Johnny Flynn Quotes

When I was a kid, there was so much talent outside of recorded music.

I wasn't in a lot of rock and roll bands. I was in jug bands and things when I was in school.

Musically, New York is a big influence on me. Walk down the street for five minutes and you'll hear homeless punk rockers, people playing Caribbean music and reggae, sacred Islamic music and Latino music, so many different types of music.

I was just a folk singer. I cut my teeth on the streets, you know.

My mum's family would all get together, with guitars, harmonica, mandolins and upright bass and play old blues and folk songs. That was normal to me.

There's so much music going on in New Orleans.

I met Sonny after (Blind Boy) Fuller died, and me and Sonny played in the streets like everybody else.

I am lucky to live in Austin, so I can enjoy the live music.

The mountain music... is compelling music in its own right, harking back to a time when music was a part of everyday life and not something performed by celebrities.

Dave Van Ronk is not an obscure figure. He's the biggest figure on an obscure scene, playing a kind of niche music that we knew and liked.

When the great jazz and blues clubs closed - joints where the cash register rang loudly and there wasn't ESPN on TV over the bandstand, and people smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey and hollered 'Play on!' - When those places closed, I was pretty much done.

New Orleans just embraces people who love music.

Early American music and early folk music, before the record became popular and before there were pop stars and before there were venues made to present music where people bought tickets, people played music in the community, and it was much more part of a fabric of everyday life. I call that music 'root music.'

When I first moved to London, there was talk of a folk revival, with annoying names like nu-folk that made me feel slightly ill.

I hope you came out to hear some bluegrass music. If you didn't, we're both in the wrong place.

That's one thing that you notice in New York that you don't notice in LA is how much music is all over the place.

I knew I loved playing bluegrass, so I'd end up down there on Sunday nights at the bluegrass jam.

I guarantee you there's a bunch of the twentysomethings that don't know that, don't know I play banjo and bluegrass.

Colombian culture has a lot of music - it's in our blood; it's in our DNA.

I love British folk music, but I'm not obsessed with it. I love the Celtic stuff, and Enya is a favorite, but that's more electronic.

Punjabis are the only people keeping non-film music alive in a big way.

I love watching live music. It's one of the reasons I love living in Austin, Texas, because there is so much live music.

In Europe we play big concerts, but in America it's so cool to see all the people - and all the girls.

If you're walking through the Union Square subway station - New Yorkers know it's obnoxious and crowded, and in the summer it's too hot - there are always amazing musicians playing, and sometimes there are multiple, different musicians set up in there.

I feel like people are now praying for some authenticity and some human touch to music. There's no simpler outlet to that than guitar and piano.