{{short description|Irish singer songwriter (born 1951)}} {{EngvarB|date=December 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} {{Multiple issues| {{BLP primary sources|date=February 2011}} {{BLP sources||date=February 2011}} }} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Colum Sands | image = Colum Sands, Costa del Folk, Portugal, October 2016 (30256671605).jpg | caption = | birth_name = Colum Sands | birth_date = 1951 | origin = Mayobridge, County Down, Northern Ireland | genre = Irish Folk, Celtic | occupation = Singer-songwriter, radio broadcaster | instrument = | years_active = 1970s-present | associated_acts = The Sands Family<br />Tommy Sands | label = | website = {{URL|http://www.sandsfamilyfolk.com/}}<br />{{URL|http://www.columsands.com/}} }} '''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.
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 artists 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<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.columsands.com/biography.html |title=Colum Sands biography |website=columsands.com |access-date=3 September 2011 |archive-date=17 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217134245/http://www.columsands.com/biography.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and a songbook titled ''Between the Earth and the Sky''<ref>{{cite book |last=Sands |first=Colum |title=Between the Earth and the Sky |publisher=Cottage Publications |date=1 October 2000 |url=http://www.cottage-publications.com/cgi-bin/ctg/book/product.cgi?id=86 |isbn=978-1900935197 |access-date=3 September 2011 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331162551/http://www.cottage-publications.com/cgi-bin/ctg/book/product.cgi?id=86 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 storyteller 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 songs have been translated into German, Dutch, Danish and Hebrew and have been recorded by many artists 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''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Obituaries: Patrick Galvin |first=Richard Anthony |last=Baker |work=The Stage |date=23 May 2011 |url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/32272/patrick-galvin|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130505123339/http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/obituaries/feature.php/32272/patrick-galvin|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 May 2013}}</ref> 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'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Folk Club |website=BBC Radio Ulster |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c0h6 |access-date=23 April 2011 |archive-date=24 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224205724/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c0h6 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h666r |date=8 May 2012 |website=BBC Radio 4 |title=The First LP in Ireland |access-date=17 May 2022 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624085045/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h666r |url-status=live }}</ref>
Sands received a Living Tradition Award for his services to Folk and Traditional Music<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acousticshowcaseni.co.uk/#/colum-sands/4548994765 |website=Acoustic Showcase NI |title=Home - Acoustic Showcase NI |access-date=3 September 2011 |archive-date=4 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111204213934/http://www.acousticshowcaseni.co.uk/#/colum-sands/4548994765 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.livingtradition.org.uk/thehub/node/109 |title=Bogle, Bailey and Sands become Patrons of Common Ground |date=10 July 2009 |first=Clare |last=Lappin |website=Living Tradition |accessdate=3 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331162552/http://www.livingtradition.org.uk/thehub/node/109 |archive-date=31 March 2012 }}</ref> and his song, "Donegall Road" was included in the Smithsonian Institution's album ''Sound Neighbours,''<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Neighbors-Contemporary-Music-Ireland/dp/B000PWQT3U | title=Sound Neighbours: Contemporary Music in Northern Ireland | website=Amazon UK | year=2007 | access-date=17 May 2022 | archive-date=28 December 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228054243/https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Neighbors-Contemporary-Music-Ireland/dp/B000PWQT3U | url-status=live }}</ref> which received three shortlisting nominations for the 2008 Grammy Awards.
==Discography== [[File:Bardentreffen 2014 So 0821.JPG|thumb|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
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.columsands.com/index.html Artist's Official website] * [http://www.myspace.com/columsands MySpace] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007c0h6 The radio show that Colum Sands hosted]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sands, Colum}} Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:Irish male singer-songwriters Category:Irish singer-songwriters Category:Irish record producers