RELEASE OF UNPUBLISHED SARAH MAKEM RECORDINGS
Several unpublished songs recorded by legendary Keady singer Sarah Makem will be on a new triple CD collection to be launched at the coming Tommy Makem Festival on October. Featured on the CD will be her unique rendition of the classic ‘Barbara Allen’ along with other favourites, ‘Derry Gaol’, ‘The Jolly Thresher’, ‘The Magpies Nest’ and ‘The Wind that shakes the Barley’
The songs were recorded in Sarah’s home in Victoria St Keady in the fifties by people including American Folklorist Diane Hamilton along with Sean O Boyle from Armagh and Peter Kenendy from England .
Once described by the late David Hammond as “The greatest folk singer in the world” Saran Makem, who died in 1983 was first heard on the nationwide BBC radio programme “As I roved out” when she sang the signature tune from 1955.
The launch will take place at the Navan Centre on Thursday 6 October and will attract attention from enthusiasts from all over the world.
Meanwhile, despite the current recessionary times, the coming Festival has already attracted two US tours who are staying in the city for the three days of the event.
The Tommy Makem Festival is the only such event in the world that has Bob Dylan as one of its official patrons, Dylan being a friend of the late Tommy since the sixties.
CD 1:
As I Roved Out
As I Roved Out
A Servant Maid in Master’s Garden
The Canny Oul Lad
Leave Not Your Kathleen
A Man in Love
The Young Sailor Cut Down
The Armagh Nationalists
Farewell My Love
Derry Gaol
Derry Gaol Duet
The County Galway Girl
Jack Donohue
The Irishman
Mary of Kilmore
Now That the Winter is Over
You and I in One Bed Lie
The Banks of the Callan
I Courted a Wee Girl
The Peeler and the Goat
A Rich Farmer’s Daughter
New Year's Song
The Jolly Thesher
CD 2:
'Twas in the Month of January
Take Back the Engagement Ring
John Reilly
Keady Convent
Keady Town
The Factory Girl
Barbara Allen
Barney Mavourneen
Blow Ye Winds Hi-O
Annie Dear I'm Called Away
The Butcher Boy
Caroline and her Young Sailor Bold
Castleblaney Besoms
The Laurel Wear
The Cot in the Corner
The Mother of a Slave
Dobbin’s Flowery Vale
John Mitchell
The Alphabet Song
Johnny Doyle
Love is Easing
Land of My Birth
The Magpie’s Nest
The Magpie’s Nest
My Name is Pat Clancy
Nothing’s Too Good for the Irish
CD 3:
Skibbereen
My Love is Like a Red Red Rose
Erin’s Lovely Home
The May Morning Dew
Mary of the Curling Hair
The Scutchers
Robert Burns and his Highland Mary
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Miss Jenny
Space - followed by alternative versions:
The Banks of the Callan
Barbara Allen
Blow Ye Winds Hi-O
The Butcher Boy
The Canny Oul Lad
Caroline and her Young Sailor Bold
Castleblaney Besoms
Derry Gaol
Dobbin’s Flowerey Vale
The Factory Girl
I Courted a Wee Girl
Johnny Doyle