John Flanagan went straight to the source for his new album, Nashville, TN, where he used producer Viktor Krauss and some of the city's finest session players to bring his melancholic songs to life on this classic-sounding Americana record.
Flanagan has a smooth, familiar vocal sound reminiscent of Ron Sexsmith and John Fullbright and he writes in autumnal colours, documenting the physical and emotional outsiders. Apart from the comparatively rousing single Whatever Makes You Happy, the album is built on subtleties and lush, understated playing and production. Think well crafted '70s MOR folk-pop that keeps cloying sentimentality at arm's length.
