A NEW ALBUM FROM MIKE FLANIGIN FEATURING A WHO’S WHO OF TEXAS MUSIC GREATS: BILLY GIBBONS, JIMMIE VAUGHAN, GARY CLARK JR., ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO, KAT EDMONSON, REVEREND GEAN WEST & THE RELATIVES.
Austin musician Mike Flanigin enlisted all-star musicians Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr., Kat Edmonson, Alejandro Escovedo, and Reverend Gean West for his debut album The Drifter.
The result is a road trip-worthy record that veers from punk rock to desert pop to Bible Belt blues, its disparate parts glued together with the swirl and swoon of B3 organ.
For 20 years, Austin’s own Mike Flanigin has played with some of the finest musicians who have passed through the Texas music city. Now with the help of engineer Jim Eno (drummer of Spoon), he’s excited to be releasing his first solo album. Collaborating with Flanigin on the LP are Gibbons, Gary Clark Jr., Alejandro Escovedo, Jimmie Vaughan, the lateReverend Gean West, and the album’s executive producer, Kat Edmonson. Furthermore, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Clem Burke of Blondie also appears on the release along with legendary jazz musician Bob Malach (Stevie Wonder, Barbara Streisand) playing horns and Stephen Barber (Keith Richards, Willie Nelson) composing strings and horn arrangements.
“These artists are all personal heroes of mine,” says Flanigin, “I wrote the songs with each of them in mind to perform them. Luckily, they are all personal friends too.” The album was created in six different studios and throughout four states, which included a stop at Avatar Studios in New York for mixing. Grammy-Award winner Garvin Lurssen (T-Bone Burnett, Eric Clapton and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss) mastered the album.
“I worked at a pawnshop growing up, so I was around instruments, but I didn’t know anyone who was a musician really, I certainly wasn’t” Flanigin explains, “I didn’t step on a stage until I was 25.” Flanigin’s first gig was at a Holiday Inn in Dallas. In the years that followed, he toured with The Red Devils, played in the famous Antone’s house band in Austin and did an eight-year residency at The Continental Club Gallery playing organ. During this residency, Flanigin met and began to play with Gibbons and Vaughan and later went on to play as a featured guest with ZZ Top on their Live At Montreux 2013 DVD, filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. “When I was a kid, the first concert I ever saw was ZZ Top and The Fabulous Thunderbirds (Jimmie Vaughan’s band) at The Cotton Bowl,” says Flanigin, “I never thought I’d meet those guys, much less play and record with them.” “Eric Clapton saw me once and told me he liked the way I played. That kind of stuff never entered my mind when I was working at the pawnshop.”
Flanigin later played with Vaughan at The Eric Clapton Crossroads Festival in 2013, which was recorded and released on DVD. “To to be honest, I still can’t believe all the things that have happened to me,” says Flanigin of his journey. “I’m the last guy I would have guessed would become a musician. It all just kind of happened somehow.”
The Drifter, listen now …
Website Mike Flanigin : http://www.mikeflanigin.com/
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