called "Tore Down House" recorded and performed by Dave, friend-of-the-show and previous guest Sinéad Conway and drummer Steve Kohlmann.
In the post-interview, Kieran, Luke and Rory discuss their plans for season two of the podcast and ask the listeners for their opinions on a few things, namely the numerous variations on our theme song that we've featured over the last nine episodes. The show closes with a short snippet from each of those theme songs.