Album of the Week Tommy Sands ‘Fair Play To You All’ 9 Nov 2019
Tommy Sands
A New album release from Tommy Sands is always a special event but ‘Fair Play To You All’ Produced by Steve Cooney on Spring Records is perhaps one of his most special offerings of All
About Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands Co Dow’s singer, songwriter and social activist has achieved
somethink akin to legendary status in his own life time.
From the pioneering days with the highly influential Sands Family , bringing
Irish Music from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Moscow’s Olympic Stadium , he has
developed into one of the most powerful songwriters and enchanting solo
performers in Ireland today.
His song writing, which draws the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus
Heaney and father of folk music Pete Seeger, prompt respected US magazine ‘Sing
Out’ to regard him as ‘the most powerful songwriter in Ireland, if not the rest
of the world’
His songs, like ‘There Were Roses’ and ‘Daughters and Sons’, which have been
recorded by Joan Baez, Kathy Mattea, Dolores Kean, Sean Keane, Frank Patterson,
Dick Gaughan, The Dubliners and many others have been translated into many
languages and are currently included in the English language syllabus in German
secondary schools.
Although constantly performing on stages all around the work he prides in
taking his music down from the lights and into the darker corners of society.
One of his current projects, teaching underprivileged prisoners in Reno, Nevada
to write their own songs with which to defend themselves in court is currently
creating a wide spread sir in the world of community art in the United
States. Back home in Northern Ireland he
has just completed a CD written with Portestant and Catholic schoolchildren
about their own areas, in towns a villages around Northern Ireland
During the Good Friday Agreement Talks, his impromptu performance with a group of children and Llambed drummers was described to Northern Irelands Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon as ‘ a defining moment in the Peace Process’
With over a dozen solo album and many collaborations has ensured that his words have touched many people worldwide, this gentleman of Irish music has taken his healing and thought provoking songs that allows folks to know that they matter.
Tommy also has a weekly radio programme – check his website for details
Tracks – ‘Fair Play To You All
- The answer is not blowing in the wind
- Clanrye Side
- Ballyholland
- Refugees
- What’s going on in Jerusalem?
- American Dreams
- Who killed JFK?
- Caoineadh Mhacha
- Ode to Europe
- Paddy and the Judge
- Every County on the Island
- The Gathering of the Clans.
Upcoming Gigs
November 2019
13 Edinburgh Folk Club – The Ukrainian Community Centre
15 Tyneside Irish Centre – Newcastle Upon Tyne
17 Grimbsy – Spiders Web
20 Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club
21 Music Room Liverpool
24 London – Ye Olde Rose & Crown Theatre Pub
