Sleeve Notes
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem started it all. They took Irish folk music out of Ireland and made it known and loved throughout the world. And they did it with passion and charm, whoops and whistles and leg slapping spontaneity, their trademark Aran sweaters, and songs like Holy Ground and The Irish Rover. Yet never compromising the integrity of the material. They were a huge influence to a whole generation of Irish musicians and singers and they showed us that to sing the songs of Ireland was something to be proud of.
There was Paddy and Tom Clancy to begin with, all the way from Carrick-on-Suir in Co Tipperary Then in the late 50's they were joined by their youngest brother Liam, and his friend Tommy Makem from Co. Armagh. They toured all over the world and topped the charts throughout the 60's. The story of the Clancy Brothers is the story of the ballad revival in America and the re-birth of ethnic folk music across three continents. " If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be performing all over the world, as we do now." The collection of songs on this record are but a few taken from their huge repertoire of over fifty albums. It was a difficult job to make this selection, but these are amongst our favourites.
" We hope you enjoy this tribute recording as much as we enjoyed making it."
Seán McGuinness, Paddy Sweeney and Shay Kavanagh
The Dublin City Ramblers.