2007-08-03

R. I. P. Tommy Makem

One of my favorite musicians died yesterday. Tommy Makem was a familiar name to any fans of Irish music, and also to fans of the 1960s New York folk scene. His work with the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem redefined Irish music to the American audience. And you can be sure that if you've ever been in an Irish pub, you've heard someone sing the song "Four Green Fields", which Tommy wrote.

For more details, read his obituary in the New York Times. And then go find one of his records and listen for a while.

Of all the comrades e'er I had, they're sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts e'er I had , they wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot that I should go and you should not,
I'll gently rise and softly call, goodnight and joy be with you all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wanted to let you know that on Saturday, August 11, The 2007 ICONS Festival will host a tribute to world-acclaimed Irish Singer Tommy Makem, who passed away earlier this week. The tribute will take place at 8:00 PM at the Abbey Stage on the festival grounds in Canton, Massachusetts.

Makem was originally listed as part of the line-up for the 2007 ICONS Festival, which celebrates the Irish culture through music, dance, literature, sports and much more, but because of poor health, he had to withdraw from the lineup several weeks ago. Now,
noted Irish musician and recording artist Mick Moloney and Irish Echo columnist Earle Hitchner will host the tribute which will feature performances from Irish singers Niamh Parsons, Jimmy Crowley, Heidi Talbot of the group Cherish the Ladies, and Cathy Jordan of the Sligo-based band Dervish.

If you are interested in attending the ICONS festival and the tribute, please visit our website at www.iconsfestival.com for more details.

Jim Russell said...

Thanks for letting us know. I was amazed that Tommy kept touring even as he was battling the cancer that finally took him. Anyone in the vicinity of Canton, MA should check this out. It's a bit of a trek for me here in the Garden State, though.

Baffetto said...

Sorry for my bad english and for the content of this comment that is not pertinent with your post.

I would like firstly to thank you for your port of dosbox to gp2x...
I used it a lot, it was very useful and amazing for me to program in qbasic and to use my old qbasic code in the little gp2x.
so thank you so much!

And for the second thing I would like to ask you a question: Would you like to develope a port of dosbox even to nintendo ds?

I mean it's the same processor (ARM) of the gp2x and with the touchscreen it could be possibile create a virtual keybord and insert commands directly in the shell like dslinux does.

Obviously you could be busy at this moment(or not interessed in this project) so it would be nice if you'd suggest me some good tutorial to learn how to port applications I would try it on my own(but I have no experience with porting and I know just a little of C so it could be a very very very hard work :D)

Thanks in advance,

-Marco