I’ve been playing and recording music with my brothers for longer than it would be polite to say...as they are all older than me.
We grew up with music in the house; our mother Bridie played the accordion and our father Mick played the fiddle.
We lived on a small farm and the house was called Elm Grove after the trees that lined the lane, or lonan, that led down to our small cottage from the Ryan Road.
There was no electricity or telephone so our link to the outside world was the radio and the gramophone. We mostly listened to the Irish state radio, RTE, which played a lot of traditional music. I sang traditional songs that I learned from listening to the likes of Sarah Makem from Keady.
I also wanted to learn a traditional instrument and the one that appealed to me the most was the bodhran, a single -sided goatskin drum played with a short stick. I had to practice for weeks on a cardboard shoe box before the family agreed a bodhran would be a good investment.
We were also influenced by progressive American singers like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez. I was given The Joan Baez Songbook as a teenager and I have it still. But now it bears Joan’s autograph from when she came to record in Rostrevor, where I now live, just a few years ago. And I had the privilege to perform at the Tonder festival in Denmark with none other than Pete Seeger…
By the late sixties we were playing in village halls and pubs and at the occasional sit -down protest, for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights campaign was in full swing.
In 1968 Billy McBurney set up Belfast’s first recording studio and the first album on his Outlet label was ours.
Then, in 1970, winning an all-Ireland talent competition in Dublin earned us a residency at an Irish pub in the Bronx and its sister pub in Queens.
I had to get special permission to leave school as I had not turned sixteen.
We found ourselves working with great artists like Tommy Makem and Paddy Reilly, and played a memorable gig at Carnegie Hall for a St. Patrick’s night gala concert.
On our return to Ireland we found the country gripped by folk fever and traditional Irish music festivals were springing up across the country in places like Ballyshannon and Lisdoonvarna.
Tourists from Germany and France fell in love with the music and soon there was a huge demand for Irish groups like ourselves to play gigs across Europe.
We would often bump into Clannad or Planxty members in an autobahn café, or see posters announcing that the Dubliners or the Furey brothers had just played the same city, or would be playing there in a couple of weeks time.
Of the dozen albums I’ve recorded with the Sands Family, almost half have been recorded in Germany.
Buy now: £12 / €15
(Please make paypal payments to anne.sands.btinternet.com and specify which album you would like.)
Discography:
2008 Keep on Singing The Sands Family Spring Records
2001 Hope is in the Morning The Sands Family Spring Records
2001 The day is well spent Anne Sands Spring Records
1993 Collection The Sands Family Spring Records
1991 Take our part Kathleen McPeake & Anne Sands Spring Records
1983 Now and then The Sands Family Spring Records
1979 Real Irish Folk The Sands Family Emerald
1977 The third day The Sands Family Autogram
1976 After the morning The Sands Family EMI
1976 Live The Sands Family Plane
1975 You’ll be well looked after The Sands Family EMI
1975 The winds are singing freedom The Sands Family Plane
1974 First Day & Second day The Sands Family Autogram
1968 Folk from the Mournes The Sands Family Outlet
Buy now: £12 / €15
(Please make paypal payments to anne.sands.btinternet.com and specify which album you would like.)
Some of the family on stage at Fiddlers Green 2007. From left to right: Colum, Kolya, Anne, Sorcha, Eimear, Tommy, Moya, Ben, Michael, Daragh, and Ryanne.
