Country comes to town
Fresh-faced Nathan Carter on the revival of a genre that has the nation’s toes tapping...
To some it is an old-fashioned, conservative genre of music but there is no doubt that Country ’n’ Irish has undergone a marked resurgence in recent years – fresh-faced artists are playing increasingly bigger venues and new festivals are a testament to that.
Summerfest Carlow, for example, which takes place on the weekend of July 21 and 22 is given over entirely to some of the current crop of stars.
Carlow favourite Derek Ryan and Fermanagh-based Liverpool singer Nathan Carter headline the two-day festival. They are aged 34 and 28 respectively and are among those who have added that youthful flavour to the scene.
Carter, whose 2012 hit Wagon Wheel transformed his fortunes, is arguably the favourite of the droves who make a beeline for the hotel ballrooms and dance lounges every weekend for their country fix. Although with all the geniality of a young Daniel O’Donnell, he is much too modest to agree to the suggestion.
‘I don’t know about that. It isn’t just because of me,’ he says.
‘The likes of Derek Ryan and Lisa McHugh draw huge crowds everywhere they go. There is definitely a resurgence though. It’s really cool that so many young kids are into country music.’
Carter says he was the ‘odd kid’ at school in Liverpool who listened to Country ’n’ Irish having been brought to the local Irish centre as soon as could walk.
‘My gran is from Newry and she liked Country ’n’ Irish music,’ he says. ‘She also wanted to keep that Irish connection very much alive. I would have heard the likes of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton and I always loved that sort of stuff as a kid. I used to get taken to see all the Irish acts when they came to town too – The Dubliners, The Chieftains, Christy Moore and Mary Black.
‘I was taught how to play the accordion. I got my first one at the age of five. I learned to play the piano too.
‘Growing up in Liverpool, everybody still loves the Beatles. I liked Oasis and other bands that were around at the time, but I was always drawn back to Country ’n’ Irish music.
‘Because I was exposed to the music and played it too I always knew that is what I would end up doing. My dad was a builder and I did a bit of that for a year or so but thankfully the music took over and I’ve been doing it professionally since I was 17.’
Carter hit the road in England and Scotland and says he did quite well as a solo performer before his life changed after being invited to play a charity gig in Donegal.
‘It was there that I met my future manager John Farry and he persuaded me to move over, put a band together and work on the Irish circuit,’ he explains. ‘That was when I was 19, nine years ago, and it has just flown by. I lived in Bridgend in Donegal with a friend of my Nan’s for three years. At the beginning it was tough. Sometimes there wouldn’t be enough people in the venue for me to go on and we lost a fair bit of money. Apart from that, it was open doors and open arms wherever we went. We built a fanbase from scratch and more and more people kept coming to the shows.’
Carter estimates that a third to half of his gigs were in Donegal and Tyrone in the early days but events such as Summerfest Carlow show that the south has also had a reawakening.
‘The big Carlow festival is an example of the demand that is there. As well as that, to get to play two shows in the 3Arena last year was pretty crazy because country music rarely makes it into the city and it really has expanded.’
Country has definitely come back to town.
Summerfest Carlow is on July 21 and 22 at Oak Park, Carlow. See summerfestcarlow.com for details.
‘We built a fanbase from scratch and more and more people kept coming to the shows