Nashville had Johnny Cash. We had Big Tom
IT was at number 265 Paisley Road West, Glasgow, that country music giants Margo O’Donnell and Big Tom were first introduced more than 50 years ago. They stayed at a B&B belonging to a Mrs Shaw, a home from home for Irish musicians playing the clubs of the Scottish city.
The meeting was the start of an enduring friendship and love between the pair.
‘Nashville had Johnny Cash but we had Big Tom. He was our Johnny Cash, our giant of a man in every way,’ Margo told the Irish Mail on Sunday this week.
The singer revealed she remembers the exact address as the meeting with Tom had such a lasting effect on her.
‘We’d often talk about that B&B that had no name on it and Mrs Shaw who was from the Isle of Skye,’ she said. ‘She was kind to all of us, she kept a good house.
‘I was in a band called The Keynotes and Tom, of course, was in The Mainliners and we were both staying there.
‘They were different times and there was no glamour attached to life on the road.
‘There was a lot of driving through the night, usually on bad roads and there was no room service, or anything like that. Usually when you arrived at a place, you’d missed your meal and there was no other food to be had.
‘But they were good times too and there was a great camaraderie.
‘At the time, emigration was severe. When you got on that boat and went to Glasgow or Birmingham or Kilburn or wherever, that was it.
‘There was no hopping back and forth on the plane, you were just there. And we were those people’s connections with Ireland.’
But the fans didn’t just love Big Tom for his music, they also adored his personal touch where he would spend time chatting with them after a gig.
‘They loved Tom because he had a connection with them, that’s what made him so special, so unique,’ said Margo.
‘That’s gone out of music now, that personal touch. It was of that time really when people were so lonely for Ireland. Yes, he’d sing the songs, the country songs but then he’d sing the songs of Ireland, the county songs. And he’d go down and talk to all those people. Can you imagine?
‘He knew them all and they knew him and they loved him. I used to watch him and learn from him. I was always learning from him.’
Margo, a sister of Daniel O’Donnell, moved from Donegal to Castleblayney 25 years ago where she became even closer to Tom and his wife, Rose.
‘He was a great, great friend to me,’ she admitted.
‘Down through the years when I would have problems, I would tell him and he’d listen.
‘He’d always listen quietly, he wouldn’t say much at the end and sometimes it would be a few days before he would come back to you with his advice.
‘Rose used to say he hasn’t much learning on him and maybe he didn’t at school, but he certainly know about life.’
Margo describes Tom as ‘a wise man’ who adored his beloved wife. ‘His love for Rose and her for him was truly a thing to see,’ she said. ‘To see the love between those two people, I was privileged.’
The pinnacle of her career though was recording a duet with her life-long friend last year. The pair performed the song ‘A Love That’s Lasted Through The Years’ on The Late Late Show in May 2017.
‘I said to Rose, I’m singing the song but it’s your words and she loved that,’ said Margo. ‘I could never have imagined when I first saw Big Tom on stage during the Sixties that one day we would be such great friends.
‘I was just a young girl when I was first saw him sing. It was a few years before I met him that time in Glasgow.
‘This day he came on stage in Ardara, Co. Donegal where I was at a neighbour’s wedding and he was playing baritone sax. And then he sang the song, Gentle Mother and I was just blown away.’