Tommy Makem
Biographical
- Tommy Makem
- Born: November 4, 1932, Keady, County Armagh, Ireland
- Died: August 1, 2007, Dover, New Hampshire, USA
- Group member: 1956-1969
- Reunion tour: 1984-1985
- 1955:
- American song-collector Diane Hamilton comes to the Makem home in Keady, Co. Armagh while on a song-collecting tour to meet Tommy's mother, singer Sarah Makem.
- Diane is accompanied by Liam Clancy.
- This is the first meeting of Tommy and Liam.
- This "song-collecting tour" results in the release of
The Lark in the Morning; featuring Tommy and Liam and their mothers, Sarah and Joan, respectively.
- In December, Tommy immigrates to America, arriving in New Hampshire, where he has relatives.
- 1959:
- Tommy appears at the Newport Folk Festival. Paddy Clancy also appears — Tommy accompanies him on the penny-whistle.
- Tommy and the Clancys release their 2nd album together, Come Fill Your Glass with Us.
- The group decides to try singing fulltime for six months.
- They offically became known as "The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem", after a club owner uses that billing on the marquee.
- 1961:
- Tommy and Joan Baez are named the most promising newcomers on the American folk scene at the Newport Folk Festival.
- CBTM appear on
the Ed Sullivan show. Columbia records offer the group a five year recording contract — they accept. Twelve Columbia albums follow between 1961-1969.
- CBTM release their third and final, self-titled album for Tradition Records.
- Tommy releases his first solo album, Songs of Tommy Makem.
- 1966:
- Tommy Makem compositions, "Freedom's Sons" and "Lord Nelson", appear for the first time on a CBTM recording — Freedom's Sons.
- 1969:
- Tommy leaves the group to solo, after giving a year's notice.
- Between 1969 & 1975, Tommy releases eight solo albums.
- 1982:
- Tommy Makem's Irish Pavilion, a bar and restaurant on East 57th Street in New York city, opens.
- 1984:
- Tommy Makem reunites with Clancy Brothers for the first time since 1969.
- 1988:
- Makem and Clancy amicably split. Tommy, once again, goes solo, releasing seven more albums.
- 1990:
- Tommy Makem appears The BBC/RTE documentary "Bringing it all back Home: The Influence of Irish Music in America".
- The four Clancy Brothers also appear in separate segment (from Tommy).
- 1992:
- In October, Tommy Makem appears (as a "special guest") with The Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell, to perform at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration at Madison Square Garden.
- This is the last public/professional appearance (to my knowledge) of Tommy Makem with the Clancys.
- Tommy hosts a series of television specials (over the next ten years) for WMHT, a Public Television station serving Eastern New York and Western New England.
- Most of these shows were commercially released on video.
- 1998:
- Tommy Makem's Irish Pavilion closes.
- 2007:
- Tommy Makem passes away on August 1, 2007, following a lengthy battle with lung cancer in Dover, New Hampshire.
- He continued to perform until very close to the end.