Well, where can one begin with these guys. To put it in a nut shell, they are the ones who started the folk/ballad singing as we know it today by initially giving collected traditional Irish songs a different treatment when Irish music may not have been as fashionable as we know it today. As a matter of
fact some Irish at this time in the 1950's were in a way ashamed of the music. They basically applied a more American folk style which was beginning to boom at this stage by using guitar and banjo much like The Weavers to the Irish songs and basically making them more lively. They have progressed right through the decades and left an unequalled
legacy behind them and Tommy Makem and Liam
Clancy are still performing successfully as solo artists presently. Myself
and my colleague Dan O'Sullivan have been greatly influenced by their music
and befriended Bobby Clancy in the mid 1980's along with his highly
respected folk singer daughter Aoife and also his son Finbar and in later
times the legendary Tommy Makem along with his sons The Makem Brothers. We
have performed folk music together for more than 25 years and our aim is to
keep these folk songs alive and perform them as long as we can. We decided
to put together a tribute to these legends not long after our great friend
Bobby passed away in 2002 and have received positive reaction from audiences
where we normally platy for fund raisers or charity
in Ireland. We
pay tribute.
Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem Tribute Next
