Glasgow Times

Country star Sarah heads for Oran Mor gig

- EMMA ARTHURS

COUNTRY music star Sarah Darling returns to the UK for her second headline tour this March in anticipati­on of her fifth studio album, Wonderland.

The Wonderland Tour kicks off with a show at Glasgow’s Oran Mor, the only Scottish headline spot of her eight-date tour.

Darling made her name when she placed in the top-three on The Entertaine­r and went on to record U.S. chart-topping music. Her 2012 single Home to Me sold more than 8,000 copies in its first week, becoming the top selling digital single from a new female artist since May 2011.

After her success in the States, the star set her sights on the UK, releasing Dream Country through Pledge Music to open hearts and a number two spot in the iTunes UK country charts. Dream Country boasts over four million streams on Spotify and Apple music and Darling has over 12 million streams across her discograph­y in the UK. Her openness and immersion into the UK music scene quickly secured her a place in the hearts of fans in her ‘home-away-from-home’.

Wonderland, her fifth studio album, will be released on June 7 through Pledge Music and on streaming platforms. Continuing her love affair with the UK, Darling travelled from America and created most of the album here, even recording songs in the Welsh countrysid­e. The star spent most of 2018 in England co-writing and working with UK-based producers.

The project was one of spontaneit­y and heart – often Darling would enter a co-writing session and create music with people she had never met, taking inspiratio­n from her experience­s and the UK’s culture and music.

Allowing her love of the UK to take shape and inspire her writing, Darling created an album that very much takes fans on this creative journey with her. She returns on tour to play the ‘UK-made’ album in the place where it was created: “So much of the album was created here and I spent so much time working on these songs, so it’s genuinely exciting to be able to do the tour and play it for the fans – it’s almost like I’m showing it off, I’m really excited about it.”

Having played festivals and toured extensivel­y since her last musical release, Darling decided to share her experience­s through music with the fans who have made her happiness possible: “The fans are the whole reason that I do all of this – it’s the exchange, the love that they give me that makes me really want to do this.”

The album is very much a departure from Darling’s previous styles and the darker, heavier theme of Dream Country – a pop-inspired upbeat journey through the happiest moments of the last few years of her life: “I wanted to create something that was very much me, not too pop, just letting it be something really beautiful. I think it was really important that working on this album I got the balance right, keeping my Nashville roots embedded in what I was recording in London.

“The album is very much about embracing life, accepting all the things that happen along the way. I think because I’m writing about different things and experience­s, I’ve created some really cool music.”

• Tickets for the tour are available through her official website, and the album is available to pre-order on Pledge Music. The album can be pre-saved on Spotify.

games on MUTV. I have done that for the last 12 years or so. I’ve seen most of the young players come through. Being able to play in three or four positions is not a bad attribute to have. Sometimes you can get taken for granted, but it will do him no harm. “He played up front for the best part of a full season. It is not a bad thing to do when you are learning the game. He is benefittin­g from that now, he is aware of what is going on around about him.” Edinburgh-born Albiston played for Scotland on 14 occasions – including in the final group game of the Mexico ’86 World Cup against Uruguay when Sir Alex Ferguson preferred him to current manager McLeish. With McTominay having won five caps since making his debut in March last year, Albiston is hopeful the high level he is playing at with a resurgent United will help him to perform well, possibly even as a starter, for the national team. “Thirty years ago or so there were a lot of Scottish boys playing for English clubs,” he said. “More importantl­y, there were a lot of boys getting good experience playing in European competitio­n with Scotland. Guys at Aberdeen, Dundee United, Rangers and Celtic were all getting good experience. It all benefits you when you play internatio­nally. I would like to think United are going to be playing at that level for a few seasons. That will benefit Scotland.”

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