KIARANNE FLANAGAN "Roller Coaster of Emotion"

by tracy serra

My dance partner and I arrived at Tranquil Café before the first song as Kiaranne Flanagan was warming up her fingers for her performance. When she was ready, she started her warm-up song, “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks leading me to believe we were in for a good show. After a brief welcome to everyone at the venue Kiaranne performed “I Will Remember You” by Sara McLachlan. She then welcomed the newcomers and began talking about her song list as well as her new original song she was hoping to get to this night. As a prelude to her next song, Kiaranne told those assembled that she promised to sing Tracy Chapman’s “The Promise” which she sings at every show. Her acoustic guitar playing complemented her singing with an almost perfect balance.

We could tell that Kiaranne’s voice was now fully warmed up as her voice was much stronger singing “You’re The Power” by Kathy Mattea. She followed with an Irish folk tune called “Wild Mountain Thyme”. My dance partner found out the song was written by William McPeake. Kiaranne said she was happy to finger-pick this song and it showed with her lovely singing and great picking. Up next was an original called “What Does It Matter”.

Kiaranne then interacted with the crowd talking about trying to pick her songs to mix up the emotions they expressed as if we were on a roller coaster of emotions. She asked everyone to tip the venue and you could sense her humor as she encouraged her fingers to get going. Her fingers responded as she played “Underneath The Stars” by Kate Rusby. Playfully interacting with the crowd, she then gave us “Caledonia” by Celtic Woman.

Saying hello to a few newcomers and a little more playful crowd interaction preceded John Denver’s “Annie’s Song”. Kiaranne talked about in-world days being 4 hours to in-world nights being 1 hour and we realized the time had flown. She performed “Days Are Never Long Enough” by Steve Earle, which was right on topic, before ending with “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen.

With her set ended, I felt Kiaranne had expressed each song’s emotion and had given us a night to enjoy.