John Francis Flynn signs to River Lea

River Lea, the folk imprint of the iconic London label Rough Trade, has announced the signing of  Dublin singer and multi-instrumentalist John Francis Flynn.

Drawing traditional material from Ireland and further afield, John has spent the last few years as a key player in Ireland's folk revival. A founding member of Skipper's Alley and an acclaimed session musician, he has appeared on Ye Vagabonds' The Hare's Lament and Lankum's Between The Earth And Sky. John's haunting live show went international in 2019, as he joined Lankum on their UK tour. He was also selected as one of the Hot Press 'Hot For 2020' Irish acts.

On Twitter, John revealed that he's "absolutely delighted and very excited" to sign to River Lea – and that he will be releasing his "debut solo album and I can't imagine a better way to do it than with these guys. What an honour!"

I'm absolutely delighted and very excited to announce that I have signed to @RiverLeaRecords. Ill be releasing my debut solo album and I can't imagine a better way to do it than with these guys. What an honour!#recorddeal #riverlea #roughtrade https://t.co/dSLO40pL9Z

— John Francis Flynn (@JFFdublin) April 29, 2020

Last year, Rough Trade launched River Lea, a label dedicated to "releasing beautiful and strange traditional music from Britain, Ireland and beyond", with the release of Lisa O'Neill's Choice Music Prize-nominated album Heard A Long Gone Song. The label has since released Ye Vagabond's The Hare's Lament, Brighde Chaimbeul's The Reeling and Lisa O'Neill's The Wren, The Wren.

Take a look at John Francis Flynn performing the sea shanty 'Shallow Brown', filmed by Myles O’Reilly for This Ain't No Disco, below: