Joannie Madden of "Cherish The Ladies" has posted on other websites the sad news that Tommy Makem, formerly of "The Clancy brothers" has passed away. RIP Tommy.
I first saw the Clancys and Tommy Makem 40-plus years ago on a TV show from NYC called Wonderama, hosted by one Sonny Fox at the time.
Around St. Patrick's Day, Sonny would feature traditional performers from Ireland and the Irish-American community in NYC, and that was my first exposure to any of the music and dancing of Ireland, and some of the songs I still hum to this day.
RIP Tommy. I always sat up and listened more to the Clancy Bros (and albums with Liam) songs where he was the singer. Just a timbre to it that stood out.
His version of Sally Gardens is the one, to me.
I developed great affection for Mr. Makem and the Clancy Brothers when listening to their albums. I had been told that they were old fashioned, and corny, but then found that many of my friends with stronger Irish roots had grown up loving those albums. So I bought a few, and quite enjoyed them, and I emulate their straightforward approach when I sing myself.
I will never forget the chills I felt the one time I was fortunate enough to hear him live, and he sang 'Four Green Fields.'
Rest in peace....
"And when sergeant Death's cold arms shall embrace me
Oh lull me to sleep with sweet Erin Go Bragh
By the side of my Kathleen, my own love, then place me
And forget Phelim Brady, the bard of Armagh."
I've listened to my makem and clancy cds so many times that ive worn them out!!!no joke it actually possible!!!!he was a legend!Well at least we can be sure of one thing.........There'll be a mighty session in heaven tonite!!!!
Although not technically a trad musician, Tommy Makem played a major role in establishing trad music at the forefront of music, a status it enjoys today.
Just as Riverdance, Pogues and all the rest did, the Clancy's introduced Irish music to a whole new, international audience. The Clancy's, along with the McPeakes were the pioneers of Irish music, the pioneers that made it better known that is. The McPeakes were more trad, the Clancy's possibly better known.
Personally, Tommy was not my cup of tea, but he was a great man, and did a lot for the tradition, as a herald rather than a trad player.
Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy certainly introduced Irish Music to a wide audience and I was one of that audience. I loved to watch them many moons ago on the old black and white telly, Aran jumpers an' all they were my introduction to Irish music. Legends and wonderful performers. May Tommy rest in peace.
A friend who goes to Chiff & Fipple reported this story from a poster there:
"Sad news. I was flicking through clips on YouTube two days ago and by chance found an old version of him singing the Cobbler. Looked like it was from late 60s or early 70s. It's the song I mostly associate with him, although he had many more. I saw him in concert a few times in Cork in the 1980s.
He was on the Late Late Show one time and told a very funny story about flying from Ireland to the US. Midway through the flight there was a loud bang, The crew didn't know what happened and, fearing that part of the plane had come away during the flight, were considering making an emergency landing until Tommy opened the overhead bin and solved the mystery. He removed the ruined remains of his bodhran. It seems the air was so dry in the plane that the skin of the bodhran got very tight and eventually ruptured with a noise like a gunshot. To avoid any future occurrence, Tommy's advice to all travelling bodhran players was to throw a damp cloth into the case to make sure it doesn't dry out too much. "
From a lovely lady who plays the concertina. Spent many years in the Chicago session circuit before retiring to Florida.
"I met Tommy quite a few times, on and off, between when I was eight years old the summer before last. So we are talking about 43 years and he remembered me. He was really nice. So dedicated to the folk tradition. Such an amazing voice."
It's sort of chopped up, but it's still amusing even just to see Tommy step dancing after singing a verse of The Little Beggarman. Stay with it and you'll get Old Woman From Wexford, The Butcher Boy and of course, the Wild Rover.
Bard of Armagh is so appropo. Those early records also got me serious about ITM. I last saw him at Milwaukee Irishfest in an impromptu session with a reunion of (I think) Barley Bree--In response to "What do you do with a drunken sailor?", he sang "Make him listen to Celtic Rock". And who would have thought that at the Scattering session on the last night of the Fest it would be the last time to ever hear him lead the traditional closing song Wild Mountain Thyme. Sadly missed!
I recall seeing him and Liam at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem MA back in the early Eighties- Brian Mac Neil an Archie Fisher were the back up band, what a show!
RIP Tommy, thanks for everything.
RIP Tommy.
As a few others have noted, grew up watching the good old black and white, steam TV. Tommy and the Clancy's did so much for the music and agree with BBliss herald for sure.
Rest in peace.
I went through a love/hate/love relationship with Tommy and the Clancys. Heard them all the time as a kid, because my father had a lot of their records, so they were pretty much my first impression of Irish music. In my late teens, after hearing the likes of Planxty, the Bothy Band, De Danann et al, I decided Tommy and the Clancys were just too "arch" -- the sweaters, the histrionics, the rebel songs, etc. -- and I consigned them to the dustbin of my mind.
But years later, I read an interview with Tommy and Liam Clancy, in which the interviewer asked them what they thought when they heard of people referring to them as "corny" or "passe." They pointed out that when they first started performing, virtually nobody outside the Irish community -- and not necessarily that many _within_ the community -- took traditional Irish folk music with any kind of seriousness. "As far as people were concerned, it was 'bog music,'" I vaguely recall Tommy saying.
Tommy and the Clancys, as has been noted often, didn't just bring forth the music of Ireland, but -- being actors as well as musicians and singers -- also offered up its dramatic and literary traditions to a broad part of the public which probably had little or no inkling of Irish culture.
After I read that interview, I felt ashamed for having developed such a negative attitude toward them -- especially when I was reminded of Tommy's roots in the tradition. To be sure, the path I followed in Irish music took me far closer to the Planxtys and Bothies -- but they wouldn't have even found a place on the path if it hadn't been for Tommy and his pals.
Tommy had been booked to play at the ICONS Festival, which takes place next weekend south of Boston. Instead, there will be a tribute to him by a variety of musicians and singers.
More info at iconsfestival.com
For the little time I knew the Makems there was no pretence, just a warm welcome and good company, not forgetting the tea and a slice of warm bread with the butter melting down the side...
The longer we live the sooner we bloody well die...
I'm sure if there is an afterlife there will be song and Sarah and Tommy and tons more will be there to rattle the rafters and cause any strings to ring in sympathy...
DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Irish singer, songwriter and storyteller Tommy Makem, who teamed with the Clancy Brothers to become stars during the folk music boom, has died of cancer. He was 74.
Makem died Wednesday in Dover, where he lived for many years, his son Conor said Thursday. He had battled lung cancer.
The Irish-born Makem, who came to America in the 1950s to seek work as an actor, grew to international fame while performing with the band The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The brothers, also from Ireland, were Tom, Liam and Paddy Clancy.
Armed with his banjo, tinwhistle, poetry, stagecraft and his baritone voice, Makem helped spread stories and songs of Irish culture around the world.
He brought audiences to tears with “Four Green Fields,” about a woman whose sons died trying to prevent strangers from taking her fields. Other songs included “Gentle Annie” and “Red Is the Rose.”
“He just had the knack of making an audience laugh or cry. ... holding them in his hands,” Liam Clancy told RTE Radio in Dublin, Ireland.
The New York Times wrote in 1967 called them “an eight-legged, ambulatory chamber of commerce for the green isle they love so well. ... At one point, Irish teenagers were paying as much homage to them as to the Beatles.”
After touring for about nine years as The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, he struck out on his own, but he remained friends with the brothers. Tom Clancy died in 1990 and Paddy in 1998.
Can I just add my appreciation of Tommy Makem to all the previous. He and his mother before him did wonders for traditional singing and will be remembered forever in traditional circles.
Go ndeana Dia trócaire ar a anam uasal
Tommy Makem RIP
Tommy Makem RIP
Joannie Madden of "Cherish The Ladies" has posted on other websites the sad news that Tommy Makem, formerly of "The Clancy brothers" has passed away. RIP Tommy.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Kenny
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Go ndeana Dia trócaire ar a anam uasal. Sad to hear that ,Kenny ,Tommy was a great Ulsterman and made a considerable contribution to the tradition.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by cos
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
awwwh the poor thing thats really sad. god rest his soul and god bless his family and friends at this time.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by musical soul
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
That is sad.
I first saw the Clancys and Tommy Makem 40-plus years ago on a TV show from NYC called Wonderama, hosted by one Sonny Fox at the time.
Around St. Patrick's Day, Sonny would feature traditional performers from Ireland and the Irish-American community in NYC, and that was my first exposure to any of the music and dancing of Ireland, and some of the songs I still hum to this day.
Rest in peace, Mr. Makem.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Piece
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
RIP Tommy. I always sat up and listened more to the Clancy Bros (and albums with Liam) songs where he was the singer. Just a timbre to it that stood out.
His version of Sally Gardens is the one, to me.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Bren
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
I developed great affection for Mr. Makem and the Clancy Brothers when listening to their albums. I had been told that they were old fashioned, and corny, but then found that many of my friends with stronger Irish roots had grown up loving those albums. So I bought a few, and quite enjoyed them, and I emulate their straightforward approach when I sing myself.
I will never forget the chills I felt the one time I was fortunate enough to hear him live, and he sang 'Four Green Fields.'
Rest in peace....
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by AlBrown
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
"And when sergeant Death's cold arms shall embrace me
Oh lull me to sleep with sweet Erin Go Bragh
By the side of my Kathleen, my own love, then place me
And forget Phelim Brady, the bard of Armagh."
We will never forget our Bard of Armagh.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Just dug out some of my old Clancy Bros & Tommy Makem vinyl....Aran sweaters and all.
On the record sleeves, that is.
Mine is long gone!!
RIP, Tommy
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Johnny Jay
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
RIP Tommy
I've listened to my makem and clancy cds so many times that ive worn them out!!!no joke it actually possible!!!!he was a legend!Well at least we can be sure of one thing.........There'll be a mighty session in heaven tonite!!!!
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Mrs.Lonal Dunny
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Although not technically a trad musician, Tommy Makem played a major role in establishing trad music at the forefront of music, a status it enjoys today.
Just as Riverdance, Pogues and all the rest did, the Clancy's introduced Irish music to a whole new, international audience. The Clancy's, along with the McPeakes were the pioneers of Irish music, the pioneers that made it better known that is. The McPeakes were more trad, the Clancy's possibly better known.
Personally, Tommy was not my cup of tea, but he was a great man, and did a lot for the tradition, as a herald rather than a trad player.
Rest in peace.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by bodhran bliss
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy certainly introduced Irish Music to a wide audience and I was one of that audience. I loved to watch them many moons ago on the old black and white telly, Aran jumpers an' all they were my introduction to Irish music. Legends and wonderful performers. May Tommy rest in peace.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=1n6qK4szPoY
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by gtag
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
A friend who goes to Chiff & Fipple reported this story from a poster there:
"Sad news. I was flicking through clips on YouTube two days ago and by chance found an old version of him singing the Cobbler. Looked like it was from late 60s or early 70s. It's the song I mostly associate with him, although he had many more. I saw him in concert a few times in Cork in the 1980s.
He was on the Late Late Show one time and told a very funny story about flying from Ireland to the US. Midway through the flight there was a loud bang, The crew didn't know what happened and, fearing that part of the plane had come away during the flight, were considering making an emergency landing until Tommy opened the overhead bin and solved the mystery. He removed the ruined remains of his bodhran. It seems the air was so dry in the plane that the skin of the bodhran got very tight and eventually ruptured with a noise like a gunshot. To avoid any future occurrence, Tommy's advice to all travelling bodhran players was to throw a damp cloth into the case to make sure it doesn't dry out too much. "
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Another icon passes on. RIP. Always had a soft spot for 'Gentle Annie'
Sad to think that there is just one member of the group left
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Free Reed
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
From a lovely lady who plays the concertina. Spent many years in the Chicago session circuit before retiring to Florida.
"I met Tommy quite a few times, on and off, between when I was eight years old the summer before last. So we are talking about 43 years and he remembered me. He was really nice. So dedicated to the folk tradition. Such an amazing voice."
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/7572
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by Kenny
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Great stuff Kenny. Everyone please check out Kenny's work.
Video - Gentle Annie (with unsung recitation of Raglan Road first)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrIXPQ-Vspk
Video - The Cobbler from the early 1970's, B&W
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8SETO8nrL8
Video - The Ballad of William Bloat (with the Clancys)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDoJL1gO2WI
I love singing that last one at sessions. His intro story on the video is hilarious.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
...I hope it's not viewed as a sectarian song of any sort. It's gruesome and amusing and that's all I hope people hear in it.
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Pete Seeger on US public TV hosting The Clancy Bros & Tommy Makem, way back, B&W:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYSnGnCYFxg
It's sort of chopped up, but it's still amusing even just to see Tommy step dancing after singing a verse of The Little Beggarman. Stay with it and you'll get Old Woman From Wexford, The Butcher Boy and of course, the Wild Rover.
Full version of The Little Beggarman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-kyEC7Jc0
# Posted on August 2nd 2007 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Good night, and joy be with you all.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=9J9518zSqWk
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by Tracie
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
RIP Tommy.
Sara
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by Celtic Lass
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Bard of Armagh is so appropo. Those early records also got me serious about ITM. I last saw him at Milwaukee Irishfest in an impromptu session with a reunion of (I think) Barley Bree--In response to "What do you do with a drunken sailor?", he sang "Make him listen to Celtic Rock". And who would have thought that at the Scattering session on the last night of the Fest it would be the last time to ever hear him lead the traditional closing song Wild Mountain Thyme. Sadly missed!
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by mmelec
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
I recall seeing him and Liam at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem MA back in the early Eighties- Brian Mac Neil an Archie Fisher were the back up band, what a show!
RIP Tommy, thanks for everything.
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by Murph
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
RIP Tommy.
As a few others have noted, grew up watching the good old black and white, steam TV. Tommy and the Clancy's did so much for the music and agree with BBliss herald for sure.
Rest in peace.
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by tctelboy
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Full page Obit in todays (friday) Times (UK)
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by spindizzy
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
_Two_ very lovely pieces about Tommy in today's Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/08/03/irish_music_legend_tommy_makem_loses_battle_with_cancer/
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/08/03/the_green_fields_of_tommy_makem/
I went through a love/hate/love relationship with Tommy and the Clancys. Heard them all the time as a kid, because my father had a lot of their records, so they were pretty much my first impression of Irish music. In my late teens, after hearing the likes of Planxty, the Bothy Band, De Danann et al, I decided Tommy and the Clancys were just too "arch" -- the sweaters, the histrionics, the rebel songs, etc. -- and I consigned them to the dustbin of my mind.
But years later, I read an interview with Tommy and Liam Clancy, in which the interviewer asked them what they thought when they heard of people referring to them as "corny" or "passe." They pointed out that when they first started performing, virtually nobody outside the Irish community -- and not necessarily that many _within_ the community -- took traditional Irish folk music with any kind of seriousness. "As far as people were concerned, it was 'bog music,'" I vaguely recall Tommy saying.
Tommy and the Clancys, as has been noted often, didn't just bring forth the music of Ireland, but -- being actors as well as musicians and singers -- also offered up its dramatic and literary traditions to a broad part of the public which probably had little or no inkling of Irish culture.
After I read that interview, I felt ashamed for having developed such a negative attitude toward them -- especially when I was reminded of Tommy's roots in the tradition. To be sure, the path I followed in Irish music took me far closer to the Planxtys and Bothies -- but they wouldn't have even found a place on the path if it hadn't been for Tommy and his pals.
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by sts
PS
Tommy had been booked to play at the ICONS Festival, which takes place next weekend south of Boston. Instead, there will be a tribute to him by a variety of musicians and singers.
More info at iconsfestival.com
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by sts
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
For the little time I knew the Makems there was no pretence, just a warm welcome and good company, not forgetting the tea and a slice of warm bread with the butter melting down the side...
The longer we live the sooner we bloody well die...
I'm sure if there is an afterlife there will be song and Sarah and Tommy and tons more will be there to rattle the rafters and cause any strings to ring in sympathy...
# Posted on August 3rd 2007 by ceolachan
Tommy Makem
Not a sessioneer, obviously, but nevertheless...
DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Irish singer, songwriter and storyteller Tommy Makem, who teamed with the Clancy Brothers to become stars during the folk music boom, has died of cancer. He was 74.
Makem died Wednesday in Dover, where he lived for many years, his son Conor said Thursday. He had battled lung cancer.
The Irish-born Makem, who came to America in the 1950s to seek work as an actor, grew to international fame while performing with the band The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The brothers, also from Ireland, were Tom, Liam and Paddy Clancy.
Armed with his banjo, tinwhistle, poetry, stagecraft and his baritone voice, Makem helped spread stories and songs of Irish culture around the world.
He brought audiences to tears with “Four Green Fields,” about a woman whose sons died trying to prevent strangers from taking her fields. Other songs included “Gentle Annie” and “Red Is the Rose.”
“He just had the knack of making an audience laugh or cry. ... holding them in his hands,” Liam Clancy told RTE Radio in Dublin, Ireland.
The New York Times wrote in 1967 called them “an eight-legged, ambulatory chamber of commerce for the green isle they love so well. ... At one point, Irish teenagers were paying as much homage to them as to the Beatles.”
After touring for about nine years as The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, he struck out on his own, but he remained friends with the brothers. Tom Clancy died in 1990 and Paddy in 1998.
# Posted on August 4th 2007 by cuchulain54
Re: Tommy Makem
I'm a day or two late, obviously, but in case anyone wanted the AP version....
# Posted on August 4th 2007 by cuchulain54
Re: Tommy Makem RIP
Can I just add my appreciation of Tommy Makem to all the previous. He and his mother before him did wonders for traditional singing and will be remembered forever in traditional circles.
Go ndeana Dia trócaire ar a anam uasal
# Posted on August 4th 2007 by fleadhman