Singers beginning their career would do well to recall the immortal line Jimmy Buckley uttered

Everyone has to start somewhere. I only wish I had £20 for ever y time t hat has been said t o me i n terms of young entertainers embarking on their careers. It is, indeed, true that even the biggest acts all had a starting point and, in Ireland, this certainly did not imply that it was going to be all plain sailing.

I often think of Jimmy Buckley’s i mmortal l i ne when queried about his career to date.

He’ ll give a wry smile and say: “Well, it’s like this. I was 13 years becoming an overnight success!”

Ji mmy may be exaggerating slightly here, but I know that people like Daniel O’Donnell, Nathan Carter, Mike Denver, Derek Ryan, Robert Mizzell, Declan Nerney and Michael English will agree that t aki ng t hose first faltering steps towar d s stardom can be hazardous.

Even n o w, with years of experience behind them, singers such as these bring out a single or CD at regular intervals in order to ensure that they remain in the public eye.

I mention this simply to i l l ustrate that, while the country music sphere e mbraces fresh t a l e nt , the opportunities for lesser- known performers to make significant progress are rather more limited.

Only recently, I encountered a young man who believed that the best way to make headway was to go it alone, so he went and bought himself a small studio.

He was convinced he could write his own material, record it to a sufficient level that would merit radio plays, generate his own PR material, market his recording and source his own gigs.

But he discovered that he c ould not be a j ack of all trades. I gentl y reminded him that if you are competing in the Circuit of Ireland Rally, you cannot be a racing car driver and a navigator. You can only be one or the other.

Right now, there are a number of talented male and female singers pushing to make a breakthrough.

For a start, they should take someone into the studio when they are going to record, but not someone who is going to agree with everything they do and tell them what they want to hear. It’s far better they are told it like it is — warts and all.

You can always tell the difference between a track which has been recorded in a professional studio, overseen by someone of the calibre of Jonathan Owens, Stephen Smyth, Gerard Dornan, William Mawhinney, or the person who produces my work in the studio, Owney Smith, and a track which has been recorded in a more modest setting, shall we say.

The reason I point this out is that, after a radio presenter like myself plays a track from the more professional studio and a track recorded in someone’s home, the quality is completely different.

Unfortunately, it costs money to go into these studios, but if you are a singer and you want to give yourself a chance it is money well spent.

For a start, a song recorded in a professional studio is likely to earn more radio plays and generate more interest, thus boosting your career.

There is an old s aying t hat t wo heads are better than one and, when you go into a studio to record an album, there will be more heads than two, because the session musicians who will be involved can help a singer to avoid potential pitfalls.

In my humble opinion, as someone who started when he was 20 and is still going, it’s never any harm to avail of a helping hand along the way.

Everyone needs a little assistance and I was fortunate to benefit from my late mentor, Gene Stuart ( inset above), who never minced his words in the studio.

More than once, he told me, when he thought I was doing a song that did not suit me, “Forget it, boss”. And, do you know what? It didn’t do me a button of harm.

I have just finished my new album and the one thought that producer Owney Smyth and I shared the whole way through was that we fairly missed big Gene.