Tony’s sean nós CD is ‘keeping the past alive’

ON the evening of 1 July in Club d’Art in Carlow town, Tony Malone launched his CD of 21 sean nós songs titled Keeping the past alive.

“It was a labour of love that took five years,” Tony said.

Tony said that he has been singing traditional songs for over 40 years and has, over that period, amassed quite a collection of songs.

“We have a great tradition in Ireland of traditional music and singing. I don’t know if there’s any other country in the world that does what we do,” he said.

While the songs are all traditional in nature, they cover a wide variety of topics, from rebellions, to famines, to love. Tony wrote four of the songs that appear on the CD.

The idea for this CD came from a project that Tony was doing on the centenary of the Irish War of Independence and Civil War with David Barron and John Kennedy.

“This CD is about keeping us in connection with our past and not letting the songs die,” Tony explained.

At the launch party, Tony presented the booklet that he has written which gives a little history of each of the songs and David Barron gave a talk about the songs and why each one had been chosen. Tony said that the launch was very well attended, with nearly 40 people turning out for the event.

The CD costs €10 and will be available to purchase at rambling house events that Tony frequents and in Club d’Art.

“This was never about making money; it was just about getting the songs recorded to pass on to the next generation,” Tony said.