James Ronald Flynn (Born
March 24, 1938) is an
American
country music songwriter.
Early life
James was
born in Lewiston,
Maine
to Lawrence and Katherine (McIlroy) Flynn.
He is the fourth of five sons.
He grew up in Monmouth, Maine
and Lewiston Maine
, where he
was a member of a high school choral group.
In 1956, Flynn joined the
United
States Army.
He was part of "Operation Gyroscope", and ultimately was
deployed to Germany
as part of
the Cold War efforts of post-World War II. Flynn served as a
radio operator.
In 1957, he took part
in a quartet known as "Tune
Toppers" that enjoyed moderate success and was featured in the
10th Infantry Division Band and Chorus in Wurzburg,
Germany
. The Band and Chorus was disbanded in early
1958 and Flynn was
honorably
discharged in June 1959, three years after his
enlistment.
Flynn's wife
Joan, daughters
Colleen and
Janis, and son
Jeff, taken
in 1980.
As a
civilian, Flynn returned to Lewiston
and worked his way through business
college,
at what was then called the "
Auburn Maine School of
Commerce." Flynn planned to become a
business education teacher.
While in college, Flynn worked as a DJ at WLAM
, Lewiston-Auburn
, Maine.
After
three years at the Auburn Maine School of Commerce, Flynn
decided to transfer his credits to Husson College
in Bangor,
Maine
. Flynn graduated from Husson in 1964 with a
bachelor's degree in business
education. With his degree, he became a high school teacher and
sports coach. In 1965, a new revised
GI Bill was passed, and Flynn decided to
further his education.
Flynn earned a master's degree in secondary school administration from the University of
Southern Maine
, Portland
-Gorham
campus, in
1974.He left school teaching when he was offered a
job by Southwestern
Publishing selling textbooks to
public schools in
Maine, New
Hampshire
, Vermont
, and
Massachusetts
. Throughout his life, his working career was
in education, either as a teacher or an educational salesman.
Status as a Songwriter
Flynn is
well known in the New
England
country music circle for his
songwriting.
Flynn wrote his first song in 1960. This song was recorded by a group called "The Citations." Flynn received his first songwriting contract from Jimmie Davis, former governor of Louisiana
and a member of the both the "Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
" and the "Country Music Songwriters Hall of Fame." Davis never did cut record Flynn's song, but his encouragement motivated Flynn to keep writing. Gene Hooper cut one of Flynn's songs in 1974. The song was called "Caroline Stood by Me," and it became a "pick hit of the week" on Maine's biggest country music station, WPOR. Since that time Flynn's songwriting has expanded, and Flynn's efforts have been rewarded with many cuts of his songs by various artists around world, mainly the country genre. Flynn's writing skill has also has been recognized by many local and national news organizations. One of Flynn's songs, called "Time I Change My Name to Hank,", stayed on the European Country Music Charts for sixteen weeks in 2005.
Philosophy
Flynn's
philosophy on songwriting is
interesting. He believes he is a "small frog in a small pond."
Flynn finds enjoyment in simply knowing people are enjoying his
music. Flynn adopts some of his songs to
video, that he posts to a
YouTube account. On YouTube, Flynn's songs have
found
moderate success, being played 100,000 times, as of
December 2008.Flynn's songs are played regularly by various artists
on independent country stations.
Flynn enjoys writing story songs, and songs that pull the listener
in.The song he personally believes is his best is titled
"MegaFlight." MegaFlight discuses how it would be if it where
possible to visit lost relatives and friends in heaven. The song
tells the story of a man who was married to a woman that died in
childbirth. In the song, the unnamed man
goes to an
airport to inquire about
purchasing a jet ticket to heaven for him and his
young child.He has also written songs in other styles, such as "The
Ballard of
L.L. Bean".
Awards and Achievements
Flynn is noted for his song writing ability,and has been rewarded
for his achievements by many organizations.In the 2005
DECMA awards, he won first place in the "Best Folk
Songwriter" category for a song called "The Ballard of
L.L. Bean", and took second place in two other
songwriting categories. In 2006 he wrote a song titled, "The
Opening Act," a song that later became the title track to
child performer
Brian
Wardwell's first album. At the DECMA "Legends Show", Jim was
awarded a Founders Award for his efforts in behalf of the Maine
country music community.
See also
Notes and references
- Army Information
- {{cite news | title = Award-winning 9-year-old country singer
teams up with Lewiston songwriter {audio interview} | work =
Sun Journal | pages = | language = |
publisher = | date = 2004-01-09 | url =
http://www.sunjournal.com/story/59428-3/Entertainment/Awardwinning_9yearold_country_singer_teams_up_with_Lewiston_songwriter/
| accessdate = 2008-06-26}}
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