Colum Sands

Colum Sands (born 1951) is an Irish singer songwriter who made his first performances and recordings with The Sands Family of County Down. Between his extensive solo appearances he continues to record and perform with his brothers Tommy and Ben and his sister Anne in the family band.

Colum Sands
Birth nameColum Sands
Born1951
OriginMayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland
GenresIrish Folk, Celtic
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter, radio broadcaster
Years active1970s-present
Associated actsThe Sands Family
Tommy Sands
Websitewww.sandfamilyfolk.com
columsands.com

Following appearances throughout Europe and North America in venues ranging from small folk clubs to Carnegie Hall New York City, in 1981, Sands set up the independent record label, Spring Records, with a recording studio at his home in Rostrevor, County Down.

He has produced around one hundred albums, working with young traditional musicians, songwriters and bands, ranging from first time recording artistes like Cara Dillon and Oige, Deanta, Neil Mulligan and Kieran Goss to veteran performers including Joan Baez, The Sands Family, Liam O'Flynn, Vedran Smailovic and Pete Seeger.

Sands has released eight albums featuring his own songs[1] and a songbook titled Between the Earth and the Sky[2] illustrated by Colum McEvoy.

As well as performing his own songs, Sands has translated Goethe into English (recording a bilingual version of "Nähe des Geliebten" with Berlin singer Scarlett Seeboldt), worked and toured in the Middle East with Israeli story teller Sharon Aviv on the English/Hebrew peace initiative production "Talking to the Wall" and translated Scottish Gaelic songs into English on his collaboration with Scottish singer and harper Maggie MacInnes.

His own songs have been translated into German, Dutch, Danish and Hebrew and have been recorded by many artistes including Maddy Prior, June Tabor, Liam Clancy, Tommy Makem, Roy Bailey, Andy Irvine and Mick Hanly.

Apart from songwriting and studio production, Sands has worked in a number of theatrical collaborations and his involvement as a musician with the Lyric Theatre (Belfast) in 1976 found him working with Liam Neeson in the Patrick Galvin play We Do it for Love.[3] He has also composed music for Community Playwright Patch Connolly's plays, The Fair Day and The Square.

Sands is also well known as a radio presenter, from the 1990s until 2016 he presented Folk Club,[4] the popular weekly programme on BBC Radio Ulster. He has also compiled and/or presented radio programmes for BBC Radio 2 (Shifting Sands) RTÉ Radio 1 (Rootin' About.) and BBC Radio 4 "The First LP in Ireland'. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h666r

Sands received a Living Tradition Award for his services to Folk and Traditional Music[5][6] and his song, "Donegall Road" was included in the Smithsonian Institution's album Sound Neighbours,[7] which received three shortlisting nominations for the 2008 Grammy Awards.

Discography
The Sands Family at the Bardentreffen festival 2014

Studio Albums
  • 1981: Unapproved Road, Spring Records SCD 1001
  • 1989: The March Ditch, Spring Records SCD 1014
  • 1996: All My Winding Journeys, Spring Records SCD 1035
  • 2003: The Note That Lingers On, Spring Records SCD 1051
  • 2009: Look Where I've Ended Up Now, Spring Records SCD 1059
  • 2013: Turn the Corner, Spring Records SCD 1062
  • 2020: Song Bridge, Spring Records SCD 1067

Live Albums
  • 2007: Live in Concert Songs and Stories, Spring Records SCD 1054

Collaborations
  • 2002: Talking to the Wall – with Sharon Aviv, Spring Records SCD 1048
  • 2011: The Seedboat (Bàta an t-Sìl) – with Maggie MacInnes, Spring Records SCD 1061

Other Appearances
  • 2007: Sound Neighbours: Contemporary Music in Northern Ireland, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40544
  • 2009: Dear Irish Boy – Marianne Green with Andy Irvine, Glas Records MEGCD02

Books
  • 2000: Colum Sands Songbook Between the Earth and the Sky, Cottage Publications
gollark: Given that that's a chicken and a Z-code it's probably quite valuable.
gollark: (charset of 62 characters - 0-9 a-z A-Z - and two of those are z and Z - so 2/62 simplifying to 1 / 31)
gollark: As in "has z/Z at start of code".
gollark: 1 in 31 dragons are Z-coded, I think.
gollark: Er, not really.

References
  1. Colum Sands official website: http://www.columsands.com/biography.html
  2. Sands, Colum. 'Between the Earth and the Sky'. Cottage Publications, 2000. http://www.cottage-publications.com/cgi-bin/ctg/book/product.cgi?id=86
  3. Patrick Galvin obituary, The Stage, May 2011. http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/32272/patrick-galvin
  4. Folk Club, BBC Radio Ulster website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c0h6
  5. Acoustic Showcase NI: http://www.acousticshowcaseni.co.uk/#/colum-sands/4548994765
  6. Clare Lappin, Living Tradition website: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Neighbors-Contemporary-Music-Ireland/dp/B000PWQT3U
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