The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (album)

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem is a collection of traditional Irish songs performed by The Clancy Brothers with frequent collaborator Tommy Makem. It was their third album and their final one for Tradition Records, the small label that the eldest Clancy brother Paddy Clancy ran. After this, the group recorded exclusively for Columbia Records until 1970. This was the first album for which they used the group name, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Their prior recordings had simply listed their individual names on the cover.

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
Studio album by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
Released	1961
Recorded	Daniel Hancock
Genre	Irish folk music
Length	34:33
Label	Tradition
Producer	Patrick Clancy
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem chronology
Come Fill Your Glass with Us (1959) The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem (1961) A Spontaneous Performance Recording (1961)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link

Reception

Billboard Magazine awarded the album four stars and praised the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem for singing and playing Irish folk music "with much authority and feeling." In the reviewer's opinion, the songs on the album were "all sparkling with Irish wit and emotion."^[1]

In a specialized review of folk albums, D. K. Wilgus complimented the album for retaining a "ring of honesty" in authentically presenting Irish folk songs while suggesting that the record also strove too much to emphasize the "'felt beauty' or the meaning of the material." He singled out Liam Clancy's solo on "The Bold Tenant Farmer" for praise.^[2]

After Liam Clancy died in 2009, The Times of London noted that this album showed the Clancys and Makem "as assured and consummate performers, with Liam's dramatic style making his the strongest voice of all."^[3]

Track listing

All songs are traditional, except noted otherwise

Side one

1. "Brennan on the Moor"
2. "The Work of the Weavers"
3. "The Stuttering Lovers"
4. "Paddy Doyle's Boots"
5. "The Maid of Fife-E-O"
6. "The Bard of Armagh"
7. "The Jug of Punch"
8. "Roddy McCorley" (Ethna Carbery)

Side two

1. "The Barnyards of Delgaty"
2. "The Castle Of Dromore"
3. "The Bold Tenant Farmer"
4. "Ballinderry"
5. "Bungle Rye"
6. "Eileen Aroon"
7. "Johnny I Hardly Knew You" (Joseph B. Geoghegan)

Personnel

• Paddy Clancy – vocals, harmonica
• Tom Clancy – vocals
• Liam Clancy – vocals, guitar
• Tommy Makem – vocals, tin whistle
• Bruce Langhorne – guitar
• Eric Darling – banjo^[4]

References

1. "Specialty LPs: International". Billboard. Vol. 73, no. 20. 22 May 1961. pp. 28, 30.
2. Wilgus, D. K. (April–June 1962). "Record Reviews". The Journal of American Folklore. 75 (296): 180. doi:10.2307/538192. JSTOR 538192.
3. "Obituaries: Liam Clancy: Irish balladeer who helped to lead the folk revival of the early 1960s and was highly rated by Bob Dylan". The Times. London: 61. 7 December 2009. ISSN 0140-0460.
4. "Self-titled "Tradition album": At the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem".