What does it sound like?:
A vibrant time capsule from March 17, 1963. Not exactly a new release (2008!) but one that I’d managed to miss until now – my Clancys fix usually being delivered via my dad’s old vinyl. This, however, is the complete concert, complete with between songs banter (including some good crack about JFK – “Hail Mary, full of grace – the masons are in second place!”).
The recording quality is wonderful – I’m playing it right now and it sounds like they’re singing in my living room. And the songs! This is a great sampler of their range from up-tempo drinkers to heart-breaking ballads, via poetry (The Host of the Air), children’s songs, sea shanties and rebel songs. Most of my own favourites – their sparking rendition of Shoals of Herring, the Patriot Game (to which one Bob Dylan obviously paid close attention), the Wild Colonial Boy (any attempt by me to sing this is a generally reliable indicator that I have had Too Much to Drink) – are present and correct. And the singing! Those soaring harmonies show the Beach Boys how it’s done.
It just sounds like four men having a great time, singing the songs they love in front of an adoring crowd. how wonderful that this gem has been rescued from the Columbia vaults.
The liner notes are also very good. One surprising fact mentioned in passing – the two eldest, Paddy and Tom emigrated to the US “after military service in World War II”. They’d have needed to.
There are some notes from Liam Clancy, the last surviving member, on his reaction to hearing these recordings for the first time, including this:
“Standing in the middle of the room with just the bedside light on, I caught sight of an old man in the mirror – it was me. My aloneness hit me hard – hit me hard in the throat – made it lump up. Being the last man standing is no triumph.”
I’ve a lump in the throat myself.
What does it all *mean*?
This was the Clancys caught at their peak, sounding fresh and new, proving that music from over 50 years ago can still move and amuse and thrill. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Goes well with…
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
To be fair, it probably helps if you like folk – this album rests on wonderful close harmony singing, with some guitar and banjo accompaniment.
Jorrox says
It did hit Liam hard, being the last man standing. And he really did listen to this alone, at night. He was himself sick with the illness that would take him about a year later.
There is also a complete Carnegie Hall 1962 only on download. A couple of these tracks were used in the vinyl version from the early 60s but most of them have never been hear. You get to hear Liam teach the audience Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile! And Spike Lee’s daddy is on bass.
And Sony are now getting around to putting all the Clancy stuff on Itunes (but not CD).
I’m on at this years Clancy Festival doing my one man, 150 song, living Clancy/Makem jukebox, should anyone be in Carrick at the end of May.
Lando Cakes says
Those two tracks are on this release too, for completeness. A download of 1962 though, you say – where might this be found?
Jorrox says
It’s on the iTunes – or was last time I looked. Carnegie Hall 1962.
Lando Cakes says
Finally overcame my itunes aversion and downloaded the 1962 concert – and I’m glad I did, it’s brilliant. Nice touch to introduce Bruce and Bill Clancy too. What tour news @jorrox?
Jorrox says
Yeah, it is good. The songs are so fresh. So are the performances.
My stuff is coming together nicely. Just recently finished putting together the band – The Clancy Sessions Band – and we are about to start work on the set.
I’m signing to a small local label and to a linked agency. We are looking at a launch – CD and band – at The Panopticon in Glasgow in early July.
No dates for anything as yet.
If anyone is interested there are tracks and a video on the Reverb Nation page at
and the Facebook page is at
https://www.facebook.com/ClancyMakemSongbook/
Jorrox says
The video on Youtube.
Lando Cakes says
Nice video!
Jorrox says
It seems to be doing the trick. The final cut will be with me soon and ‘my label’ will be ‘working it’!
Lando Cakes says
Looks like it was as much fun to make as it is to watch.
Jorrox says
The lighting took the longest time. The shoot was pretty quick. The editing must have taken ages. Wee things like, even though some of me is in front of green screen, there are still shadows on the wall. That’s clever.
mojitojoe says
on Spotify too.
Jorrox says
On Paddy & Tom serving during WW2; they actually both served in the RAF and the IRA. As strange as that may seem, they said something like ‘we were no great lovers of Britain but it didn’t take much to see that the other fella was a lot worse.
Lando Cakes says
Very impressive, I think. They were not alone, of course, though the role of RoI volunteers in WW2 is only just being recognised in the country of their birth.
Jorrox says
It’s not something I knew anything about until I read about the brothers. ‘The Emergency’!
ianess says
A nationalist movement you can wholeheartedly support, eh lando?
Lando Cakes says
What, Irish nationalism? No – I am saluting the fact that they transcended petty nationalism for a greater cause.
ianess says
Out of step with your esteemed leaders, yet again? They’re especially vociferous in support of this particular ‘petty nationalism’.
Lando Cakes says
Aye. If only I was as in tune with my party as you are with yours, eh?
ianess says
Still in the ‘hostile’ camp, then?
niscum says
My party piece that:
ewenmac says
‘Hearty And Hellish” was the soundtrack to my childhood, and my dad trying to play his accordion along to it. Many decades and different listening-genres later, it still sounds sublime to me.
That quote from Liam stopped me short. Nice review, though – cheers.
goodfella says
My Dad had three Clancy Bros albums: Carnegie Hall, Hearty and Hellish and The Boys Won’t Leave the Girl Alone. I recently picked up an original US mono copy of TBWLTGA from 1962 that sounds brilliant on my vintage setup and takes me back instantly to our living room in Kilwinning.
Johnny Concheroo says
I think we forget just how huge the Clancy Brothers were in America. They introduced so many traditional songs to the US and influenced everyone from Dylan down.
With their matching cable knit sweaters and all that “fine girl you are” stuff, it all seemed a bit naff and MOR to us at the time (circa 1963), but the Clancy Bros legacy should never be underestimated
Jorrox says
I wasn’t aware of them until much later. But I understand the naffness. I saw them like that for years. Billy Connolly said that the early folk scene was all guys in Aran sweaters singing about dead fishermen.
The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem didn’t plan to be what they became. They were four actors who recorded their first album on a tape recorded in a kitchen. Just voices. Just rebel songs. It took around 5 years for them to break through.
Legend has it that the sweaters were sent over to America by Mammy Clancy to keep her boys warm in the cold New York winters.
Johnny Concheroo says
I like that story about the sweaters
ganglesprocket says
I saw the Clancy’s years ago in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. Don’t ask me who was around, obviously Liam was. And what a raconteur! The man spoke to 3000 (?) people as if he personally knew them all. The time spent in their company was excellent and Liam’s book “The Mountain Of The Women” is excellent as well…
Lando Cakes says
Available used on Amazon marketplace for one pence.
One fewer now.
Jorrox says
It’s a good book but it stops at the point where they break into the big time. A second volume was in progress but Liam didn’t live long enough to finish it. The audio version of ‘Mountain’ is good too – he had such a great speaking voice.
Lando Cakes says
Any recommendations re his post/non-Clancy Brothers work, @jorrox?
Jorrox says
Oh god, yes. I can do that. (I have the entire ClancyMakem canon on a playlist that if imported in Itunes will show in chronological order with artwork attached. PM me if you want a copy).
Some of this stuff is hard to find but I’d go with his 1965 self-titled solo album, the Ace re-issue (Irish Troubadour) has tons of bonus tracks. This is just Liam and his guitar, apart from Luke Kelly joining on the chorus or Rocky Road.
His last recording, Wheels Of Life, is about 60% good stuff. His last statement and he knew it.
I think the best album of his non-CBMT stuff is the first of two that he did with his son Donal and nephew Robbie O’Connel. Just called ‘Clancy O’Connell Clancy’ it is a great collection of songs.
The DVD (from video) Yes…Those Were The Days has some good stuff on it but the second half has very poor sound. This is the best footage of him as a solo act.
That enough?
Lando Cakes says
Enough to be going on with:-) Thanks!
Jorrox says
No probs. The 1965 solo album is totally non-showbiz. Serious balladry from start to finish. It does have the 60s version of The Scottish Breakaway though………