The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem & Robbie O'Connell: The Men Behind the Sweaters

Just in time for their 50th Anniversary comes this first full-length biography on the groundbreaking Irish Folk Music Group, the Clancy Brothers. Fifty years ago, in March 1956, four aspiring actors, three brothers and their friend, joined forces and recorded an album of Irish rebel songs. By 1961, after two additional albums, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem landed a spot on the Ed Sullivan Show, which, by a chance of luck, ended up being an 18 minute appearance, unprecedented at that point, and Columbia Records hired them soon after. By 1969, fifteen albums, and numerous television appearances later in America, Canada, Ireland, England and Australia, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had revolutionized Irish music worldwide, as well as the woolen knitting industry in Ireland with their trademark sweaters. And they didn't stop there. For thirty more years, they continued performing, though with various personnell changes with the departure of Tommy Makem in 1969, and later the departure of Liam Clancy, to be replaced by "the other brother" Bobby Clancy, nephew Robbie O'Connell, and Louis Killen over from England. Plus, Tommy Makem and Liam reunited in 1975 to form one of the most sought-after Irish music acts in the 1980s, Makem & Clancy. Their story is all here in this first full-length biography devoted to this legendary group, with over 300 vivid photographs depicting their lives and career, along with a flowing text telling their story in detail.