Tommy Makem - Tommy Makem Sings Tommy Makem '1967

Tracks list

Sleeve Notes

I was born and raised in the little town of Keady, County Armagh, and as far
back as I can remember. there was music in our house.
I was weaned on folk music, nourished on Gregorian Chant and rushed headlong
through my teens performing a potpourri of folk, pop and Country and Western
songs with wild abandon to the strains of a local dance band. Then came the
giant step of emigrating to America to pursue fame and fortune as an actor.
There was a friend I had met in Ireland, before emigrating, who was also going
to New York to work in the theater. His name was Liam Clancy, and while renewing
our friendship in New York, I met two of his brothers, Paddy and Tom, and
shortly thereafter, the folksinging quartet of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy
Makem came into being. We have traveled many miles and have sung an awful lot of
songs together, and, thank God, were still going strong, but thats another
story.
Over the years, while we were singing our folk songs from one end of the world
to the other, I have kept a very sympathetic ear open to what was happening in
the world of popular music and was delighted with the exciting things the young
musicians and songwriters were doing and the new dimensions they were exploring.
Then I noticed that this new music was heading more and more toward a wedding of
folk and Country and Western with a very liberal spicing of the blues, and as a
result of all this mixing and reworking, the musical world has been enriched
with some very beautiful songs. Anyway, all these things happening all around me
stirred my imagination and made me want to experiment and try something new, and
this album is the result. Besides, ever since my dance-band days, I have had a
secret desire to do a recording of songs like these, with only the best
musicians, like the ones youll hear on this record, to do the backing.
As for writing the songs, James Stephens, my favorite Irish poet and writer,
once stated that one doesnt decide to write poem (or song), it decides it wants
you to write it, and it grabs you by the back of the neck and says write me.
Most of these songs were written in the most unlikely places — a subway
train, a plane over Canada, driving alone in a car, sitting at the kitchen
table, waiting for my wife to get ready to go out. lying in a field — a
song is not too particular where and when it decides it should be written, so I
always carry a little notebook and a pen.
I hope youll like the recording and the songs, and that, perhaps, from time to
time youll find yourself singing one of them.

Tracklist:
 01. Tommy Makem - No More Good Times (02:53)
 02. Tommy Makem - Seven Shades Of Sunday (02:29)
 03. Tommy Makem - Freedoms Song (03:14)
 04. Tommy Makem - True Love And Time (03:47)
 05. Tommy Makem - Rambling River (02:10)
 06. Tommy Makem - The Curlews Song (02:59)
 07. Tommy Makem - Farewell To My Sorrow (02:05)
 08. Tommy Makem - Ever The Winds (04:36)
 09. Tommy Makem - Winds Of Morning (02:33)
 10. Tommy Makem - This Dusty Road (02:18)
 11. Tommy Makem - Sally O (02:08)

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