''Prose for an Irish Folk Singer''

Liam Clancy came at a time when Irish Folk Music was arguably dead! It was the dawn of the decade of the 60's - before 'Planxty' or 'The Bothy Band' came on the scene and even before 'The Dubliners'; the decade of 'Flower Power' was yet to weave its psychedelic loom; the Beatles were yet to take the world by storm; the decade of the seminal 'Woodstock' festivals had still to be seen; that prodgious wordsmith, troubadour and rebel artist, Bob Dylan, had just started hewing great hollows out of the status quo's rocky strata - both Joan Baez and him embedding adamantine rocks on the plains of indifference; and it was the decade of the twin Civil Rights movements of the US and Ireland, about to illuminate their pristine Summers on Winter's evergreens.

So this was the backdrop for Liam Clancy's burgeoning emergence on the Folk - ultimately - world scene; his first incarnation if you like, as a member of the Clancy Brothers! From the outset, the Pioneer's paths were staked out, as musical strategists on a mission, reconnoitring the uncharted territories, the forgotten vistas of Minstrelsy! The raucous and boisterous harmonies, conjuring up images of Fishermen docked at some port of Newfoundland, lifting the rafters of a local pub, or some Whalers out of a Moby Dick Film in port at Nantucket Bay, raising the decibels to the High Heavens of some tavern; the Aran Sweaters - their omnipresent attire; bedecking and serenading the spirits haunting the halcyon echoes of Carnegie Hall and the very lyrical and soulful vocals of a young Liam, so smooth and unwavering, as if conjuring a vessel at sea in the balance of the waves and the even keel of its voyage!

The Irish Folk music scene - if not dead - was certainly moribund in the 60's; for it was an emasculated shell in comparison to the English Folk scene of the time, which was riding high in the North of England. But that all changed with the Clancy Brothers; they resurrected Irish Folk music from the giant crater, where but laconic dreams resided; from the still waters where but the shadows of the Bards and Minstrels and Balladeers could be seen; they navigated the Backwater Straits of the Folk Culture of the Gael; gave it a force again. The great art of the Irish Celt (the Gael) was resplendent again as if the Emerald Isle were given an extra sheen of green!

                                           
That great and effervescent South Armagh Ballad Singer (who would carve his own niche as an Irish Troubadour), Tommy Makem, joined ranks and the Clancy Brothers continued on their merry way! Eventually, they broke up and Liam and Tommy Makem limbered up as a musical duo or a stage act revolving around the repartee of Liam and Tommy; then the four ultimately re-united for a series of concerts in the 80's - this was Liam's second incarnation! It didn't take long for this limbering up between Liam and Tommy to become a fully fledged and potent dynamic on the Ballad and Folk scene.

The visual accoutrements were retained: the ubiquitous Aran Sweater - now having become almost a fashion statement or the emblem of the Gael - and the cap, the sailor's cap, once again the iconography of the Aran Fisherman and his journeyings. And the musical duo's act was a perfectly balanced juggling act, in exact symmetry; a selfless operation at work. They both complimented each other and allowed the other to express the full gamut of their craft and abilities, as they were very clearly the main men now in this re-uniting!

In the latter part of Liam's life and career, he went solo - this was his final incarnation. His stage performance having the wee bit of magic in it - a seeming magician at work, who could orchestrate and whip up an audience, at his whim and will. His timbre and song delivery - befitting a Songster in full possession of his faculties and at the zenith of his powers - as crisp as an Irish turf fire being prodded and nurtured along to full glare and heat! Then the poetry, recited the way poetry should be recited - fluid like Guinness flowing endlessly from the taps or milk running down the back of a milk churn which has overflowed! And the other ingredients of his act - the pathos and reminiscences remaining indelibly engraved upon the mind's eye!

In the end, he lived his final days, as aptly and appropriately as it should have been; narrating a documentary about his life in the true Narrator's style! It was called The Yellow Bittern and the Bittern sure sang for him in his life, his chosen vocation and at his time's end. In the words of Bob Dylan: 'The Greatest Folk/Ballad Singer in the world!'

Footnote: The Clancy Brothers were born in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary and were buried in Rinne, Co Waterford and Tommy Makem hailed from Keady, Co Armagh or the republic of South Armagh, as he said.