Thursday, October 10, 2019 @ 7:30 pm
Blue Ball Barn
1914 West Park Drive, Alapocas Run State Park, Wilmington, Delaware
Advanced Reserved Tickets: $21.00
Tickets Purchased at Door: $25.00
17 & under: FREE when accompanied by paying adult
UPDATE (10/10 12:30 pm): TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR THIS EVENINGClick HERE to order advance tickets online through Brown Paper Tickets
Doors open at 6:30 pm. Cash, check or credit card accepted for payment at door. Light refreshments will be available for purchase. The Blue Ball Barn is a Delaware State Parks system facility. Park entrance fees will not be in force during the concert. Ample free parking is available at the venue. No alcoholic beverages will be permitted.
Tommy Sands, County Down’s singer, songwriter and social activist has achieved something akin to legendary status in his own lifetime.
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 draws the admiration of Nobel Poet Laureate Seamus Heaney and father of folk music Pete Seeger, prompts respected US magazine “Sing Out” to regard him 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 Matthea, Dolores Keane, Sean Keane, Frank Patterson, Dick Gaughan, The Dubliners and many others have been translated into many languages and are currently included in the English language syllabus in German secondary schools.
Although constantly performing on stages all around the world he prides in taking his music down from the lights and into the darker corners of society. One of his current projects, teaching underprivileged prisoners in Reno, Nevada to write their own song with which to defend themselves in court is currently creating a wide spread stir in the world of community art in the United States. Back home in Northern Ireland he has just completed a CD written with Protestant and Catholic schoolchildren about their own areas, 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”.
In May 2002 Tommy Sands received an honorary doctorate of Letters from The University of Nevada for his outstanding work as musician and ambassador for peace and understanding and, May 18th was pronounced “Tommy Sands Day in Reno”.
“Tommy Sands is one of the most important songwriters in Ireland if not the rest of the world. . .”
SING OUT (USA)
“The gentle songs of a gentle man, ringing out above the tumult and the shouting. . . Through people like Tommy Sands there will be an answer. . .”
BELFAST TELEGRAPH
“Most gifted songwriter…with an ability to write on serious subjects which come across as songs rather than sermons…also well able to be extremely funny in the way he puts words together. . .”
IRISH TIMES
“Tommy Sands has achieved that difficult but wonderful balance between knowing and loving the traditions of his home and being concerned with the future of the whole world. . .”
PETE SEEGER