 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Not logged in - | |
| Moderated by: Richard Hefner |
|
||||||||||||||
| A Legend Passes (Tommy Makem) - Announcements - General - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
|
James Connolly Approved 
|
Legendary Irish singer Tommy Makem dies     DOVER, New Hampshire (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 -- a metaphor for Ireland and its struggles. 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 that the group was "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. Back in the 1950s, Makem and his friends saw their first few albums -- "The Rising of the Moon" and a collection of drinking songs -- as a fluke. In a 1994 Associated Press interview, Makem recalled he was astonished when a Chicago club offered him more money to sing for a week than he was getting for acting with a repertory company. "I was the opening act for Josh White. I felt sort of silly, coming out and singing unaccompanied, and then Josh coming out and almost making the guitar talk," he said. As their fame spread, the band appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other major TV shows, and headlined concerts at Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Albert Hall. A young Bob Dylan was one of the folk singers who got to know Makem and the Clancys during the early 1960s. "Topical songs weren't protest songs," Dylan wrote in his memoir "Chronicles Volume One." "What I was hearing pretty regularly, though, were rebellion songs, and those really moved me. The Clancy Brothers -- Tom, Paddy and Liam -- and their buddy Tommy Makem sang them all the time." In 1992, Makem and the Clancys were among the stars performing in a gala tribute to Dylan at New York's Madison Square Garden. Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tracy Chapman and Dylan himself also took part. President Mary McAleese of Ireland led the tributes to Makem after his death. "Always the consummate musician, he was also a superb ambassador for the country, and one of whom we will always be proud," McAleese said. Even while battling cancer, he was maintaining a performance schedule, and he visited Belfast last month to receive an honorary degree and returned to his native Armagh. "He had very much wanted to get over there," said his son, Conor. "I think he knew it might have been his last time over." E-mail to a friend  Last edited on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 04:09 pm by James Connolly ____________________ James (Seamus) Connolly http://ezfolk.com/audio/jamesconnolly http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/422/popmp3.php http://www.myspace.com/celticseamus |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
theBlackman Approved 
|
Damn. Scarey. One of my favorite musicmans. Have many of his albums. But he only 4 years older than me. Guess it's time to read the obituaries every morning to see if I'm still around. Marcel Marceau also passed yesterday or the day before.
____________________ Let each day start as a blank page for life to write upon. http://ezfolk.com/audio/dusty http://cdbaby.com/all/theblackman |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
Ed Saultz Approved 
|
Hey Séamus, Aye, a real blow to the music. I've taken to singing "Four Green Fields" these last few weeks in honor of him. He brought a great deal to the music. It was one of Mr. Makem's Ireland travel videos that introduced me to "The Meeting of the Waters", a great County Wicklow song that was the inspiration for the song of the same title sung in New York City on November 4, 1825 during the dedication of the opening of the Eire Canal. It celebrated the meeting of the waters of the Hudson River and Lake Eire. The original song written by Thomas Moore celebrated the meeting of the Avonmore and the Avonbeg Rivers in County Wicklow. The melody is an older Irish air called “Old Head of Dennis”. May you rest in peace Tommy Makem, thank you for all the great music! Peace, Ed
____________________ Peace, a brilliant aspiration!!! I know, let's try that live and let live philosophy again! I'm just sayin'. Traditional and Contemporary Irish Music http://www.EdSaultz.com http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/3205/ |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
Tony Provencher Approved 
|
The world has lost a great music maker and a gentle soul. His warm, expressive voice never failed to move. It will be sorely missed. Dover NH is just a hip and a skop from where I live. I occasionally played at an open mic in Dover. On one occasion, while I was onstage, there entered a group of three young men who sat down and actually listened -- a rare occurrence at open mics! It was Brian Sullivan and the Makem Brothers. They did some rousing Irish music, and accepted our kudos with the grace and humility characteristic of Tommy Makem. The Baton has been passed.
____________________  My ezFolk Page My Websites
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Current time is 05:49 am | |
| ezFolk Forums > General > Announcements > A Legend Passes (Tommy Makem) | |
