Music from the Heart

Kenan Flannery is a 21 year old award-winning songwriter from inner city Dublin. He began playing guitar from the young age of 5 years old and from the beginning fell in and out of love with music but in 2016 he began to really commit himself to the artform and by years end he was awarded the Songwriter award at the Irish Youth Music Awards in the Aviva Stadium. He went on to release two successful singles and play in some of the biggest venues across Dublin including Croke Park, Aviva Stadium, Smock Alley Theatre, The Helix Theatre, Workman’s Club and The Sound House, just to name a few.  These past few months weren't easy for musicians and artists of all sorts and Kenan Flannery kept himself busy and recorded a 5 track EP with the intention to fill the need for music. Flannery had been working on a studio recorded EP to be released this summer and had a headline show planned. He also had a big show coming up in the Button Factory and a festival booking in Montana, USA. He threw himself into work and  the Bedroom Session emerged. Now he's back with a follow up with an intriguing title I've Been Condemned. He’s been working hard behind the scenes recording his own music,collaborating with other artists and recently helped start up the folk and country collective/label called Old Soul Records.

Title track I've Been Condemned is an honest piece about the misery an alcoholic faces without a way out. Perhaps not willing to see a way out, considering the drink his only friend. He seemingly has given it all up. The tone of the song is dark, hopeless and quite depressing yet so fitting the theme.  Flannery's fingerpicking and low tone of the vocal give the  unsettling feel it asks for given the lyrics.

"there's a girl and she loves me but it s too late to fall If she saw me in this state she wouldn't love me no more."  Kenan Flannery highlights one of the many social issues with this song and does so in a powerful way.

Know who exactly it is you are is a dynamic track, lyrically the darkness remains  "people think you're happy but you've got nothing at all" It talks about 3 people and 3 different experiences of depression and sadness.The first is of an older woman that has lived her whole life but feels like she never achieved anything, resorting to Amphetamines to help ease her pain. The second is of a man discharged from the army due to an injured leg, however his PTSD conditions him to resort to alcohol as a quick fix for numbing his pain. And lastly a young girl who is simply unsure of herself and is looking for someone to reassure her. This leads to her getting continuously heartbroken, instead of searching for her own self acceptance. The story has a simple message, you need to have self love and care for your own well being. You need to “know who exactly it is you are.”

Too broke to be cured  is about a heartbreak when the protagonist's partner leaves him for another lover. There are doubts, regrets, the singer wonders if the end of the relationship should have come sooner than it did. He eventually slips into drug and alcohol abuse to numb the heartbreak but a combination like that is no good as we know. The song changes the dynamic yet again, Flannery's vocal is raw, on the verge of breaking at times, the emotions are palpable at every instant. His distinctive vocal stands above and delivers the messages with confidence, reassuring the listener he means every word.

I've Been Condemned is another powerful offering from Kenan Flannery who follows the steps of the Irish bards, writing songs from the heart, often highlighting issues that aren't talked about as much as they should be.