Workhorse III | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
The Key Studio Sessions: Workhorse III
As long as I’ve been covering the Philly music scene, Lisa Lyne Flynn has been a fixture in it. Whether it was fronting the 90s rock power trio Lisa Christ Superstar — where she sang and shredded on lead guitar, Led Zep style — or booking gigs at The Trocadero, or collaborating with Sara Sherr on her amazing run of Sugar Town parties highlighting women in the independent music scene, Flynn was seemingly everywhere for a while.
Over time, the divide between real-world needs and the instability of the rock and roll life came to a point of reckoning, and she got a regular 9 to 5, but kept music a constant part of her life. Enter Workhorse III, which is Flynn’s primary musical squeeze these days. Alongside her husband Eric Perfect on drums and Steve McCarthy on bass, the band has raged across three records of grunge / punk anthems for the past decade; their most recent album, Closer to Relevance, was released just over a year ago.
One of that album’s best songs opens Workhorse III’s Key Studio Session, and it’s pretty much a mission statement for Flynn circa 2018; she sings about getting older and not shaking her ways, about remaining inspired, about dreams that don’t fade. “How I hope it’s something wonderful that keeps me hangin’ on,” she wails on the hook. “How I hope it’s something wonderful and you’ll know me when I’m gone.”
The band’s set is five burners that range from catchy tunes that still hit hard (“Die Tonight” from the band’s self-titled 2015 record) to pure, riffy aggression (“Holy Roller” from Closer to Relevance, which you can watch an in-studio video of below).
Though Workhorse III is on a bit of a break from live gigs at the moment, they are putting the finishing touches on a new record; Flynn is also working (no pun intended) on a new Lisa Christ Superstar solo outing, and continues to book the Mistresses of Mayhem concert series, which takes a cue from Sugar Town and spotlights women in the local hard rock scene. You can follow the band on Facebook for updates on all these pursuits, and rage to the studio session below.
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