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Drop-d review

An oldie but a goldie this, i came across it today, hadn't been aware of it before even though it first appeared on Drop-d back in late October.

Miss Paula Flynn

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Aoibheann Maguire

Women have certainly triumphed, in the music business, in 2009. And while I adore, the fact, that my gender finally has the fortitude to write brilliant pop songs, about crap lovers, and turn the art of writing bitter love-songs into an even playing-field, alá Florence Welsh and La Roux. As the year draws to a close, showing your tender side could easily prove to be an even braver force to be reckoned with.

Miss Paula Flynn

Miss Paula Flynn has tiptoed into the spotlight, in late 2009, with the release of her first solo album. An album, regardless of some of the dark underlying themes of the songs, that is brimming with elegance and romance. Proving the theory that you don’t need to scream and shout to get your message across. Fans of punk poet Jinx Lennon will be familiar with Miss Paula Flynn’s stunning voice (she regularly features on his work).

She has a voice, which is so stupendously soft and sweet, that many people who have heard this, Armagh, woman sing have urged her to make an album of her own. The result of this persistent persuasion, by members of the public, is a lengthy collection of songs, 17 in total, on her captivating self-titled debut.

There is clearly an alt-country tag that could, casually, be used to describe this album, but in doing so it grasses over the soulfulness of the songs, which could easily be read aloud as poems. Boxed In, for example, is a spoken word piece that awakens the listener, not only because of the change in style, but because of the uncomfortable truth, of the reality, of getting boxed into an unhappy existence.

It’s not all pink elephants though! If anything, this album has a definite pop sensibility with radio friendly hits such as: Goldfish At The Fair/Magic/ Ghost in My Car. When Miss Paula Flynn is not covering existential themes this lady’s voice has a grace that delivers much to mere woh-ohs and ahhs. If this album is heard by the “right” people Miss Paula Flynn could certainly carve a career for herself stateside, or perhaps, fittingly, soundtrack movies in the same way Aimee Mann’s music has been very useful to directors in moving a story along. The songs really are that poignant, but more importantly for us – they’re addictive

Drop-d Rating: 9.5/10

The 'C' Word blog

If you've been following what I'm up to you'll know that I've been making a weekly radio programme called the 'C' Word which goes out every Monday evening at 10.00P.M. (GMT) on RTE's 2XM digital station. I've meant to put some more information up online about it but the time over Christmas gave me the chance to make a blog for the show where I'll be putting up the playlists from each show and a little bit about my guests. You can check it out over at http://thecwordwithmisspaulaflynn.wordpress.com

Everybody Hearts AU!

The lovely people at AU magazine have reviewed 'Miss Paula Flynn' Here's what they had to say:

Women on the verge . . .

By Sinead Gleeson

Thursday December 03 2009

From little boots to Lady Gaga, from Florence and the Machine to St Vincent, even the most unmusically minded can't ignore the fact that 2009 was chock-full of interesting releases by women.

From Speech Debelle's Mercury Prize win to Whitney's comeback, if this year was an ad, some lazy advertising exec would pinch Here Come the Girls from Boots for the soundtrack. In Irish terms, the past 12 months have been particularly stellar, not just because of the number of women making music and being recognised for it, but for the sheer breadth of what they're doing. Imelda May's meteoric rise has made rockabilly mainstream, and Miss Paula Flynn showed you can reinvent yourself after having a very big first hit. Lisa Hannigan's year has included rave US reviews for Sea Sew, a Jay Leno appearance and, like May, she played the über-stage that is Glastonbury.

It's not that long since international acclaim and a profile outside of Ireland existed only for a handful of Irish acts, and very few of them were women. Even the ones that sold records and broke into the US -- The Corrs and Sinéad O'Connor -- made music that was chart-friendly and had the backing of a major label. Now a new generation of Irish women in music is proving that not only do you not need a record label to get noticed (step forward Julie Feeney and Miss Paula Flynn), but you can be as eclectic as you like. Valerie Francis's take on the singer-songwriter canon is as unusual as it is accessible -- and who are we to argue if Kanye West is a fan? Julie Feeney fuses pop and orchestral composition and is indicative of how boundaries -- musical, gender and otherwise -- are gradually fading away. The result is a broad landscape of challenging, interesting music where -- boys with guitars are making way for girls with harps, batons, cellos and great voices.

MISS PAULA FLYNN

The name might not ring a bell but you've definitely heard Paula Flynn sing. Her vocals featured on a version of Let's Dance in an ad for bottled water, which EMI later released as a single. With her music career taking off, her background in radio took a short break, but this year she began presenting an alternative country show on RTé's 2XM and is working on a radio documentary for RTé. Although her self-titled debut was only released in September, she is working on album number two and plans to tour in 2010.

www.misspaulaflynn.com

- Sinead Gleeson

Happy Christmas - again

Women of Substance Radio is an online station dedicated to playing great music by female artists. For the month of December like radio everywhere they play Christmas songs. Happy Christmas Valentine has been added to the playlist for their indie artists show which goes out every Thursday between now and Christmas. You can tune in online over atWomen of Substance Radio

Miss Paula Flynn has a new show on radio!!!

Hello all,
I have a brand new show on RTE's digital station 2XM and I am excited.
Its called 'The C Word' and is an hour long show on Monday evenings at 10pm (Irish time) and repeated on Wednesdays at noon.

I play some alt/country, some bluegrass, some folk, some blues, some roots and some gospel and even a bit of spoken word and a bit of preaching too.
Its got a a down home feel about it and each week I talk to an artist about their views on this kind of music.
Greg McAteer also makes a weekly appearance where he talks briefly about songs that shaped the sound of country music.

Its a bit of fun and I hope you take a listen and feel free to tell me what you think.

You can listen online here by clicking on the 'listen live' button near the top of the page
Requests can be made through the contact page of my website here.

Best Wishes,
Miss P x

Here's one we made earlier . . .

I just found this video of Greg and myself playing 'Holiday in Sweden' at the Ruby Sessions in early September, shot by Phil Lee's tour manager Rob Ellen. It's very dark and Greg forgot his hat so mostly you get to see the ghostly glow of the lights on that bald scalp. Sounds good though, which is the main thing.

IMTV Video Awards 2009

The beautiful video for Holiday In Sweden directed and shot by Chris Fite-Wassilak has been nominated in the 'Best Solo Female' category of the IMTV Irish Music Video Awards which are being held in Dublin's Sugar Club on November 27th. The other nominees are Lisa Hannigan, Julie Feeney, Wallis Bird and Gemma Hayes so I'm in pretty good company. You can see the nominees in all the different categories here

If you can't remember what it looks like or if you simply want to look at it again why don't you go over to the video page now.

Review on the 2 U I Bestow blog

Peter Nagle, who runs the 2 U I Bestow blog has just reviewed the album, giving it a perfect 12 out of 12, obviously I'm delighted with that - not least because Peter is passionate about his acoustic music and hears pretty much every new Irish record to be released. You can read what he has to say at:

http://2uibestow.blogspot.com/2009/10/miss-paula-flynn-album-review.html

You should stay a while and check out the rest of his blog while you're there, it's full of good music.

2UIBestow Sessions - Little Miss Forkhill

Peter Nagle, who runs the 2UIBestow sessions in Boyle's in Slane once a month shot this little bit of video when we played there last week. It's pretty noisy - it was late, people had had a few - but if you can filter that out there's a pretty good version of Little Miss Forkhill going on. Someone else filmed Magic earlier in the evening. if I can get my hands on a copy of that I'll put it up too!

The Session Suite - WDAR - Tuesday 6th October - 2.30P.M.

I'll be appearing on the Session Suite, West Dublin Access Radio's live in the studio slot, at 2.30P.M. You can listen live on 96FM if you're within their broadcast area and if not you can not only listen online at http://www.wdar.ie you can also watch what's going on in the studio.

The Thatch, Rahan - tonight

After two full band shows yesterday it's back to myself and Greg playing a two-hander in the Thatch in Rahan Co. Offaly tonight, playing the songs just the way they were written. It'll be intimate and hopefully a little special.

The 2UIBestow sessions last night in Slane was organised mayhem. With five acts on the bill I've never seen so many guitars on the one stage. Johnny Murphy from Wexford had some good songs and Stephen James Smith, who I've seen many times now, delivered the best set of his poems I've seen. He seemed more relaxed this time and the poems flowed out. Anyone who can keep a pub crowd quiet with poetry must be doing something right. We finished the night and songs like Five A Day and Goldfish at the Fair which we encored with were as pumped up and boiling as we've ever played them. Thanks again to Peter Nagle and Andrew for inviting us along.

Getting your hands on 'Miss Paula Flynn'

Down Tiger! I mean the album, not me! Seriously though the album is generally available in record shops in Ireland but if you're the type of person who likes their music cool and digital you can also download the album from iTunes - although you don't get the cool poster that way, you'll need to come to a gig to pick up one of those.

The url for the album on iTunes is

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=331008664&s=143449

so feel free to get clicking since you're already online

Oh Look! Isn't that me?

Well, the big day arrived last Friday, my album was launched, we had a great gig in Bewleys and even though I knew that - in theory at least - my record was in the shops it still caught me by surprise when I saw it on the shelves.

If you're in Dublin and you missed the Bewley's gig, try and pop into Tower Records on Wicklow Street on Thursday at 5.00 p.m. when we'll be doing an instore gig to promote the new release.

On the radio tonight - LMFM 95.8FM, 7.30P.M.

This is a bit last minute but if you're in the Louth / Meath / North Dublin area tonight you can catch up with me on LMFM (95.8 FM) from about 7.30 this evening. I'll have Greg along on guitar duties and we'll be doing a couple of unplugged songs, playing some tracks off the album and having a bit of a chat. We've also been asked to pick a couple of tracks that influenced us so if you can, listen out for what we pick. You can also listen live online if you're not in the area - http://www.lmfm.ie - there's a listen live button on the homepage.

Bewleys, Dublin, Friday 25th September

My debut album is released this coming Friday 25th September and to mark the occasion we'll be playing a Dublin gig in Bewleys Grafton Street that evening. It'll be a full band gig with guitars, drums, cello and violin as well as myself. We'll be playing most of the songs from the new album. Doors open at 8p.m. and tickets are €10. If you're in Dublin on Friday night come along and help us make the evening special.

Little Miss Forkhill . . . the making of

I was really delighted and honoured when Darren Lee suggested that he would make a video for one of the songs on the album.    If you don't know who Darren is yet keep an eye on Channel 4's 'Skins' - he's one of the directors and definitely a director to watch out for in the future.   I sent him a compilation of the tracks that we felt were the most visual and he suggested making a video for 'Little Miss Forkhill'.

Darren Lee on location

We came up with the basic outline of the script after meeting in Belfast and as the song is a look back at my childhood we tried to recreate a sense of growing up in the 1980s.   Initially we were going to be very literal and have three young girls playing me at three, six and eight but in the end we simplified the idea and called on my niece Courtney to stand in for the young Miss Paula Flynn.

Courtney / Me

I was worried that Courtney might be camera shy but Darren soon had her at her ease and she did anything he asked her to do without so much as a murmur.

Courtney really got into the part and Darren worked much faster than I had thought.    His way of working involves seeing the whole thing in his head and then capturing the shots to match his ideas so once he has his shot he moves on to the next one.

After we had made the snails and worms fall in love it was on to the hopscotch and marbles

We shot the scene where my neighbour drowns the kittens at a local river and pressed my guitarist Greg into service as the 'kitten killer'.   Of course I couldn't possibly condone anything that involved being mean to cats so the 'kittens' were in fact a couple of dumbells in a plastic bag.   There, I've let the cat out of the bag.

'Kitten Killer'

Greg ended up with nearly as much water in his wellies as in the river

You should check out the completed video on the videos page of the site here and see if you can spot a couple of my cats who managed to sneak into the video.

Dublin Gig

The eagle eyed among you may have spotted a change in our plans for Dublin. Instead of the original plan to perform as part of the night at the James Joyce Centre we'll now be playing our own show on Friday 25th September in Bewley's Cafe Theatre. That's the day my album is released and I hope you can get along to the gig if you're from Dublin.

Tales from the Dark Side - mixing in Westland

Right at the end of July Greg, Marc and myself locked ourselves away in Westland Studios to mix the album.   It's like stepping back in time, loads of vintage equipment and a huge live room with a grand piano - which ended up on Five A Day - and a proper honest to goodness Hammond that sounds like an airplane about to take off when its not being played - which ended up on Lovebirds.   There's no natural light so it's very easy to completely lose track of time and we certainly did that.   We clocked up one mammoth 23 hour straight through session which nearly killed poor Marc who was actually pushing the faders but we made it in the end.   We took a few pictures along the way to give you a flavour of what it was like -

Marc at the controls behind Westland's huge old SSL console

Honestly, I can tell the difference between all these.

Westland's vintage Lexicon reverb. Don't worry - it wasn't let anywhere near my vocals!!!    You can hear it though on Greg's guitar on 'Wallpaper's Peeling'

Marc putting some extra Hammond organ on 'Lovebirds' at about seven in the morning.   If you look closely enough you'll probably find his eyes are being kept open with matches.

After 23 straight hours behind a mixing desk this photo is probably pretty close to how Greg's head felt!

We got there in the end and after a couple of days listening we went off to Fergal Davis to have it mastered.   So it's getting closer all the time.   Keep watching for details of the release and check out the gigs page to see if we're coming somewhere near you.

Some pics from the studio!

I've been beavering away in the studio recently, working on tracks for my album. I thought I owuld let you have a look.

Jay Tait putting the finishing touches to some percussion

Jonathan Berkeley putting down a little bass

The wonderful Mr. Marc Aubele indulging in some late night Rhodes playing

Bill Blackmore sprinkling some 'magic' trumpet

OUCH!

I got a nice, and pretty much unexpected, mention in New York fashion magazine OUCH, whose entertainment editor has this to say about me in their upcoming Summer 09 edition:

'Music Swagger by Boriss M. Three Hot New Indie Artists Miss Paula Flynn This Irish singer has a voice that is crystal clear and light as air, yet strong and expressive. Miss Paula Flynn sounds like that perfect pastry tastes. She makes you feel, she makes stories, and she tells stories. Grab a glass of milk or a cup of coffee and indulge! www.misspaulaﬂynn.com/www.myspace.com/misspaulaﬂynn'

Who says it always has to hurt?

Belltable Sessions

Nick Carswell, who we met doing Balcony TV last Christmas invited us down to Limerick to play at the Belltable Sessions on MArch 18th alongside ODi, Wayne Brennan and Tadhg Cooke so we set off early (we were also doing a spot of Spin South West) for Limerick. We got to Spin just in time to join Muireann O'Connell and John hayes in the throes of a debate about the virtues or otherwise of Garth Brooks. As the listeners seemed to be pretty pro-Garth we abandoned our plans to play Holiday in Sweden and played Wallpaper's Peeling, our most obviously country song.

Needless to say, having gotten to Limerick early afternoon to appear on the radio, we were first to the venue and had time to relax onstage before the show got started

Despite the name, the Sessions aren't held in the Belltable Arts Centre but in the Red Cross Hall which is a lovely little venue with banked seating looking down on a floor stage. The acoustics are great but there are no microphones or amplification at all used a t the sessions so it was still a fairly intimidating prospect. I just hope people could actually hear what we were playing.

The drive back was pretty tough with the thickest fog I've ever seen in Ireland, visibility was down to a couple of car lengths most of the way home, so bad I nearly missed the turn in for my own house.

Let's Dance again!?!?!

I have been asked to perform Let's Dance in Dublin tomorrow night at Digital Misfitz in the Muzu TV studio along with Steve Lynch from Stellarsound and Greg my own guitarist who has been drafted in to tackle the 'fiddly bits'. It's a year and a half since I've performed it and it seems a bit surreal in the middle of rehearsing for my own first gigs to be diving back into the past. Still, it'll be fun.

AU review of Happy Christmas Valentine

Paula Flynn - Happy Christmas Valentine

You may not know the name but you’ll recognise the voice. It was Paula Flynn’s ethereal rendition of ‘Let’s Dance’ that famously helped Ballygowan sell bottled water. However, Flynn is more than just a voice for hire and, having previously worked with the likes of Jinx Lennon, the Forkhill native is now concentrating on solo material, of which ‘Happy Christmas Valentine’ is the first release. In these cynical times it would be easy to guffaw at the coyly sentimental tone of this song, but Flynn’s voice adds a heart pricking sense of melancholy that arrests any suggestion of seasonal schmaltz. The arrangement is crystalline clear, the piano notes cascading feather light, the little touches of guitar and keys crunching like snow underfoot. It is, quite simply, a lovely pop song. Francis Jones

'Happy Christmas Valentine' now available on iTunes

I'm happy to be able to report that my Christmas single 'Happy Christmas Valentine' is now available on iTunes.

You can download the song by clicking on this link
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=296701094&s=143449

If you live in Ireland or the UK you can also buy the single by text message from your mobile phone.
If you have a Southern Irish mobile you simply text 'music 1826' to 57501 (it costs €1). You will receive a PIN number back by text and you can then download the track from my myspace page at http://www.mypsace.com/misspaulaflynn or from http://www.downloadmusic.ie/misspaulaflynn

If you have a Northern Irish mobile you simply text 'music 1826' to 83262 (it costs £1). You will receive a PIN number back by text and you can then download the track from http://www.textatrack.co.uk/misspaulaflynn

Remember too that you can phone or text your favourite radio station to ask them to play the song. It's getting close to Christmas - so let's get everyone Christmas-sy.

Paula

HAPPY CHRISTMAS VALENTINE

My new single 'Happy Christmas Valentine' is now at all the radio stations and you can help me promote it by phoning or texting your favourite show and asking them to play it.

The single is also now available to buy.   It is on sale in record shops in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.   If the shop you go to doesn't have it in stock they can order it in for you from our distributor Eclectic Music Distribution.

If you have a mobile phone you can also buy the single by text message.

If you have a Southern Irish mobile you simply text music 1826 to 57501 (it costs €1).   You will receive a PIN number back by text and you can then download the track from my myspace page at http://www.mypsace.com/misspaulaflynn or from http://www.downloadmusic.ie/misspaulaflynn

If you have a Northern Irish mobile you simply text music 1826 to 83262 (it costs £1).   You will receive a PIN number back by text and you can then download the track from http://www.textatrack.co.uk/misspaulaflynn

The track is also available on iTunes although as a result of a glitch it is currently not showing up in the iTunes Store search.   We're working on getting this sorted out as soon as possible and I'll blog again to let you know when it is available again on iTunes.