Mick Flannery and Susan O'Neill get into character for a fine collaboration

Though not a couple in real life, new album In The Game has the duo going into concept mode to present both sides of a difficult relationship

Fri, 08 Oct, 2021 - 22:20

Ed Power

From Islands In The Stream to Where The Wild Roses Grow, rock music would be far poorer without the his’n'hers duet. And yet acclaimed songwriter Mick Flannery never imagined he would one day follow in the iconic footsteps of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, or Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. Sharing the mic wasn’t for him, he felt. The collaborative impulse was not in his DNA.

“I was kind of afraid of it,” says the Blarney-born artist from his home in rural Clare. “I felt I would lose some of my good ideas if I put them on the table. That it would be a 50/50 split. I don’t really think that way any more. I’ve learned that things happen between two people that may not have happened had you done it on your own.”