THE Sands Family are one of Ireland’s best-known and best-loved folk bands, but now the next generation is stepping into the limelight.
While the original band – Tommy, Eugene, Ben, Colum and Anne – are still on the scene (they play the Ulster Hall in Belfast on Monday), five of the Sands children are now performing as Na Leanai (which is Irish for 'the children’).
They are a fantastic band in their own right and their debut album Kindred Roots is mostly traditional songs, plus a cover of Winter Trees by The Staves, a cover of The Night is Young by Colum Sands and an original song, Northern Star, written by the band’s Eimear Keane.
Keane (vocals, percussion) and her sister Sorcha Tornbull (vocals, flute, whistles, bodhran) are the daughters of Anne Sands. Ryanne (vocals, fiddle, guitar) is the daughter of Ben Sands, Moya Sands (vocals, fiddle, bodhran, whistles) is the daughter of Tommy, while the girls’ cousin Fra (son of Hugh Sands) completes the line-up on guitar and vocals.
Na Leanai have been gigging since last year and next up for them is a festive charity gig at An Cuan in Rostrevor, Co Down, on December 19. Sorcha Turnbull says they’ll do a couple of seasonal tunes but will stick mostly to their trad/folk staples.
“We have a modern take on Auld Lang Syne that we’ll do. It’s a really slowed down version. And we think that we can totally pass off Winter Trees by The Staves as a Christmas song. We’ll definitely do that one.
“It’ll be mostly just folk and trad, because people will be having enough Christmas music blaring through the shopping centres,” she laughs.
As Fra Sands is currently in the US, his shoes will be filled be Matt McGinn, the Co Down singer-songwriter who produced Na Leanai’s album.
“Matt is brilliant,” says Sorcha. “Although my sister is trying to co-ordinate his outfit with ours for the gig, so he’s been tortured. It should be good craic!”
She says the original Sands family – the various parents – will hopefully get up for a song or two as well. In fact, the day of the gig is actually Tommy Sands’s 70th birthday.
Sorcha says music was a huge part of life growing up.
“We grew up travelling with the folks to festivals around Europe and Ireland, so we learned a lot of music from just watching them on stage. And there was always music in the houses and at Christmas we’d all get together and have a big ceili session where everybody sings.”
She says the band got together for a charity gig last year and things took off from there: “It all happened by accident”. They recorded their album in a few days.
“Moya lives in Spain, so we only had her over for about four days so we were in the studio recording that whole time.”
Next year Na Leanai have lined up gigs in Dublin, Denmark, Germany, Scotland and Sweden already, with more sure to follow. Proceeds from next weekend’s gig at An Cuan will go to Youth With A Mission (YWAM) – the Christian charity based at the centre.
“YWAM’s main focus is peace-building and reconciliation. They do a lot of relief and development work. They do work in the townships in South Africa, and then they have programmes in the West Bank and Lebanon,” says Sorcha. The charity is also working with street children in India.
The concert starts at 8pm on the 19th, but the there’ll be tea and mince pies when the café opens at 6pm and the concert is BYO.
Sorcha says that singing with her sister Eimear and their cousins is completely natural and speaks about the “blood harmony” that exists when a family sings together – which explains why First Aid Kit (two Swedish sisters) and The Staves (three English sisters) are two of Na Leanai’s favourite acts.
“My mum had us all singing in harmony since we were about three. When you do it together that long, you just know what the others are going to sing.”
:: Na Leanai play An Cuan in Rostrevor, Co Down, on Saturday December 19. Tickets £10, available from Williamson’s Nisa shop in Rostrevor, at An Cuan and via www.naleanaimusic.com. Kindred Roots is out now.
