ROCKWiRED iNTERViEWS: MEL FLANNERY TRUCKiNG CO

Posted on February 24, 2010
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ROCKWiRED iNTERViEWS: MEL FLANNERY TRUCKiNG CO
February 23rd 2010
MEL FLANNERY OF MEL FLANNERY TRUCKiNG CO
TALKS TO ROCKWiRED
ABOUT THEiR LATEST CD AS iT TURNS OUT
PARTNERiNG AS A SONGWRiTER WiTH LEE PARDiNi
AND THEiR SUPPORT OF GAY RiGHTS

iNTERViEWED BY BRiAN LUSH

With the release of their third album ‘AS IT TURNS OUT’, the MEL FLANNERY TRUCKING CO go beyond what one expects from a New York based jazz trio. The band’s lead singer and namesake MEL FLANNERY is a honey-voiced chanteuse that is not about to be overshadowed by her solid backing (LEE PARDINI on keyboards, MATT ARONOFF on bass and DANNY SHER on drums). The jazz sound that the band was founded on shows folkier leanings as well as irresistible grooves – a testament to the writing partnership of FLANNERY and PARDINI. A soulful, Memphis-styled groove is established on ‘YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO’ with FLANNERY purring like she’s DUSTY SPRINGFIELD. ‘SOMETHING ABOUT YOU’ boasts a bossa nova shimmy as FLANNERY packs her bags and gets away from an old boyfriend, confident that she can do without his “smell sight and sound”.  The whimsical balladry of ‘GONE’ has FLANNERY sounding eerily like ROBERTA FLACK, but the album’s stand out moment is the gay rights-themed ‘WE’RE STILL HERE’. Its BACHARACH bounce makes for a righteous protest song that doesn’t get one-upped by its good intentions. For my whole life, I’ve wanted to write a protest song. As it turns out, it is the hardest thing in the world to do – to write a decent protest song that doesn’t sound like “Wah! Wah! Wah! I want things!” I’ve always been a huge fan of JOAN BAEZ and WOODY GUTHRIE and ANI DIFRANCO. I grew up listening to that kind of stuff and never got how one can say something meaningful without being really irritating. We wrote it right before we were going out to California for our first tour. This was right after PROPOSITION 8 had happened and I was furious…Everyone should’ve been furious…I refuse to be tolerant of intolerance.” (READ MORE)

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