They don't makem like this anymore
American music enthusiast Karen Klaunser Chute has written an enchanting book about the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem… By Shelley Marsden - 21/07/09
This delightful book is probably one of a kind. In January of this year, after more than two decades of being safely packed away, Karen Klausner Chute dusted off a series of taped interviews and travel journals from a trip to Ireland and, fearful of them becoming lost forever, wrote about her adventures and the collected stories that she was given from the Clancy and Makem families and friends.
The result is a wonderful journey about four talented musicians, and the power of fate, music and friendship which began when Karen, a college student, went to see the boys play at their 15 year reunion concert (when she hadn’t even a clue who they were). From that night on, she was hooked, and passionate in her
mission to meet the men and know more about the music – and them.
Her perseverance led to an interview with Makem and Liam Clancy, which in turn led to her flying from sunny LA to drizzly Ireland in the spring of ’86, where six months from the day of the concert, she was having breakfast with Tommy and Liam in their Belfast hotel!
Tape recorder in hand, Karen knocked on the doors of family and friends to find them thrown open to her, and with great candour she was told over several cups of tea a series of intimate stories of the men’s family life, childhood antics, young adulthood dreams and the chain of events that led to them becoming a group.
The way Karen writes is full of wide-eyed, enthusiastic innocence, and it’s hard not to feel the same way too as the American ‘outsider’ begins to find out more and more about the lives and times of these legends of traditional Irish music. In the first chapter, she is already speaking in enraptured terms:
“From the very beginning there was a place in my heart where I never once imagined that I wouldn’t meet Tommy. I went forth with a strange feeling of optimism - I would of course meet him. And more than that, one day I would say with a smile on my face that I knew him.”
The author tells us early on that, thirteen years ago, she nearly died from an obscure blood disease and that from that moment on her motto was to live with no regrets. Thus, this joyous, easy-to-read memoir of one woman’s adventure is not only a must for Clancy and Makem fans, but an uplifting guide to how in an ideal world we should all live our lives – for the here and now.
‘Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem: Memories from Family & Friends’ (Wandering Rose) is available online via http://clancymakembook.com/books.html. For alternative ordering options, write to: wanderingrosepublishing@gmail.com.
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