Mick Flannery is an unusual star. The Blarney-born musician's heartfelt ballads are deeply confessional and forlorn, recalling Leonard Cohen's and Tom Waits' gentler moments, but he recoils from the spotlight and prefers to focus on his other calling—traditional stonemasonry. Throughout his career, he has maintained the same haunted, lonely style, refining it with a sculptor's patience—and, crucially, a counterbalancing dose of self-deprecation.