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.
