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A Good Night Was Had For Days

by Tom Flannery and the Shillelaghs

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1.
Burden 03:27
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Friday night come up for air ‘cause what’s done is done Leave your baggage over there don’t fear the rising sun ‘Cause we’re gonna be there when she starts the day She’s used to being alone but we’re gonna get in the way Come and lay your burden down come and talk with me Come and lay your body down come and walk with me Saturday nights are made for sin / and there’s no regrets When sunday mornings roll around / and it all forgets The lord watches but things can slip his mind When distracted by the look of a different kind Come and lay your burden down / come and talk with me Come and lay your body down / come and walk with me It gets so sticky down here From fires underground I’d give up all our secrets But I’m honor bound Come and lay your burden down come and talk with me Come and lay your body down come and walk with me
2.
Stuart Adamson 04:00
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Step right up sit right down I’ll pull this pint I’m honor bound By the blood running through Celtic veins And all the memories that remain Wine without the women and song Never really lasts that long I got this ringing inside my head That comes out my guitar instead So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong Wonderland is a mighty long road Marching where the rose is sown My time is up maybe you’ll see Just what you’ve done to me So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong I can run I can hide But I couldn’t keep it all inside Only so much a man can do To outrun these walking blues To outrun these walking blues So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong So rest my child it won’t be long ‘Till you find a place where you belong
3.
Dirty Frank's 04:57
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I saw Jesus on the subway train / he was sitting there all alone Had his head buried deep in a brand new Iphone Wearing the flowing robes with the Bob Weir birkenstocks Over a pair of vintage Archie Bunker sweat socks Then he got off at Prospect Park And copped some pills there in the dark He needed Dirty Frank's Gotta pray Dirty Frank's Right away Raise your glass gotta give thanks At Dirty Frank's Opportunity passing me by just like a yellow cab Another rent increase to go with my covid jab My girl she finally hopped that leaving train In the middle of yet another driving rain If home is where the heart should be I’d rather live on the open sea Or at Dirty Frank's So she’s gone Dirty Frank's I’ll get along Raise your glass gotta give thanks At Dirty Frank's Getting around always a chore Just trying to reach my own front door If you can run then you can hide Like a carny on a carnival ride Pitch the tent then take it down Drive it to another town Where Jesus saves once he gets clean But never tells you where he’s been Never looked me in the eye took this long to find out why Now he’s at Dirty Frank's Looking for love Tired of searching all the stars above Raise your glass gotta give thanks At Dirty Frank's
4.
Valley Train 03:27
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Running off to find myself bumping into someone else Another face another town another secret in the ground The ghosts they can track you too And set up shop before you do So don’t think that you can hide Ain’t no ticket for this ride On this valley train This valley train Together again On this valley train Graffiti calling out the news of kids with nothing left to lose Lovers line the riverbed slow dancing inside their head Always fearing letting go To the one thing that they know But suffering is saving grace If I get to see your face On this valley train On this valley train Together again On this valley train Always fearing letting go To the one thing that they know But suffering is saving grace If I get to see your face On this valley train On this valley train Together again On this valley train
5.
You Never Talk This Way 04:03
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All them sticks and stones and wanting to be alone And that whispering outside the door Turn it over in my head think about the things you said Sleepless nights pacing ‘cross the bedroom floor Turn your head and you might see All these scrapbooks piled on top of me You never talk this way you never talk this way You never talked to me this way before We always found a way To temper what we say You never talked to me this way before Setting the house on fire with untapped desire Window dressing to hold in place All them dreams like a broken dam There you are and here I am You never talk this way you never talk this way You never talked to me this way before We always found a way To temper what we say You never talked to me this way before Can’t pick it up it weighs a ton From the expectations of being the only one You never talk this way you never talk this way You never talked to me this way before We always found a way To temper what we say You never talked to me this way before
6.
You Did It Once (But Can You Do It Again) 03:46
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The road less traveled always brings me down I get lost on my way out of this town Always searching for what went wrong With the help of a beat up rock and roll song I asked my family I asked my friends You did it once but can you do it again Can you do it again Give up the pills give up the ghost Give up the pills that hurt you the most Climb a mountain or dig a ditch Ignore the pain or scratch that itch I might ask why but I’ll never ask when You did it once can you do it again Can you do it again Once upon a time forever young A slippery slope or a slippery tongue yea yea I might ask why but I’ll never ask when You did it once can you do it again Can you do it again It’s in the retelling that the story grows Where it stops nobody knows While that storm it rolls up fast We survey the damage only when they pass We survived the 7 deadly sins We did it once but can we do it again Can we do it again We’re all liars in retrospect From what the fuck to what the heck
7.
We Even Took the Circus Away 03:48
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We even chased the circus away Two years on still ain’t ok Kids are blinded by the sun Bone weary by the things we’ve done All the road signs are torn down Just their phones to get around We even chased the circus away Center ring buried in the clay In case they want to make a stand consider this the promised land Return when the nighttime falls Prop up these big-top walls It’s like sweeping up an old dirt floor I gotta wonder what we’re down here for Test the tension of the wire Bucket brigade for the ring of fire We even chased the circus away Left to steal what we cannot pay leave the lights on all night long Lay our heads on a favorite song Life’s a calendar nailed to the wall With one page that fits all It’s like sweeping up an old dirt floor I gotta wonder what we’re down here for Test the tension of the wire Bucket brigade for the ring of fire We even chased the circus away Two years on still ain’t ok Kids are blinded by the sun Bone weary by the things we’ve done We even chased the circus away Center ring buried in the clay In case they want to make a stand consider this the promised land
8.
If You Don’t Know Me By Now (You Never Will) 03:33
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It’s 2020 but you still can’t see The wreckage that you left behind for me Find the needle find the vein Find the vaccine that will drive you out of my brain If you don’t know me by now you never will If you don’t know me by now you never will I want to gather I want to hold you so tight Fumble for the light at the end of the night Cover up or bring me down Heavy is the head the wears the pointy crown If you don’t know me by now you never will If you don’t know me by now you never will Keep your distance but still let me in Walking on a wire wondering what might have been If you don’t know me by now you never will If you don’t know me by now you never will If you don’t know me by now you never will If you don’t know me by now you never will
9.
Two Coal Cars 03:40
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Hometown gets buried in the rubble left behind when memories are like a ghost train coming down the line and that whistle causes people to flee I got two coal cars watching over me A young boy asked me ‘M’aam where are you gonna go?’ ‘this town ain’t big enough for the things I’m gonna know.’ I said son go and see what you need to see I got two coal cars watching over me Since my father pointed them out this town hasn’t looked the same they finally got them to the top just as their world changed Hometown gets buried in the rubble left behind when memories are like a ghost train coming down the line and that whistle causes people to flee I got two coal cars watching over me
10.
When Jackie Drinks Whiskey 04:01
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When it gets to that point what’s done is done You just better hope that you ain’t the one That stirred the pot to get us here No more wine and no more beer When Jackie drinks When Jackie drinks whiskey Watch the fear and loathing grow Where it stops nobody knows Even Uber drivers run for the hills And will ignore $100 dollar bills When Jackie drinks When Jackie drinks whiskey Strike the bouncer strike the tent Away we go away she went Shots lined up across the bow If you don’t know she’ll teach you how Fa la la fa la lo It’s time to leave it’s time to go When Jackie drinks whiskey After hours of 100 proof It could be cannonballs off the Mecca’s roof I’ve got no eyes so I can’s see Just what this woman is doing to do When Jackie drinks When Jackie drinks whiskey Strike the bouncer strike the tent Away we go away she went Shots lined up across the bow If you don’t know she’ll teach you how Fa la la fa la lo It’s time to leave it’s time to go When Jackie drinks whiskey

credits

released January 12, 2024

CREDITS

01 - Burden (Flannery/Wegleski)
02 - Stuart Adamson (Flannery)
03 - Dirty Franks (Flannery/Wegleski)
04 - Valley Train (Flannery)
05 - You Never Talk This Way (Flannery/Wegleski)
06 - You Did It Once (But Can You Do It Again) (Flannery)
07 - They Even Chased the Circus Away (Flannery/Wegleski)
08 - If You Don’t Know Me By Now (You Never Will) (Flannery/Wegleski)
09 - Two Coal Cars (Flannery)
10 - When Jackie Drinks Whiskey (Flannery)

Copyright 2024 All Rights Reserved
Produced by Joe “Wiggy” Wegleski
Recorded at Sound Investments, Old Forge, PA

Tom Flannery - guitar, lead vocals
Joe “Wiggy” Wegleski - guitars
Lenny Mecca - bass, background vocals
Chris Condel - drums, background vocals

with…

Tom Borthwick - keyboards, background vocals
Hannah Bingman - vocals on “Two Coal Cars”

Special thanks to the MRT All-Stars

J Rod
Emanuel
Jacob Bagadonuts
Kelsey
Nurys
Marina
Alex
Michael
Lauren
Hannah
Robert
SumerBelle

....for helping to engineer Valley Train and You Did It Once (But Can You Do It Again)

NOTES

A little backstory first. Tom Flannery and the Shillelaghs released albums in 2012 and 2019. This is our third. We started working on it in 2020, at the height of the Tiger King plague. We’d toss ideas back and forth from our respective bunkers, and waited for the world to re-open so we could sit in the same room together. Because we are all grumpy grown-ups, finding a time when all of us were available was difficult, so even though the record was started in 2020, and finished 4 years later, that didn’t mean we labored over the thing for 1500 days. More like a dozen. Maybe.

I always bought the beer, for which I almost gave myself a production credit. In the end it was Wiggy who put it all together. He deserves the credit for making such a disparate set of songs recorded over such a long period of time sound cohesive, as if we knew what we were doing all along.

This is why producers never have to buy the beer.

Somehow 10 songs emerged. I’m still not sure how. Gaps between sessions could stretch into months, so it was easy to forget what we had already done. We’d listen to playbacks and say “which one is this?” Some didn’t have titles until the last minute. All we really knew when we started was what the album cover photo was going to be…..

It was snapped by Tom Borthwick, the Godfather of Sound Investment Studios, who also played piano and Hammond on the album. It caught Wiggy adding an overdub from the control room on his brand new Les Paul. It looked very rock and roll-y to me, and it was free.

The title is an old Irish saying from the Blasket Islands, because of course it is.

So now I’ll take you through it track by track….

Burden

I think this is one of the 2020 ones. I was trying to get Wiggy into the Tragically Hip at the time, and when he sent me this track I knew I’d won him over. Hip fans will recognize the “It gets so sticky down here…” reference in the lyric from their song “Little Bones”.

Wiggy created the track at home, and sent it to me for lyrics. I added a guide vocal from my home set-up. Lenny and Chris eventually added bass and drums three years later. Wiggy would re-do his guitars. And then re-do them again. Once we had a rough mix of it, it was the one we’d play for anybody who asked how things were going. Having this song in the can early made everybody feel good. We knew we still had it in us. Whatever “it” is, this song had it.

Stuart Adamson

Stuart Adamson was the founder and leader of the band Big Country. You can read all about him here. I just scribbled the lyrics in my notebook one day, found the E Bm A chord progression, and that was that. At first it seemed so simple that I didn’t even bring it to the rest of the band. But eventually I sat on the studio couch and played it during a break in the action, and if I remember correctly Lenny just fell in with his harmony. Wiggy build the guitars up, Big Country style, and what had once sounded slight suddenly wasn’t so slight anymore. When things like this happen it’s what makes being in a band worth being in a band.

Dirty Frank’s

Wiggy’s track. We all loved it but I couldn’t get the lyrics right and it was starting to piss me off. I wrote them out completely at least twice, and we actually cut a vocal and thought it was done. I can’t remember what the words were, which is what happens when you write some connect-the-dot shit lyric. During a very disinteresting playback, Lenny started telling us about the night he and his girlfriend Jackie went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Philly. They got a hotel room for the night and after the show were looking for a place nearby to get a drink. They found a little dive called “Dirty Frank’s”, having no idea it was, at least that evening, one of the gayest bars in Philly. They ended up staying for multiple rounds, and had a great time. Everybody is welcome at Dirty Frank’s.

Alas, the name of the bar fit the chorus perfectly. Somebody in the control room started singing “Dirty Frank’s….” (it may have been Borthwick) over whatever was there, and everybody else joined in on a gang vocal. Clearly this was much better, so I went home and wrote a completely new lyric, perhaps the only song in history that mentions Bob Weir and Archie Bunker in the same verse, and that was that. It’s Lenny’s favorite song on the record, which seems just about right (Jackie has a different favorite, as you’ll soon see…)

It’s not a song about the bar per se. But rather one about the search for a place that accepts us for who we are….

Now he’s at Dirty Frank's
looking for love
tired of searching all the stars above
raise your glass gotta give thanks
at Dirty Frank's

My plan is to write the bar an old fashioned handwritten letter to thank them for the inspiration.

Valley Train

A happy accident. Wiggy was teaching a recording class at a local college, and wanted to give his students some hands on training. So he asked if I could write a quick song that they could work on. He implored me to not make it about trains, which he says is all I write about, so I dashed off “Valley Train” in about 10 minutes, and we recorded the basic track, live, in less time than that. Cheesy live ending and all. This was the very definition of a throwaway.

The students took the track back to school, and dove in. They added some handclaps and maybe some cowbell and there’s a plonking piano in the chorus. Wiggy added soaring guitars. Things were getting interesting.

It ain’t gonna win me any songwriting awards, but it’s a good after-midnight burner in a bar. The world needs them too…

You Never Talk This Way

Setting the house on fire
with untapped desire
window dressing to hold in place
all them dreams like a broken dam
there you are and here I am

Another Wiggy track. The melody is built right in. I sang the lines to the chorus, intending them as place-holders. But they dug in and stayed, so the verses just fell from that. Somebody told me the other day that it reminded them of R.E.M. I’ll take that. And I don’t once mention trains.

Chris plays his ass off on this one. They really are quite a good band. aren’t they?

You Did It Once (But Can You Do It Again)

Wiggy asked for another track for his students, who were split into two socially distanced groups at the time. I had this lyric in my notebook, and the night before just banged on an E chord while listening to Keith Richards long enough to come up with a sort-of melody. Any excuse to sing this line…

We’re all liars in retrospect
from what the fuck to what the heck

….which gives the album an EXPLICIT sticker. There’s also the “thank you CLEVELAND!” ending, compliments of Chris our drummer, which should be a requirement on all rock and roll records.

We Even Took the Circus Away

For some reason I called it that even though I sang “chased the circus away” throughout the song. I must have had my reasons.

Another Covid-19 inspired song. In 2019 the circus came to the Taylor Wal-Mart parking lot, and of course I was there because when the circus comes you go to the circus. Duh.

We even chased the circus away
Center ring buried in the clay
In case they want to make a stand
consider this the promised land
Return when the nighttime falls
Prop up these big-top walls

It’s like sweeping up an old dirt floor
I gotta wonder what we’re down here for
Test the tension of the wire
Bucket brigade for the ring of fire

But now the pandemic even took THAT away. When something sidelines the fucking CIRCUS, it’s time to write a song about it. I sent Wiggy a Tragically Hip song called “Crack My Spine Like a Whip” and said “we need something at this tempo” and being a man of few words he said “sure” and a few days later I had the track. I think this was the last thing Chris added drums to. In the midst of the killer bridge Lenny gets his John Entwistle funk on, which triggered a friend of mine to drool and ask “who the fuck is your bass player?”, to which I replied “he’s MINE, get your own..”

If You Don’t Know Me By Now (You Never Will)

One of the first things we did. Wiggy may have had this track laying around from a previous session (he is a man of many bands). Definitely from 2020. It didn’t sound like anything else we’d done. It’s more of a pop song.

It’s 2020 but you still can’t see
The wreckage that you left behind for me
Find the needle find the vein
Find the vaccine that will drive you out of my brain

We were all going a bit batty at the time, so this might have been a plea to vanquish Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin from our lives. In retrospect, if you were living with a stranger in 2020, you suddenly had plenty of time to get to know them.

I added the (You Never Will) bit at the end so Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes wouldn’t get mad at me. As it stands, I don’t think anybody is going to confuse our song with theirs.

Two Coal Cars

Written in 1996. Originally recorded in 2000 for my second solo album. When we released our first Shillelaghs album and were booked to do an hour set on live radio, I realized we needed another song to reach the finish line. So it was in our repertoire. If we needed it to last 15 minutes, it lasted 15 minutes. If we only needed to fill 3 minutes, it lasted 3 minutes. It’s very friendly and elastic in that way. When we started making this album we always knew we were gonna record it.

I asked my friend Hannah Bingman to sing it with me, and she added her bits from her home in Lancaster. She was so good Wiggy asked her to sing MORE bits. Which she did. Once we had her vocal, we knew the album was done.

When Jackie Drinks Whiskey

Wiggy and Lenny Mecca and Chris and their significant others were camping at Knoebels, drunk as monkeys, and late-night texting me proposed song titles. When I saw this one, I dashed off the lyric in full and fired it back at them….

After hours of 100 proof
It could be cannonballs off the Mecca’s roof
I’ve got no eyes so I can’s see
Just what this woman is doing to do
When Jackie drinks
When Jackie drinks whiskey

They loved it. Especially Jackie, who is Lenny’s longtime girlfriend, and Wiggy’s older sister. And an excellent whiskey drinker I might add. She was now immortal. Or would be if we ever decided to record the song, which we did one drink-fueled night in the studio, sitting in a circle like some punk bluegrass outfit. We did two takes. The first one fell apart. The second didn’t. Or at least didn’t fall apart as badly as the first one. A song that opened with the snap of an open beer can seemed the perfect closer. A good night was had for days, indeed.

In a bit…

—tf

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Tom Flannery Scranton, Pennsylvania

"One of the most gifted songwriters to emerge at the turn of the century"
-- The All Music Guide

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