Flannery revels in ancient tones

By: STEPHEN RUBIN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 18, 2004 12:24 PM PST ∞

If Tim Flannery doesn't watch it, people are going to start referring to him as the musician who used to play pro ball rather than the other way around.

That's probably a positive development as far as Flannery's concerned.

"Baseball doesn't help you, it holds you back. As soon as somebody sees that you've played baseball, they don't think you can't have another dimension to your life," Flannery said.

But the ex-Padres player and coach stuck with it.

"If you're going to do something in life, there's no sense in doing it if you're not going to get serious and take it to new levels."

The seeds of the switcheroo to musician/ballplayer were planted back in 1999 with the CD "Pieces of the Past," Flannery's musical tribute to his father, Aragon Flannery, who died that year after battling Alzheimer's for seven years.

Flannery's days as a bar-playing Parrothead faded in favor of exploring the music of his Irish-Kentucky heritage that he grew up listening to and playing. Jimmy Buffett-inspired music out, Celtic folk and bluegrass in.

Next came 2002's "Highway Songs," which added the "California cosmic country" flavors of Gram Parsons and the Byrds to the mix.

It's no surprise that on an album titled "Kentucky Towns," Flannery has imbued his latest work with the vibrant colors of fiddles, mandolins, accordions and acoustic guitars.

"This was the music we were raised on in our house," Flannery said, naming folks such as legendary bluegrass figure Bill Monroe, whose famous "Kentucky Waltz" is track No. 2 on "Kentucky Towns."

Flannery, with plenty of help from his friends, brings his Irish Kentucky-bred songs to La Costa Canyon High School on Feb. 21 in a benefit concert for the Dollars for Scholars foundation, which raises scholarship money for seniors at the school.

"I just stopped trying to please everybody three records ago," Flannery said.

Today, "I'm not playing music the mainstream even understands," he said. "There's people out there for whom this isn't their kind of music. That doesn't make me upset," said Flannery, noting he had to explain to his record label that drums don't fit on a traditional bluegrass record.

The pleasant irony is that Flannery's forgoing of conventional pop/rock to pursue in scholarly fashion the rich vocabulary of bluegrass and folk is pleasing the right people ---- those in the audience. His CD release concert earlier this month at the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon sold out, which is not to say Flannery is suddenly a strong draw. He's been at it for six albums, with his Padres pedigree probably a non-factor by now ---- meaning people are there to hear Flannery the musician, not there for novelty sake, to see old No. 11 try his hand at songwriting and performing. So how did Flannery do it?

Besides a lot of practice, "you surround yourself with the best bluegrass pickers on the planet," he said.

Highly recognized picker Dennis Caplinger not only produced "Kentucky Towns," he also played several instruments on the CD, including banjo, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, viola, bass and guitars. Sharon Whyte (the Byrds' Chris Hillman), played accordion, Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams and Joan Baez) played pedal steel and electric guitar, and the ubiquitous Jeff Berkley chimed in on acoustic guitar and djembe. Flannery's brother, Tom, also played acoustic guitar and sang on the CD.

Whereas "Pieces of the Past" was a tribute to Flannery's father, "Kentucky Towns" is "as much a tribute to the music of that time." The CD features a mix of originals and cover tunes, as well as some arrangements of traditional songs. Flannery's own contributions include an affirmation of faith called "Foot of the Cross" ("The price upon my head has been paid / He's waiting at the door"), "He Ain't Coming Down the Mountain," about his uncle Jimmy, and the title track, which uses the discovery of his dad's Bible to talk about Jesus using his father to spread the good word.

"Now his Bible, it was full of people's names / Those he introduced to Jesus and brought them there by name," Flannery sings.

Flannery's faith takes a more confrontational path on "Judas Kiss," where he admonishes a deceiver: "There were times I sold pieces of my heart just for you / Inside my soul barricades I'd burn to see it through."

"I wrote that song the day after I got fired," Flannery said, referring to when the Padres yanked his third-base coaching job from him after the 2001 season.

Flannery is quick to provide more context, saying the song is really about forgiveness. The scorn in the early verses gives way to a line about God's grace "calling to the Judas in us all to understand / Forgiveness comes to cover all the things like this."

Besides concentrating more on his music, Flannery went on to coach his son at San Dieguito Academy, but Padres fans will be seeing and hearing him quite a bit this season on Padres TV and radio broadcasts.

"The Bible is what fueled the album. God uses the worst people to be his best people. Everybody has hope and everybody has forgiveness. When God uses Moses, who was a murderer, and Saul, who persecuted God's followers, as his leaders, and his Apostles are a bunch of fishermen who betrayed him, it goes to show that God's grace goes way beyond our understanding."

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