Track Listing: 1. Look Where I've Ended Up Now 2. Beyond the Frame 3. Fresh Bread 4. We're walking down the road 5. Fred Jordan's Boots 6. Giant's Causeway Tram 7. Too Loud 8. Michael's Orchard 9. Du You Sie 10. Song for Nuri 11. From the Darkness of the Mine Click on underscored titles to hear MP3 sound samples

We are delighted to announce our release of this CD.

COLUM SANDS
Look Where I've Ended Up Now
Spring Records SCD 1059

"This lovingly packaged, expertly produced and engineered disc is truly irresistible, and will (I guarantee) give any listener an enormous amount of pleasure".
David Kidman

"Listen to ‘Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now’ - and love it for yourself". Tim Carroll

Colum is a meber of The Sands Family, one of Ireland's favourite musical families. Colum is a master singe songwriter who has plied his trade all over the world for the past 20 years.
His songs are much sough after and have been covered by several high profile singers.

An old pair of hobnailed boots in a dark bedroom beside a dormant volcano in New Zealand, a meeting in the Negev desert with a Bedouin activist struggling to hold onto his family's lands, remembering two painters in his home village of Rostrevor, a late night childhood story from the daughter of a famous coal miner in the North East of England, wrestling with the idea of formal and informal words for "you" in the German language, raising a voice against noise pollution, recalling the smell of freshly baked bread, Colum Sands is a songwriter who works from
a broad palette and sings of the colours, the senses, the accents and the language of life.

On his latest collection "Look where I've ended up now" Sands finds inspiration across that same vast landscape which has welcomed his songs and stories over the past thirty years -
from Ireland to the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

In the company of fellow Sands Family members and some of Ireland's finest musicians, the exotic flavours of Armenian Oud player Vasken Solakian and the outstanding English accordion player Karen Tweed, the County Down songwriter comes up with lines like "Remote controllers all over the house, we have not the remotest control" or "rain coming in through the ceiling and the water bill's gone through the roof!" to carry the tradition of the troubadour into the 21st century with the blend of humour, critical insight and optimism which has become his hallmark.

Sands himself says, "I love travelling and I always learn and write from the stories that people have to tell, I'm as happy sharing songs with ten people as I am with a thousand. It's not about numbers, it's about energy ..songs have been a powerful means of communication for centuries and will always find their own way to fly without the hot air side of the music business."

With "Look where I've ended up now" Colum Sands sends a seventh bagful of songs out into the world to find their own feet, "through hedges and ditches, in search of the reason of rhyme."

With previous songs translated into German, Dutch, French and Hebrew and cover versions recorded by artistes like Maddy Prior and June Tabor, Andy Irvine, Makem and Clancy, Mick Hanley, Roy Bailey, Enda Kenny and Flossie Malavialle, who knows where they might end up!

We at Copperplate are delighted to be associated with this release and proud to have this title on our roster. We will be doing all we can to help this brilliant release achieve its full
potential and will be supporting it with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.

He is a consumate performer who has built up a large following in the UK, via his regular tours. News of his new tour will delight his many fans in the UK.

Colum Sands "Look Where I've Ended Up Now"
tour continues 2010..

2010 September
Thu 2nd Ireland Newry (Co. Down) Bagenal's Castle, Castle The Seedboat, with Maggie Mac Innes Acoutic Music Centre Tickets: 028-30313178
Fri 3nd Ireland Dublin Farmleigh House Long Mile Road The Seedboat, with Maggie Mac Innes Acoutic Music Centre
Sun 5nd England Newcastle The Folk Gallery The Seedboat, with Maggie Mac Innes Acoutic Music Centre Tickets 02843722009
Fri 10th Ireland Courtmacsherry (Co. Cork) Storytelling Festival
Sat 11th Ireland Courtmacsherry (Co. Cork) Storytelling Festival
Fri 17th Ireland Cootehill, Co. Cavan Gerry Whelan Memorial concert with special guests Claire and Ursula Byrne Tel. 07966 451259, Mail: gwhelan101@yahoo.ie
Thu 30st Scotland Falkirk Falkirk Folk Club

2010 October
Fri 1st Scotland Ayrshire Craigie Inn Cancelled!!
Sat 2nd -- -- -- Private Gig
Sun 3rd England Rainford, WA11 7JU, Merseyside Wooden Horse Folk Club
Mon 4th England Stockport, Cheshire Midway Folk Club Lancashire 263, Newbridge Lane Stockport
Wed 6th Wales Pontyclun, Llantrisant Folk Club Llantrisant Windsor Hotel Llantrisant Rd.
Thu 7th England Wivenhoe, Essex Wivenhoe Folkclub The Greyhound pub, Wivenhoe High Street Tel: 01206827759
Fri 8th England Birmingham The Black Diamond Folk Club The Globe Blews st.
Sat 9th England Wolverhampton Upstairs@the Newhampton Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1DU Tel: 01902 820958 or 01902 340603
Mail: dlmaher50@yahoo.com performance to begin at 1pm and last an hour
Sun 10th England Devon Lee Mill Folk on the Moor, Devon Lee Mill Ivybridge Devon
Mon 11th England Poole (Dorset) St. Mary's Church Hall, 211A Wimborne Road Tel: 01202 661869
Tue 12th England Dartford Dartford Folk Club The Dartford Working Men's Club, Tel (0)1322 222553 Mail: pam@collsp.plus.com
Wed 13th England Dorking Dorking Folk Club
Thu 14th England Redbourne The Hollybush Public House, Church end
Fri 15th England Bingham, near Nottingam The Town Pavilion Bingham Folk Club
Sat 16th England Washington Tyne & Wear The Davy Lamp Folk Club
Fri 22nd Germany 83370 Seeon KLOSTER SEEON, KLOSTERSTüBERL Kartentelefon: 08624-897201
Thu 23th Germany 90482 Nürnberg LONI-ÜBLER-HAUS Kartentelefon: 0911-541156
Fri 29th Germany 22177 Hamburg-Bramfeld BRAKULA Kartentelefon: 040-6421700
Sat 30st Germany 53925 Kall-Steinfeld KLOSTER STEINFELD, AULA DES HERMANN-JOSEF-KOLLEGS Kartentelefon: 02482-7801 Mail: GerdWeimbs@aol.com

Press Reviews


The Living Tradition Aug/Sept 10
Colum Sands is inspired by people. The songs on his seventh solo album show this more clearly than ever, and the result is another engaging celebration of our better selves. Some of the people are from his home base of Rostrevor in County Down, but more are met on his travels. He embraces the life of a folksong troubadour in the title track, and takes us on to people met and stories heard in Israel, New Zealand, Germany, and the north east of England.

Beyond The Frame remembers two brothers from Rostrevor, artists and signwriters: In freedom’s name beneath the sun, some close one eye to aim a gun. / Some open both, see far and wide, all colours living side by side. Rostrevor is just a few miles from Warrenpoint, by the way. Song For Nuri is inspired by a Bedouin activist persecuted by the Israeli authorities. Fred Jordan’s Boots celebrates the life of the Shropshire farm labourer and tradition bearer who I was lucky enough to hear sing at the National Folk Festival: Fred bequeathed his hobnailed boots to his friend Roger Giles, and Colum stayed at Roger’s house while touring in New Zealand. From The Darkness Of the Mine came from talking to Doreen Henderson, the daughter of Jack Elliot, one of the Elliots of Birtley: her peace activism is seen as a continuation of the mineworkers’ solidarity embodied by her father. Lighter songs include Du You Sie, with delightful word play on German forms of address, and Too Loud, with a polite moan about noise pollution. Is it all too nice, too relentlessly uplifting? Maybe the occasional spurt of toxic bile (such as Richard Thompson, for instance, is capable of) wouldn’t go amiss. But Colum’s songwriting flows from his nature, experience and beliefs, and I shouldn’t wish it any other way.

Colum plays guitar, double bass, concertina and mandolin, while accompanists include Brendan Monaghan on whistle, Karen Tweed on accordion and Ursula Byrne on fiddle. Ursula closes two of the songs with tunes: The Connaught Man’s Rambles and, most fittingly, The Reconciliation Reel.

Postscript. Listening to these songs again, a few days later, the lack of bile seems fine. After I wrote the first draft of this review I turned the radio on… and then the TV news channel. A man had gone berserk. Twelve people were shot dead in my county of Cumbria, and many more lives were smashed. I think of a winter’s day of stunning clarity, when I looked from Skiddaw across the Irish Sea to the snow-crowned Mountains of Mourne which overlook Rostrevor. Maybe Colum was there that day, working on more songs of hope and healing. Tony Hendry

The Living Tradition May/June 10
Colum Sands is a songwriter who works from a broad palate and sings of the colours, the senses, the accents and the language of life. In the company of fellow Sands Family members and some of Ireland's
finest musicians, the County Down songwriter comes up with lines like "remote controllers all over the house, we have not the remotest control" or "rain coming in through the ceiling and the water bill's gone through the roof!" to carry the tradition of troubadour into the 21st century with the blend of humour, critical insight and optimism which has become his hallmark.
Colum's songs have been translated in several languages, performer by artistes including Maddy Prior, June Tabor, Andy Irvine, Makem and Clancy, Roy Bailey and Enda Kenny. Any performance by Colum
brings joy to your soul.

The Irish World 7.12.09
Colum is a member of the famous Irish musical family, The Sands Family. A master singer-songwriter, he has been doing what he does and it well for over two decades.

On the County Down man's new album, his seventh, "Look Where I've Ended Up Now", Sands draws inspiration across a vast, exotic landscape, drawing from a palette that takes in the sights, sounds, accents, stories and songs of Ireland to the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

Accompanied by fellow Sands Family members and some fine Irish musicians, Armenian Oud player Vasken Solakian and English accordion player Karen Tweed, Sands carries on the troubadour tradition, with lines like "Remote controllers all over the house, we have not the remotest control" or "rain coming in through the ceiling and the water bill's gone through the roof!" in that same blend of humour, critical insight and hope that have become his hallmark.

Sands says, "I love travelling and I always learn and write from the stories that people have to tell, I'm as happy sharing songs with ten people as with a thousand. It's not about numbers, it's about energy... songs have been a powerful means of communication for centuries and will always find their own way to fly without the hot air side of the music business."

Sand's previous songs have been translated into German, Dutch,' French and Hebrew and versions of his songs recorded by artists like Maddy Prior and June Tabor, Andy Irvine, Makem and Clancy, Mick Hanley, Roy Bailey, Enda Kenny and Flossie Malavialte, and there will surely be some jewels in here that will be borrowed by others in future. From an old pair of hobnailed boots in a dark bedroom beside a dormant volcano in New Zealand, to a meeting in the Negev desert with a Bedouin activist struggling to hold onto his family's lands, remembering two painters in his home village of Rostrevor, this is a songwriter that celebrates life's diversity in his own unique way. Shelley Marsden

Visit http://columsands.net for more. To buy a copy, visit www.copperplatemailorder.com or call 020 7585 0357.

www.netrhythms
For many years now, the gentle County Down troubadour, a member of the illustrious musical Sands Family, has charmed audiences worldwide with his uniquely captivating true-life observations and homilies, setting out "in search of the reason and rhyme". This is Colum's seventh "bagful" of original songs, and clearly his travels continue to inspire and inform his lively intellect and very special personal vision.

Virtually every one of the ten new compositions on this disc is in its own way a carefully crafted little masterpiece, and that's no exaggeration. You could say that as both performer and songwriter, Colum's the very embodiment of the Irishman's psyche, to be sure. He's got the true gift of the gab, a puckish delight in tongue-twisting yet meaningful wordplay, while there's a special quality in his writing that brings a lump to the throat and a twinkle to the eye - often within the same song. He's the mischievous Irish leprechaun teasing us with the crock of gold, the nugget of homespun philosophy at the end of his rainbow, yet his senses remain acutely attuned to humanity and the human condition.

Whimsically setting out his stall with the opening title track, Colum states his credo to the catchiest of choruses, as we make a visit to the crossroads where, in some brilliant twists and turns of phrase, the proverbial meets up with the actual and dances a funny little jig of recognition. Beyond The Frame presents the story of two artisan painter-brothers as a model and inspiration, the overview from the top of their ladders being a metaphor for how to approach life, with all colours living side by side and freedom flying beyond the frame.

Further timeless and universal parallels are drawn through the simple and telling imagery of Fresh Bread, while Walking Down The Road is quintessential Colum Sands, amiably and effortlessly conceived (much in the vein of earlier fun little songs like Directions and Almost Every Circumstance) to keep life's little foibles in perspective while still having pertinent points to make, any criticism invariably tempered with optimism and a knowing, friendly shrug of the shoulders. Colum's keen ear is made to suffer when he laconically examines the deafness caused by music turned up Too Loud, and the polite conventions of the German language are pointed up for mild ridicule on the deliciously tongue-tied punning of Du You Sie (much in the manner of Colum's earlier classic Mule Song). Several other songs here concern themselves with the stories of individuals. Michael's Orchard is the story of the father of musician Sinead Stone and his humble victory over adverse climate conditions.

From The Darkness Of The Mine, a heartfelt tribute to Doreen Henderson (of the Elliotts of Birtley family) is based on her reminiscences, and encapsulates her very spirit in positive words of forthright encouragement. Song For Nuri, ushered in by the authentic, florid sound of the oud, honours the Bedouin Nuri Al-Ukbi, a man of great courage engaged in a peaceful protest for recognition of his family land rights.

But perhaps the strongest impression is made by Fred Jordan's Boots, which takes as its starting point the discovery, in a New Zealand bedroom, of a pair of hobnailed boots that once belonged to traditional source singer Fred Jordan, and posits the idea of songs, like the singer's boots, walking on beyond their owner's lifetime. As I'm sure Colum's own songs are destined to last by being shared.

His penchant for sharing extends to the convivially quirky and delicately-managed backdrops afforded his songs here, which involve Karen Tweed (accordion), Ursula Byrne (fiddle), Brendan Monaghan (whistle), Nuala Curran (cello) and fellow Sands Family members Anne, Tommy and Ben, with cameo appearances from Vasken Solakian, Sinead Stone and Gerard Farrelly and Peter Benson.
This lovingly packaged, expertly produced and engineered disc is truly irresistible, and will (I guarantee) give any listener an enormous amount of pleasure. David Kidman

www.folkwords.com

Putting it all into clear perspective ... (October 10, 2009)

There’s something about songwriters that originate from Ireland – they have a precise view on life that calls it vagaries into perspective and makes its absurdities even more obvious. Colum Sands is one of those. Not only does he write a blissful tune he adds intuitive lyrics that punch a hole in your emotions and create images to make us aware.

With a long pedigree of recording excellence, Colum presents his seventh solo album, ‘Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now’. This is a perfect gathering of songs inspired by experience and image from the far reaches of the world and the closeness of your own front yard. And it shows that emotions that fire the soul from those disparate places are often so alike.

ColumThe title track ‘Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now’ has lines that put it all into clear perspective: “I keep meeting people who talk to themselves with things hanging out of their ear.” I’m sure that I can hear thousands crying: “That’s it! I will never use an earpiece again.” And how about: “Remote controllers all over the house and we have not the remotest control, on the ones we went and elected, the power has gone straight to their heads. There’s money for weapons and war games and nothing for hospital beds.” Now that hits the spot.

Colum’s songs can make you think, some make you laugh, others prompt a rueful smile, and then again some of them make you cry. These are not just sad songs - they are songs with depth, longing, understanding beyond the superficial, and those with downright powerful emotion. ‘Fred Jordan’s Boots’ is one of those. The story is full of depth with lyrics to die for and Colum’s delivery is exactly what it needs. ‘Too Loud’ is a pithy anthem quietly raging against the increasing noise volume that surrounds our daily life. More especially this takes a deserved swipe at the so-called music that pervades shops, restaurants and even your own car when the one next to you vibrates with dangerous decibels of bass. ‘Song For Nuri’ tells a story of oppression and resistance in the Negev Desert, and it’s heart-wrenching appeal draws from yet another precise combination of Colum’s lyrics and his sensitive delivery.

This album is intense, moving, insightful and memorable. This is Colum Sands at his best joined by some fine musicians. These include Nuala Curran (cello) Ursula Byrne (fiddle) Peter Benson (cornet, trombone) Gerard Farrelly (piano) Brendan Monaghan (whistle) Anne Sands (bodhran, backing vocals) Ben and Tom Sands, Sinead Stone (backing vocals) Vasken Solakian (oud) Karen Tweed Accordion) Mark Wilson (drums, percussion). Listen to ‘Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now’ - and love it for yourself. Tim Carroll