Pat Flynn (born 1952) played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for New Grass Revival from 1981 to 1989. He wrote Do What You Gotta Do, which Garth Brooks later recorded, and On the Boulevard, the title song of the band’s 1984 album. After the band ended he became a Nashville session guitarist with more than 400 records to his credit. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 2020 as a member of New Grass Revival.
Why Flynn matters
Flynn brought a rock and country rock guitar voice into a bluegrass band and made it fit. Sam Bush said he wanted “a rock electric guitar player that could do it on acoustic,” and Flynn was that player. He also gave New Grass Revival a songwriter inside the band. The last lineup of Bush, John Cowan, Béla Fleck, and Flynn is the one most jammers mean when they say “newgrass.”
Life and career
Flynn was born on May 17, 1952, in Redondo Beach, California. He and his brother John got their first guitars from a Sears catalog. He grew up on surf music, the Kingston Trio, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. He played in the Southern California bands Yellow Hand, California Grassfield, and Fresh Air, and he wrote songs for each of them.
In the late 1970s Flynn moved to Aspen, Colorado. He opened for New Grass Revival on Colorado dates and met the band at the Telluride festival in 1979. When the band’s guitarist left in 1980, Flynn joined at the same time as banjo player Béla Fleck. That lineup moved to Nashville and signed with Capitol Records.
With New Grass Revival, Flynn recorded On the Boulevard (Sugar Hill, 1984), New Grass Revival (Capitol, 1986), Hold to a Dream (1987), and Friday Night in America (Capitol, 1989). He wrote Lonely Rider, Sweet Release, How Many Hearts, and In the Middle of the Night for the 1986 record, and Do What You Gotta Do and Lila for the last one. The band played its final show on New Year’s Eve 1989, opening for the Grateful Dead at the Oakland Coliseum.
Flynn stayed in Nashville and went into session work. He has played on more than 400 albums, including 32 gold and platinum records, for artists such as Garth Brooks, Randy Travis, Lee Ann Womack, and the Greencards. He recorded the Nashville Acoustic Sessions album with Raul Malo, Rob Ickes, and Dave Pomeroy. He produced Michael Martin Murphey’s Buckaroo Bluegrass, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album, and played lead guitar in Murphey’s Rio Grande Band. His solo albums are reQuest (2004), reVision (2007), and reNew (2019).
Playing style
Flynn came to bluegrass from rock and country rock, and it shows in his lines. Sam Bush heard him as an electric player who could do the same thing on a flattop. That means phrasing from blues and rock scales rather than fiddle tune runs, which set him apart from the Tony Rice school of the same years. In New Grass Revival his rhythm guitar had to drive a band that played with rock energy and no drums, and his right hand carried that load.
He is also a singer, and he sang lead and harmony in the band. That gave his guitar parts a vocal shape. His solos serve the song rather than the contest stage.
Influences and legacy
Flynn names Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and the Flying Burrito Brothers as the writers and bands that shaped his songwriting. Bob Dylan was the first spark. He played beside Sam Bush, John Cowan, and Béla Fleck for nine years, and he has since recorded with Stuart Duncan and Rob Ickes. His reQuest album brought Fleck, Cowan, Duncan, and Ickes back into the studio with him.
Frets magazine readers voted him Best Acoustic Guitarist five years in a row and put him in its Gallery of Greats beside Chet Atkins, Doc Watson, and Tony Rice. He teaches at flatpicking camps, including Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp.
Signature tunes and songs
Do What You Gotta Do On the Boulevard Lonely Rider In the Middle of the Night Friday Night in America Beaumont Rag.
Essential recordings
On the Boulevard, New Grass Revival (Sugar Hill, 1984) New Grass Revival, New Grass Revival (Capitol, 1986) Friday Night in America, New Grass Revival (Capitol, 1989) reQuest (2004)
Awards and honors
Frets magazine readers poll, Best Acoustic Guitarist (five straight years) Frets magazine Gallery of Greats Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, as producer of Michael Martin Murphey’s Buckaroo Bluegrass (2009) Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, with New Grass Revival (2020)
Watch and listen
Sam Bush and Flynn play Beaumont Rag as a duo. Watch how Flynn’s rhythm holds the tune together when Bush takes off.
New Grass Revival plays Seven by Seven. Listen for Flynn’s solo and the way he trades with Fleck.
What to learn from Flynn
Learn Do What You Gotta Do from Friday Night in America. It is a Flynn song that a country star later cut, so it works in a bluegrass jam and a country one. Sing it and play the rhythm at the same time, the way Flynn did. The technique to steal is his rhythm under a fast soloist. Put on the Beaumont Rag duet and play only the rhythm part. Keep the bass notes strong and the strums short. When the mandolin player in your jam takes off, that is the job.
Sources
Biography, Pat Flynn Music Pat Flynn, Flatpik.com instructor page Pat Flynn (singer-songwriter), Wikipedia New Grass Revival, Wikipedia New Grass Revival (1986 album), Wikipedia Friday Night in America, Wikipedia New Grass Revival: Four Members Look Back on Their ’80s Albums, The Bluegrass Situation Pat Flynn interview, It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame artist inductees for 2020, Bluegrass Today New Grass Revival, IBMA award recipients
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Flynn played nine years beside Sam Bush. Tony Rice defined the other guitar path of the same decade. Peter Rowan and Russ Barenberg worked the same newgrass ground.