‘Tom has gone and we’ll go too’: one last song for folk legend Tom Paley

At Sharp’s folk club, one seat was poignantly empty: that of Tom Paley, who once played with Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly and who died last week. The club’s regulars explain what he meant to them

An old man in an exceptional jumper is singing an old sea shanty in tribute to Tom Paley, who died last week aged 89. Everyone joins in with the chorus, hesitantly at first but harmonising strongly by the end: “Tom has gone and we’ll go, too. Tom’s gone to Hilo.”

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