CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
11
PREFACE: ‘BIG TOM’ WAS THE KING
13
INTRODUCTION
15
1
JIM REEVES HAD TO GO BUT LARRY CUNNINGHAM
SAVED THE NIGHT
17
2 ‘THE CIRCLE IS UNBROKEN’: A VERY SHORT HISTORY
OF AMERICAN COUNTRY MUSIC
39
3 ‘BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME’: COUNTRY COMES TO IRELAND
57
4 SEARCHING FOR THE PIONEERS
71
5 HOW ‘BIG TOM’ BECAME THE ‘KING’
91
6 THREE QUEENS OF IRISH COUNTRY MUSIC
106
7 THE RISE AND RISE OF ‘WEE’ DANIEL O’DONNELL
124
8 IN THE COUNTRY OF ‘REAL’ COUNTRY
135
9 GARTH BROOKS’ HAT CAN SING: GARTH BROOKS AND IRELAND 151 10 ‘YOUR NEXT DANCE PLEASE’: TRIPPING THROUGH THE WORLD OF COUNTRY MUSIC DANCING
165
11 TRYING TO KEEP IT COUNTRY: THE MEDIA AND COUNTRY
MUSIC IN IRELAND
184
12 PORTRAITS FROM THE TRADE
205
13 BORN IN THE USA: THE ROBERT MIZZELL STORY
231
14 ‘THE LONE RANGER OF IRISH COUNTRY MUSIC’: JAMES KILBANE AND COUNTRY GOSPEL 15 A NEW COUNTRY
239 246
16 THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY MUSIC: THE RISE
OF NATHAN CARTER
262
17 FOREVER AND EVER: THE ENDURING POPULARITY OF IRISH COUNTRY MUSIC
273
ENDNOTES
291
BIBLIOGRAPHY
308
INDEX
314
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the following people for taking the time to speak and cor respond with me: Keelan Arbuckle, Charlie Arkins, Steve Bloor, Johnny
Brady, Denise Browne, Sarah Burke, Gerard Butler, Maria Carroll, Willie Carty, Paul Claffey, Michael Commins, Kathy Crinnion, dancers at the McWilliam Park Hotel, dancers at social-dancing classes in the Westport
Woods, Roly Daniels, John Farry, Mick Flavin, Denise Fogarty, Rita Gill, Tom Gilmore, Gerry Glennon, Brendan Grace, Cliona Hagan, Dennis Heaney, John Hogan, John Marion Hutchinson, Sean Joyce, George
Kaye, Dympna Kelly, Michael Kelly, Sandy Kelly, Sharon Kelly, Tom Kelly, William Kelly, James Kilbane, Uri Kohen, Niamh Lynn, Mary
from Mullingar, Jim Martin, Lee Matthews, Frank McCaffrey, Susan McCann, Hubie McEvilly, Sarah McEvilly, Charlie McGettigan, Willie
McHugh, Philip McLaughlin, Fiona Mc Mahon, Henry McMahon, Karen McMahon, Shauna McStravock, Robert Mizzell, Eunice Moran, John Morrison, Louise Morrissey, Howard Myers, Tom Nallen, Máire Ní
Chonláin, Hugh O’Brien, Carmel O’Donoghue, Gerald O’Donoghue, Robert Padden, Aidan Quinn, Declan Quinn, James Reddiough, Marc
Roberts, Tim Rogers, Kay Ryan, Roger Ryan, Lisa Stanley, Colin Stewart, Niall Toner and Emmet Wynne. Apologies to anyone I forgot to mention; you know who you are.
Writing a book of this nature is challenging and time-consuming; it
is easy to run down blind alleys and lose focus, finding it difficult to see the wood from the trees. In this regard I would particularly like to thank Wendy Logue, my editor at Mercier Press, from whom I have learned so
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A HAPPY TYPE OF SADNESS
much during the process of bringing this book to fruition. Her attention to detail and professionalism were remarkable and the finished product has
benefited enormously from her commitment to the project. Thanks Wendy. I would also like to thank Patrick O’Donoghue, commissioning editor
at Mercier, for his unceasing encouragement, diplomacy skills and good
cheer. The lines of communication were always open through Patrick, which is a critical factor in the completion of a project of this nature.
PREFACE ‘BIG TOM’ WAS THE KING The ballrooms in this country are living proof today,
Of a man who is now a legend from Wicklow to Galway.
We love our country music, to us it’s everything,
It don’t matter what they tell you, Big Tom is still the King. From ‘Big Tom Is Still The King’1
On Friday 23 October 2015 The Late Late Show, Ireland’s most popular
television chat show, dedicated the entire night to a celebration of Irish
country music for the first time. It attracted an astonishing fifty-two per cent of the national audience.2 An average of 740,000 people tuned in for the show, while the total viewership over the course of the programme
reached 1.3 million. Programme host Ryan Tubridy – a country music fan – was not surprised at the viewing figures when he discussed them on
his radio show on RTÉ Radio 1 the following Monday: ‘We knew that
country is huge when we decided to have this special so it’s no surprise to us that so many people tuned in on Friday night. It was truly one of the
most enjoyable Late Late Shows I’ve ever presented.’3 He was particularly moved by his interview with singer ‘Big Tom’ McBride, as were many of the
viewing public. McBride looked a little frail and his voice sounded a little
14
A HAPPY TYPE OF SADNESS
faded and shaky as he sang his most famous country song, ‘Four Country
Roads’, but the audience were entranced. They could not dance because they were confined to their seats, but as the camera panned through the crowd the entire mass of people swayed and sang along together. It could
have been a cult worshipping an all-powerful leader, such was the devotion on their faces. Here was an old but still physically imposing man, singing
about a small village in County Galway, surrounded by a large group of
worshippers gazing at him as if he was revealing the secret to everlasting existence. Faces shone and eyes glistened as the big man sang about the four country byways to his heart. There was nothing less than love in the
eyes of the audience. Nothing else mattered; this was the man. They had come to worship at the feet of their king.
DJ and highly regarded country music historian and journalist Michael
Commins wrote about the show in his column in the Irish Farmers Journal: The Late Late Show country music special last October cemented Tom’s special place as the iconic star of the country scene in Ireland. It was as if
the entire show was building up to that magic moment when Tom came
into the room. The standing ovations and crescendo of emotions that spread out from the RTÉ studio in Dublin was a massive endorsement of
the place this man from Monaghan commands in the hearts of so many Irish people.4
In the world of Irish country music ‘Big Tom’ was the king.
INTRODUCTION When I was a teenager my house had many American country records that
my mother had brought home from visits to her sister in the United States, and I would often play Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Don
Williams and Freddy Fender on the record player. What always amazed
me about these songs was how great they were at telling a story in a few short verses. This was often a sharp counterpoint to the lyrics of much of
the contemporary pop and rock music at the time, where the narrative was frequently lost in a smokescreen of sound effects and synthesizers. The
foregrounding of the voice and the elemental nature of the lyrics in country songs had an appeal that a lot of contemporary fare did not have. Although
I had no musical ability myself – I had to carry the flag in the school band – even I could see that in country music there was no hiding place for the
singer. To get the message across you had to be able not only to sing, but also to emote.
Since then I have listened to all types of American country music
and know the subject well. But while I had a wide knowledge and love
of American country music, when I noticed the proliferation of home-
grown country music programmes on Irish television, particularly on TG4, over the last number of years, I realised I did not know nearly as much
about how country music had developed in Ireland. I decided it was time I learned more, and that interest culminated in what you are now reading.
This book is not intended to be a complete guide to Irish country
music. It is a mixture of research, interviews and attendance at all sorts of happenings and events, which allowed me to take a journey through the
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A HAPPY TYPE OF SADNESS
world of Irish country music and along the way to meet and talk to some
of the hard-working and talented people who have chosen to make their
mark in that world. This is their story. I want to thank all the people who
took the time to help me, talk to me on the phone or at various venues
and guide me in the right direction when I was researching the book. To all of them, and to all the fans out there who support them, I say, ‘Keep it country.’