Hello Fellow Whistlers…
I just wanted to pass along the news that the legendary singer and song writer, Tommy Makem passed away this evening after a long battle with cancer.
As many of you can attest, he was an icon in many ways and also one of us as he too loved to play the whistle.
Just thought I’d pass on the info…
Keep Whistling,
Joanie Madden
Sad news indeed. Thanks for the information Joanie.
So sorry to hear that. May his soul find peace and joy in friends to play with on the other side, and may his memory help many play better than ever on this one.
May he rest in peace 
Thank you for letting us know!
Sorry to hear this. I’m going to go find one of my CDs of him performing and give it a listen.
Oh this is so sad. I always looked forward to seeing him every year at Milwaukee Irish Fest. It won’t be the same without him.
I remember him from Gurdy’s Folk City in NY in the late 50s.
Knew him a bit.
A lovely fella with a wonderful voice. Sad news, indeed.
From Wikipedia
Tommy Makem (November 4, 1932 - August 1, 2007) was an internationally celebrated folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller from Ireland, most known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the banjo and tin whistle and sang in a baritone. He was sometimes known as “The Bard of Armagh” (taken from a traditional song of the same name) and “The Godfather of Irish Music”.
He was born and raised in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. His mother, Sarah Makem, was also a successful folk singer, as well as an important source of traditional Irish music, who was visited and recorded by, among others, Diane Guggenheim Hamilton, Jean Ritchie, Peter Kennedy and Sean O’Boyle. After moving to the United States in 1955, he teamed up with the Clancy Brothers, who were signed to Columbia Records in 1961. The same year, at the Newport Folk Festival, Makem and Joan Baez were named the most promising newcomers on the American folk scene. During the 1960s, the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem performed sellout concerts at such venues as Carnegie Hall and made television appearances on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Makem left the group in 1969 to pursue a solo career. In 1975, he and Liam Clancy were both booked to play a folk festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and were persuaded to do a set together. Thereafter they performed as Makem and Clancy, recording several albums together. He once again went solo in 1988.
Makem’s best-known songs include “Four Green Fields”, “Gentle Annie”, “Red is the Rose”, “The Rambles of Spring”, “The Winds Are Singing Freedom”, and “Farewell to Carlingford,” and “The Bard of Armagh.” Makem died in Dover, New Hampshire but continued to record and perform until very close to the end. His sons Shane, Conor and Rory (“The Makem Brothers”) and nephew Tom Sweeney continue the family folk music tradition.
There’s an interesting part of Martin Scorsese’s Bob Dylan documentary in which Dylan talks of being fascinated at the way Tommy Makem’'s singing could make you cry, singing sad and tender songs that never sounded wimpy.
Sad indeed… 
my sense condolence, peacefully rests… 
He and the Clancy brothers deserve more credit and gratitude from all of us than they will probably ever get.
Traditional music is now so thriving and of such high quality that we can afford to look down our noses at the Arran pullovers and the “Fine gerril ya are” stuff. But I suspect many people don’t realise how important the Clancy brothers and Tommy Makem were in popularising the more accessible end of the song and music tradition, and above all in making people in Ireland aware just how much esteem it enjoyed abroad, thereby opening up people’s minds to a cultural heritage that was in danger of being largely forgotten and dying out through “modernisation”.
If it hadn’t been for Tommy Makem, I probably wouldn’t have bought my first whistle as a young adult to take part in singsongs, and through that graduated to listening to The Chieftains, Planxty, Bothy Band etc. and ending up as a card-carrying member of the revival of the uilleann pipes.
May he enjoy the great session in the sky.
Ochone!
I grew up listening to Tommy Makem (among many others) and his voice is the one I hear whenever I have an Irish song stuck in my head. He is also a source of inspiration for me when I sing as I often emulate alot of his style. The man is a legend and will be sorely missed.
I’ll be toasting him this evening with a pint of Guiness and a shot of Bushmills.
May he rest in peace.
To his memory, a digital toast if you will:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OYSnGnCYFxg
and a few more rounds for the lot of em…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdPQU5q2fyk&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-kyEC7Jc0&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDoJL1gO2WI&mode=related&search=
Worth re-quoting. I feel the same way when people disregard the singers as if they now know better.
Very wide shoulders that many of us stand upon. Respect them and his memory. RIP.
Yes, another wiki piece says the Clancy Bros and Tommy Makem
sang a lot of songs about the ‘troubles,’ which in Ireland
were sung sadly, with gusto and enthusiasm. Thereby
breathing new life into the music (though this was sometimes
denounced as ‘commercialization.’)
Death comes to us all, but a life spent in music calls
for celebration. Thanks Tommy, thanks to you all.
Sad news. I was flicking through clips on YouTube two days ago and by chance found an old version of him singing the Cobbler. Looked like it was from late 60s or early 70s. It’s the song I mostly associate with him, although he had many more. I saw him in concert a few times in Cork in the 1980s.
He was on the Late Late Show one time and told a very funny story about flying from Ireland to the US. Midway through the flight there was a loud bang, The crew didn’t know what happened and, fearing that part of the plane had come away during the flight, were considering making an emergency landing until Tommy opened the overhead bin and solved the mystery. He removed the ruined remains of his bodhran. It seems the air was so dry in the plane that the skin of the bodhran got very tight and eventually ruptured with a noise like a gunshot. To avoid any future occurrence, Tommy’s advice to all travelling bodhran players was to throw a damp cloth into the case to make sure it doesn’t dry out too much.
RIP
Two Irishmen are digging a ditch in front of a brothel.
A Protestant minister comes to the door, knocks, and is
ushered inside.
Did you see that Clancy?
Aye, Paddy. The Protestant ministers are going to the dogs.
Later a Jewish rabbi knocks on the door and is ushered inside.
Did you see that Clancy?
Aye, Paddy. The Jewish rabbis are going to the dogs.
Finally a Catholic priest knocks on the door of the brothel
and is ushered inside.
Did you see that Clancy?
Aye Paddy. Someone must be terribly sick in there!
…
Reggy and Chancy are at the club.
I’ve always wanted to catch a Zambezee snake, Chancy says.
How do you recognize it?
It’s long and orange and it’s covered with black stripes. Reggy answers.
You spot it in the bush, sneak up on it quietly, grasp it
by the tail and run your other hand up it rapidly,
so as to paralyze it.
So Chancy goes off to catch a Zambezee snake
and goes missing. Gone for ten years. Finally
one day he is wheeled into the club, covered in bandages,
much the worse for wear.
My God old man, what happened? Reggy asks.
You remember I went off to catch the Zambezee
snake?
Yes.
I came upon it in the bush. It was long and orange and
covered with black stripes.
Yes?
I crept up on it quietly, grasped it by the tail…
Yes?
Ran my other hand up it rapidly to paralyze it…
Yes?
AND FOUND MYSELF ELBOW DEEP IN THE ASSHOLE OF A TIGER!
from the Clancy Bros and Tommy M, circa 1957.
Sad for sure a legend to depart
Yet the legend lives still in mind and heart.
Recorded for our ears, emulated by his boys
He goes right on emanating joys!
That’s the way he would want it.
I sure appreciate how he played the five string banjo!
Oh wow, so sorry to hear that. He will be greatly missed. Thanks for the news Joanie.