Tommy Sands in Columbia
Wed. & Thurs, February 18 -19,
2009
Preview -- listen to Carol's show on KOPN this afternoon from 3 - 5 pm to hear some of Tommy's music. 89.5 FM
Or Pippa's show from 3 -5 on Tuesday afternoon!
CONCERT:
Tommy Sands with his son and daughter, Fionan and Moya Sands
Thursday, February 19, 7pm
Unity Center of Columbia, 1600 W. Broadway
$15 adults, $8 teens 13 - 18, free for ages 12 & under
PDF flyer for the concert - please print and share with friends or hang a few for us. Grassroots marketing helps us keep our costs and your ticket price low!
SEMINAR: "Let the Circle Be Wide"
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 7 pm at Whitmore Rectital Hall on the MU Campus (on Lowry Mall, across Hitt St. from Memorial Union)
As a prelude to the concert, Tommy Sands will share stories and wisdom gathered in 35 years of using music as a vehicle for peace at home in Northern Ireland and in his journeys to troubled places around the globe.
Tommy will have some copies of his book
"The Songman" to sell and sign, and the MU Bookstore has ordered some copies, which will be in by Feb. 16.
In addition, Tommy, Moya and Fionan will teach and perform for students at Lee Expressive Arts Elementary, sponsored in part by CMCAA.
About Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands, Co Down's singer, songwriter and social activist has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime.
Growing up on a small farm in the Mourne Mountains, the Sands' house was a "ceili house" where friends and neighbors often gathered for evenigns of song, music and merriment. Tommy's father and six uncles all played fiddle and his mother played accordion.
In 1971, Tommy and his siblings won a ballad competition in Dublin that led to a trip to New York, launching their careers as The Sands Family band. From those pioneering days bringing Irish Music from New York's Carnegie Hall to Moscow's Olympic Stadium, Tommy has developed into one of the most powerful songwriters and enchanting solo performers in Ireland today.
He's a collector of traditional songs, always ready with a story about the people and places from whence they came. One of his first albums was all children's songs stories, full of folklore and wonder. Yet Tommy is truly a link in the chain, as well, as a prolific songwriter whose original songs fall right into the folk tradition.
His songwriting, which draws the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney and father of folk music Pete Seeger, prompts 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 Matthea, Dolores Keane, 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 world he prides in taking his music down from the lights and into the darker corners of society. One of his current projects, teaching underprivledged prisoners in Reno, Nevada to write their own song with which to defend themselves in court, is currently creating a widespread stir in the world of community art in the United States.
As a part of the peace process in Northern Ireland he facilitated a CD written with Protestant and Catholic schoolchildren about their own towns and villages around Northern Ireland. During the Good Friday Agreement Talks in 1998, his impromptu performance with a group of children and Lambeg drummers was described by Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon as "a defining moment in the Peace Process".
A family tradition...
Appearing with Tommy on this tour are his talented children, daughter, Moya, 27, and son Fionan, 28.
Moya's sensitivity to music developed early in life. Born in 1981, it wasn't long before she began to play the tin whistle, the fiddle, and to sing. As a child, Moya performed with a school choir and was featured on numerous records with her father, Tommy Sands. In 2004, Moya graduated from Queen's University in Belfast with an honors degree in languages and ethnomusicology. She's been touring with her father for the past four years, adding harmonies and bringing new material to their repertoire.
From very early ages, Fionan (pron. Fin-awn') and Moya experienced music and musicians from all over Ireland visiting the Sands house, playing and talking music from morning until the wee hours. Often young Fionan had to give up his bed to acomodate such wandering troubadours. In fact, humourous, creative letters Fionan wrote at the age of eight outligning his bedless plight are still fondly kept by various well-known perofrmers. Now traveling the world and getting a glimpse of life from the other side of music, Fionan has moved from teeny beginnings on tin whistle to electric guitar and banjo and mandolin. Before joining his father's tours, Fionan toured with famed artist Sinead O'Connor as a guitar tech.
