RIP Tommy Makem
Aug. 2nd, 2007 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ap_aelfwineDOVER, N.H. (AP) -- Acclaimed Irish singer, songwriter and storyteller Tommy Makem has died of cancer, ending a worldwide entertainment career that spanned more than five decades.
My thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sovay, without whom I might not have heard til tommorrow or later.
I have to admit that I've probably said unkind things about ballad groups at one time or another, dismissed their music as being only a step above "Danny Boy" and all the other sentimental shite. But when you get down to it, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were what paved the way for groups like Skara Brae and Planxty and the Bothy Band, and, eventually, for commercially released CDs of sean nós singers and crusty old concertina players from Clare.
Beannacht Dé lena hanam. He'll be missed, but what he did will live on.
My thanks to
sovay, without whom I might not have heard til tommorrow or later.I have to admit that I've probably said unkind things about ballad groups at one time or another, dismissed their music as being only a step above "Danny Boy" and all the other sentimental shite. But when you get down to it, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem were what paved the way for groups like Skara Brae and Planxty and the Bothy Band, and, eventually, for commercially released CDs of sean nós singers and crusty old concertina players from Clare.
Beannacht Dé lena hanam. He'll be missed, but what he did will live on.
