Valley Folk Presents: Tommy Sands

From the pioneering days with the highly influential Sands Family, bringing Irish Music from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Moscow’s Olympic Stadium, he has developed into one of the most powerful songwriters and enchanting solo performers in Ireland today.

His songwriting, which drew the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney (N. Ireland 1995) and father of US folk music Pete Seeger, prompted respected “Sing Out!” Magazine to regard Sands as “the most powerful songwriter in Ireland, if not the rest of the world”. His songs, like There were Roses, and Daughters and Sons, which have been recorded by Joan Baez, Kathy Mattea, Dolores Keane, Sean Keane, Frank Patterson, Dick Gaughan, The Dubliners and many others have been translated into many languages and were included in the English language syllabus in German secondary schools.

Sands not only taught Arizona prisoners to write their defense stories in song, he completed a CD written with Protestant and Catholic schoolchildren in towns and villages around Northern Ireland. During the Good Friday Agreement Talks, his impromptu performance with a group of children and Lambeg drummers was described by Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon as “a defining moment in the Peace Process”.

Tommy Sands’ concert will be a welcome return to our stage. As a musician and peacemaker, he brings people together.

Tickets online or at the door: General $25; Patron $30; Student/Disabled/Hard Times $10; Children under 14 free with accompanying adult

There is a self-running jam on concert nights beginning 90 minutes before each concert when we get in the building to set up. Bring your unplugged instrument and voices to make music together. Don’t forget to consider bringing snacks to share for intermission, if you want something to go with the tea and coffee provided.