As of 2022, Spike Flynn has released six albums of original songs – “It’s Alright”, “Rough Landing”, “Just this Side of Here”, “Postcards from the Heart”, “Lunchtime at La Cantina” and his most straight-forward country album yet: “Mostly Smoke and Mirrors”.
He won the alt-country section of the Tamworth National Country Music Songwriting Competition in 2017, had three songs in the 2018 finals and seven in the 2022 finals.
Spike was born and raised in the small town of Forbes in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia. His songs are often infused with home town/country themes but given an urban edge. They are often drawn from his experiences of living in a small country town in his younger years.
Spike is an accomplished finger-picking guitarist in the style of Doc Watson and plays ‘rack’ harmonica. His original songs often have a strong Australian presence but with universal themes.
Spike is a story teller. He says he is somewhat ‘old fashioned’ in his approach as he views each album as hopefully being a unified whole, with its own feel and having a coherent emotional journey within it. He says “My songs are really meant to be listened to as an album – preferably on a long drive through a deserted landscape!” The exception to this is “Mostly Smoke and Mirrors”, a more ‘traditional’ country album.
Spike has supported international acts including Peter Rowan and his Bluegrass Band, Kristina Olsen, and John McCutcheon.
He’s performed at festivals in Australia, including the Tamworth Country Music Festival, Goulbourn Blues Festival, Kangaroo Valley Folk festival and others.
In live performance Spike does a mix of Americana style country and blues with his own original material. He is a strongly lyric based writer. Whilst he previously has played with his band “The Open-Hearted Strangers”, these days Spike focuses more on his song-writing.
