Paul Flaherty is going to be playing at The Thing in the Spring, along with drummer Randall Colbourne. They did somewhere around 14 records together throughout the 80s and haven’t played a live set together in years. Flaherty is the kind of man who inspires you to be better at living your life. I’m not talking about being responsible at your job, or brushing your teeth, or even keeping up with your family. While those things are important, from a certain point of view, they are absolutely not at all from the perspective that makes that bare and real difference.

He wants to know about you: the little thing that you cradle somewhere in the center of your chest, looking at it cupped in your hands in the quiet hours of the night. He wants you to tell him about that, your hope. If you listen to him play, he’ll tell you about his. Though there are several LPs worth getting, most recently the sessions with Corsano and Wally Shoup issued as Blank Check and Bounced Check, the one to get where you can hear him speak directly into your ear is Whirl of Nothingness. These are all solo recordings that also include Flaherty-penned liner notes where he talks about suffering and love.

This is a serious man. If you listen, and the only things you hear are the shrieks and howls of a madman, then I am sorry for you. You are missing the teachings of a yogi in the new frontier. These are the sounds of wars, self-doubt, and loneliness coming back from space. This is unrequited love bouncing off of the timeless void. Paul is a conduit, and he has the cosmos inside of his horn. Get into it.