Tommy Sands - The Music of Healing

Sometimes truth is like a hare in a cornfield You know it's there but you can't put your hands on it All we can hope to do Is follow its footprints - "The Music of Healing," by Tommy Sands and Pete Seeger

date: 6/12/00

Arriving in San Antonio for the Kerrville Folk Festival, I was lucky enough to ride in with Irish folk legend Tommy Sands. Even at the airport terminal, he was impossible to mistake - a troubadour's shirt with flared green sleeves, curling shoulder-length hair, and a certain grace. What impressed me most about Sands was a pervasive, sincere gentleness and a consistent pattern in all the activities he does surrounding music.

We got acquainted on I-10 in a conversation about teaching. He described a program he'd recently done at a juvenile detention center in in Reno, Nevada. Sponsored by the Sierra Arts Foundation, he worked with 17 and 18 year olds at Whittenburg Hall, helping them to write songs which they would sing for the judge at their placement hearings. Based on their testimony, they would be released, sent to treatment programs, or remanded to prison as adults. Sands worked with over 70 youths, helping them to write their life stories in the form of songs. He began by telling them a traditional Irish tale - "The Boy Who Had No Story." In Ireland, to have no story to tell is not to exist, and this boy, tired of being ostracized, runs away. Of course, his adventures paradoxically leave him with quite a tale to tell - the best in the county. Young people have a hard time seeing the story in what they consider their ordinary - or less than ordinary - lives. But they began to see differently. Sands began by asking a few questions: "Where were you born? What were you like as a kid? When did things go wrong for you? What is your plan for the future?" Verses can grow easily from these.

He also talked about the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, with whom he has been performing off and on for the last four years. Smailovic became an international folk hero for his stubborn courage during the seige of Sarajevo. After bombs destroyed the theatre where he played in the symphony, Smailovic took to playing his cello out in the street, through the bombs and gunfire. I was struck by the way music, simple music, can become politicized by context, can be made into a powerful force for change by the intent of those who play it. Living in Northern Ireland, Sands has learned this truth. In a way, using rather than writing songs is his true artform.

"In a way, using rather than writing songs is his true artform."
	photos from www.tommysands.com (by permission)

Ten years ago, Sands started an event called "The Music of Healing." Musicians from both factions in Northern Ireland - Catholic and Protestant - met to play music together, to test and prove the bonding power of their shared music. Later, the musicians brought leaders from their parties with them; they would open these discussion sessions with music, "to create an atmosphere of neighborliness and humanity." The discussions were often heated, but never dissolved. According to Sands, the Citizen's Assembly which, in 1996, began to hold its "consensus sessions," grew out of these musical exchanges. Led by Peter Emerson, a key thinker in the group, the Citizen's Assembly looked for new ways of solving conflict and new ways of decision making - moving from "majoritarianism" to a concensus approach - a true democracy where instead of 51% of the people being happy, everyone is. Each voice - even minority voices - are heard, considered, and made part of the final decision. Instead of the up/down referendum, they used the "preferendum," where representatives rank alternatives. Ex-prisoners from both the IRA and the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) acted as referees or facilitators in fashioning solutions that took all points of view into account. Sands said it was his own son, Fionan, who came up with the idea that each party in the talks should be represented by one man and one woman. It was this Citizen's Assembly which was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Good Friday Peace Accords, which remain a source of hope for lasting peace in Ireland despite continuing problems.

A last episode. The media were euphoric when the talks leading to the Peace Accords were being set up. Every day there were articles about the obstacles being overcome, the differences being set aside. It was high drama. However, once the peace talks were underway, the media found themselves in the age old quandary - peace does not make good ink. They began looking for cracks in the talks, interviewing factious extremists and trying to find drama in conflict. It was the kind of reporting that gradually breeds mistrust and polarizes the public. Sands knew that what the press needed was a "storm." So he decided to create one for them.

He wrote a song, taught it to a group of 40 children - 20 Protestant and 20 Catholic - and they marched, singing, to the building where the talks were being held, accompanied by lambeg drummers. It was a simple song:

Carry on, carry on
You can hear the people
Carry on, carry on
and peace will come again

The politicians poured out into the street and joined in the singing. And the press had their storm.

The Music of Healing events continue to go on each year. Tommy Sands has his own weekly radio show, which often includes guest politicians - he says he often gets them to sing. And I never asked him what happened to the youths in Reno who sang for the judge. But my guess is that it's hard to throw the book at a boy who can sing the story of his life. Check out Tommy Sands' website at:
http://www.tommysands.com

and his weekly radio show (live Sat. 6-8pm (1-5pm Eastern) plus archives) at
http://www.downtownradio.co.uk

May the road rise up to meet you - and all that,

Hugh Blumenfeld, Editor
hugh@balladtree.com