The Clancy Brothers - Biography
By J Poet
The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem was one of the most successful folk acts of the 60s folk revival, with a repertoire of hundreds, if not thousands of traditional Irish folk songs. They never had a big commercial hit, but sold millions of records and recorded 55 albums of folk material. They introduced non-Irish America to Irish music and inspired countless Irish bands from the Dubliners to the Pogues with their rowdy, theatrical presentations.
The Clancy brothers were three of the eleven children born into the Clancy clan of Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland. Paddy was the oldest, Liam the youngest with Tom someplace in the middle. Their mother was a singer of folk songs and often hosted singing parties, and although they were surrounded by music, Paddy, Tom and Liam were more interested in theater. In the late 40s Paddy and Tom came to the US, landing in New York where they worked odd jobs while looking for work as actors. Back in Tipperary, Liam was hired by folklorist Diane Hamilton of the Guggenheim Family as her guide on a folk song collecting trip. One of the traditional singers they recorded was Sarah Makem, Tommy’s mother. Liam and Tommy were both interested in singing, girls and acting and became fast friends. In 1956 they came to New York.
Tom and Paddy were running the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village in 1956 and as the folk revival took off, they started renting out the theater to folk singers, then began promoting folk concerts themselves. Tom and Liam formed a duo and made a lot more money singing than they did acting. Paddy and Tommy Makem joined them they became headliners in The Village. They interpreted old Irish ballads with a new, rollicking energy which quickly drew them a growing audience.
In 1956 Diane Hamilton started Tradition Records with the help of Paddy Clancy. The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem made one of the label’s first records The Rising of the Moon: Irish Songs of Rebellion (1956 Tradition). The album got them more gigs and they began to concentrate on singing, polishing their act with Liam on guitar and Tommy on pennywhistle, Ullian pipes (Irish bagpipes) and later on banjo. They cut two more albums for Tradition -- Come Fill Your Glass with Us: Irish Songs of Drinking and Blackguarding (1957) and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem (1959). They were now filling major venues up and down the east coast. Mother Clancy read about the harsh New York winters and knitted traditional Aran sweaters for her sons and Tommy Makem. Their manager thought the sweaters made them look even more Irish and they became their trademark. In 1961 they were asked to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show, one of the highest rated variety shows on early TV. When another act cancelled at the last moment The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem were asked to fill their time in addition to the 3 minutes they had already; their 16 minutes on national TV launched their national career.
Columbia Records signed the Clancys and Makem and released Spontaneous Performance (1961 Columbia), a quickly recorded live session put out to capitalize on the Sullivan Show buzz. The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem ruled Celtic music in the 60s, frequently headlining Carnegie Hall and releasing more than a dozen albums in ten years including The Boys Won’t Leave The Girls Alone (1962 Columbia), In Person at Carnegie Hall (1964 Columbia), Live in Ireland (1965 Columbia), Freedom’s Sons (1967 Columbia) and Clancy Brothers Christmas (1969 Columbia).
In 1969 Makem left the group for a solo career. In 1975 Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy began performing together as Makem & Clancy. Their signature songs were Eric Bogle’s anti-war anthem “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” and Makem’s “Four Green Fields.” Before they stopped touring in 1988 they cut five albums, including Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy (1976 Shanachie) and We’ve Come a Long Way (1986 Shanachie). Makem died in 2007.
When Makem quit, the Clancys quickly recruited brother Bobby, who sang briefly with Tom and Paddy before Liam and Makem joined the band, and their cousin Robbie O’Connel and carried on, making albums for a variety of labels, including Vanguard. In 1984 the original quartet got together for a series of reunion gigs and released Reunion Live! (1984 Shanachie.) A reshuffling of family members after Tom died in 1990 produced Older But No Wiser (1995 Vanguard). Paddy Clancy died in 1998 of lung cancer. Liam Clancy passed away December 4, 2009- aged 74.
