Cork’s finest export Mick Flannery is gearing up for a night celebrating songwriting legend Leonard Cohen’s 90th Birthday. The Get What You Give songwriter will join the RTÉ Concert Orchestra on stage for the show, alongside Jess Kav, Suzanne Savage and Phelim Drew. “I'm doing Famous Blue Raincoat, which I like and then there's one from his posthumous album called Happens To The Heart,” Mick told the Irish Mirror ahead of the concert this Saturday.
READ MORE: 'Combination of vulnerability, strength and passion': The The's Matt Johnson reflects on recording with Sinead O'Connor READ MORE: Dr John Cooper Clarke on 50 years of punk poetry, kebab-related poetic tweaks and Chuck Berry From 2008 to 2013, Leonard Cohen performed a dozen times throughout Ireland, with six of these shows taking place in the 3Arena, where next week’s celebration concert will take place. The songwriter’s Irish farewell took place over two nights, on September 11 and 12, 2013 in the 3Arena. The recording of the latter was subsequently released as the Live In Dublin Triple Album, marking Cohen's final album release.
The love affair the Canadian poet had with Ireland was said to have ‘blossomed late but endured until the end’. Cohen once said of Ireland: “When I think of Ireland I think immediately of words and language as well as spirituality. That is why I loved to come to Dublin and sing for an Irish audience.
” Mick saw Cohen many years ago playing in Dubin, sharing that the songwr.