Marty was driving Tractors and Playing the Guitar at a very early age. By 18 he was working full time driving Tractors, Diggers and Lorries and gigging with a band at the weekends. Somewhere in the middle of all that he started writing & recording his own songs and making his own music videos.
Then came Hit the Diff, Marty wrote this song while out working on the Digger and Lorry and it was about his daily life on the road. It all started as a bit of craic and Marty published this video to YouTube in late 2014. Marty made the video from pictures he had taken on his phone while out working. The video also includes pictures of Marty out driving from a very early age. The video took off immediately, and it didn’t end there.
This all lead to the release of his 1st Album “Hit The Diff” which he fully wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered and published himself featuring 10 original songs and becoming one of the biggest selling independent releases since it was first released in 2015. Other songs on his album are now a roaring success including “Better Than A Dream” which is extremely popular as a first dance song at weddings.
Marty set up his own record label “Marty Mone Music” through which he also records, mixes and masters his own songs in his purpose built studio “The Plot Cottage Studio”. Marty also shoots and edits his own music videos.
to date, Marty has played CROKE PARK, SSE AREA BELFAST, THE LATE LATE SHOW, THE RTE ICMA AWARDS, THE PLOUGHING CHAMPIONSHIPS, BALMORAL SHOW, PETERBOROUGH TRUCK SHOW UK, HIGHLAND SHOW SCOTLAND and has performed on numerous local & national radio stations and TV Shows across Ireland.
Marty then released Slip the Clutch in Late 2015 and it followed in the success of Hit the Diff, Slip the Clutch is mainly about lorries and the events of trucking life which again Marty experiences daily.
Marty also recorded a new TV Ad with EUROSPAR which was quickly followed by a second TV advert for Christmas 2017. Marty’s original song “The Ploughing Song” was used for a TV Advert by RTE for the 2017 Ploughing Championships. To date Marty’s music channel “Marty Mone Music” has over 14 million views. Marty is now gigging all over Ireland and UK with his own band and playing on the same stage as some of Ireland and UK’s biggest stars.
Cliona Hagan, from Co. Tyrone, is a relative newcomer on the Irish Country Music Scene. She was awarded Female Vocalist of the Year at the prestigious Irish Post Country Music Awards (August 2017) and Sunday World Female Vocalist of the Year two years running (2017, 2018). She has also been the opening act at Aiken Promotions’ Harvest Country Music Festival and is looking forward to the release of her second Album later in the year.
Cliona regularly plays to her own packed audiences. She has also toured with some of the industries greats, including Philomena Begley and Nathan Carter.
The roll call of success for the multi-talented Irish man is long and much deserved – with two Irish number one albums, sell-out shows at home and abroad and fistfuls of music awards to his name.
It’s been a long road for the Garryhill, County Carlow born artist who first developed his life long love for music when his parents bought a drum kit one Christmas for a four-year-old Derek!
That childhood passion was further nurtured when his dad brought him to fleadh cheoils (Irish music festivals) with young Derek truly proving ‘I Got Rhythm’ – winning two All-Ireland titles in bodhran and ceili drumming.
Tunes from his mum’s favourite country music radio shows – with songs by favourites including Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and George Strait – also engrained themselves deeply in a young Derek’s heart.
It was pop which first drew a blond haired, fresh faced 17-year-old teenage Derek into the music business. He followed in the chart busting footsteps of Irish boybands, Boyzone and Westlife – as part of new Celtic teen pop phenomenon, D-Side in 2001. Managed by Kim Glover – the same woman responsible for Dublin born UK chart toppers, B*Witched and TV superstars, Ant & Dec’s singing years – Derek enjoyed three British Top Ten hits with D-Side.
The Irish pop pin-ups were also big in Japan – scoring a Number One single in the Land of the Rising Sun. But when the pop bubble burst, determined Derek picked himself up off and started following his Irish and American inspired country music dreams. Working as a solo artist from 2006, he spent three years honing his craft around the club and bar circuit in London while studying at the same time to be an accountant.
He returned to Ireland in 2009 with the intention of completing his course and exams in Carlow. But the pull of writing songs – rather than counting numbers on a spread sheet – proved more attractive and paid supreme dividends. Early self-validating songwriting success came in prestigious competitions such as A Song For Carlow and The International Song Of Peace. And when a song he had written in a bolt of creativity in his London bedsit in less than half an hour, God’s Plan became a 2010 smash hit in Ireland, it was D-Day for Derek’s career from then on!
Dozens of artists including evergreen multi-million selling star, Daniel O’Donnell underlined the industry wide admiration for Derek’s songwriting talents by recording versions of God’s Plan. Since then, with a combination of terrific talent, admirable determination and a continuous desire to do better, Derek’s career has kept on reaching progressively greater heights.
Balancing huge demand from dancehall and concert theatre audiences with his constant desire to create new music, Derek has released six best selling albums – A Mother’s Son (2010); Made Of Gold (2011); Dreamers And Believers (2012); Country Soul (2013) and two Irish Number One chart toppers – The Simple Things (2014) and One Good Night (2015),
Songs such as Welcome Home (The Gathering), Made Of Gold, A Mother’s Son, Life Is A River, Hold On To Your Hat, Flowers In Your Hair, Cry, Bendigo and 2016 Number One smash, Yoyo (You’re Only Young Once) emphasise Derek’s fantastic flair for self-written songs and touching the hearts AND feet of his fans!
He has won countless accolades including Entertainer Of The Year, Album Of The Year and Best Live Performer. But he is perhaps proudest of the award winning recognition for his songwriting abilities at the Sunday World and Irish Country Music Awards.
2016 continues to be all go for Derek, with his second UK tour of the year coming up and the release of his magnificent seventh and eighth album simultaneously, Happy Man and This is me in the offing.
Derek fulfilled a long cherished dream of recording in the USA last January working with Nashville producing ‘royalty’, Jeff Balding whose studio credits include Don Henley, Dolly Parton and Shania Twain. He collaborated too with a top notch team of musicians who play for superstars such as Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and Lady Antebellum.
After an ecstatically received Australian tour and Oz only compilation album, Let Me Introduce Myself in 2015, Derek’s dreams of major country music stardom look set to come true too outside Ireland. But the modest music man at the forefront of the new wave of young Irish country music stars, remains ever loyal to his fans.
Glaswegian, Lisa McHugh, was destined to be a country music star! With her parent’s love for the genre, she grew up listening to everything from Daniel O’Donnell to Alan Jackson. Her ambition to pursue a career in country music led her to Ireland at just 22 years of age.
She came to prominence after entering an Irish TV talent show Glór Tíre and it wasn’t long before her band was formed and she began touring the country. Now with a crew of 10 and a show that has scores of people dancing all night long, Lisa is certainly living the dream.
Declan was born in the heart of Ireland in Drumlish Co Longford, at a unique period of time in the music scene worldwide. A revolution in rock and pop brought us The Beatles, Elvis and the Rolling Stones, while here in Ireland the magnificent showband boom was about to explode.
A young man growing up at that time, Declan was being heavily influenced by these greats and indeed was getting the rare opportunity to see most of the top showbands appear in his native town of Drumlish. He would cajole his mother into seeing Joe Dolan, Big Tom, Philomena Begley, The Capital Showband, and many more perform when the appeared at the marquee at the end of May and early June. From his vantage point close to the stage, he would absorb every move made by the guitarist in the bands, watching his fingers slide along the strings, hoping that one day he might be up there performing just like Dan O’Hara or Seamus McMahon…
Nathan Carter is a sensation! In Ireland he outsold One Direction, Pharrell Williams and Michael Buble, becoming the first country act to reach number one in the Irish charts since Garth Brooks.
He is an exciting feature on the UK Country scene, and once again tops the Irish charts with his fifth album ‘Where I Wanna Be’ which features his unique blend of Celtic, country and pop! Not bad for the cherubic former head choir boy who sang for Pope John Paul ll in Rome.
Nathan was born on 28th May 1990, growing up in Liverpool. His family originates from Newry in County Down. He soon leaned to play the accordion with trips to Ireland to compete in Fleadh Ceoil beconing a regular feature of young Nathan’s life. By the age of 12, he won All Ireland medals for singing and playing the accordion.
Nathan soon became a member of the Liverpool Ceili band, playing accordion and piano, and performed solo pieces across Liverpool and Ireland.
On a trip to Donegal in 2009, Nathan was appearing in concert in Buncrana, where he met with songwriter John Farry. So impressed was Farry that representation soon followed and the rest, as they say, is history.
MIKE DENVER, known as “The Galway Boy”, is one of Ireland’s top entertainers, having this year celebrated 15 years in the entertainment industry.
Mike has recorded 14 albums and 4 DVDS to date. His latest album was released on 25th May 2018.
For the last quarter-century, singer Mary Black has been a dominant presence in Irish music, both at home and abroad. She has shared stages, TV shows and recording studios with some of the most revered performers of her time. She has also played a frontline role in bringing Irish music, past and present, to an increasingly appreciative and ever-growing global audience. The San Francisco Chronicle has described her as "One of the best interpretative singers around".
Castledermot-man, Michael English is one of Ireland’s top Country singers. Coming from a musical family, Michael began studying the piano formally at age 9 at the Hennessy School of Music in Carlow. At age 11, he appeared on Gay Byrne's The Late Late Show. He continued his musical studies the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin before launching an Irish country music career. Henry McMahon of The Mainliners offered him one of his own compositions, "The Nearest to Perfect" that became a hit for English in 1999. Signing a contract with Ritz Records, English won Best International Entertainer at the Irish National Entertainers Awards ceremony in both 2004 and 2005. He went on to record a number of albums and a number of hit single hits with Dolphin Roscas Recordings.
Well we had 10 sacks of rice, a container of beans, all our money in silver and gold and not a shaggin’ thing happened. All the greedy promoters lost a packet on their rip off gigs and the hungry hoors of publicans who put on big cover charges got their tight arses burnt. Y2K me bollix.
Into 2000 and I did not one gig all year. It was all book stuff. Finishing off ‘One Voice’. Corrections, re-writes, photos, proof reading, it was all new and kinda’ exciting. Did book signings all over Ireland and also in London. Good fun.
Had a few weird experiences in London. Lunch with The Financial Times was quite superb.Began talking to Declan Sinnot about playing some songs. Then we played at his 50th party and Donal joined in. Then all Decky’s gear got robbed and Donal and I did a benefit (The Stolen Guitars Gig) and Decky joined in and we had a great gig on Wednesday 30th August 2000. Next thing we were recording ‘This Is The Day’ in Kilkenny in January 2001 and we decided to do some gigs on the back of that. These got recorded and are released as ‘Live At Vicar St.’ I’m back in front of the lamps and it feels good, so lets see where we go from here.
Talk Soon,
Christy
Jimmy’s career is going from strength to strength. He is destined to be a huge star. He is already one of the top entertainers in Ireland, and his ambition is to conquer the English Country Market, not ruling out Europe. Following numerous visits across the water to England, Jimmy is building up a large fan base and his concerts and dances are always sold out. When he finishes one tour, he is inundated with requests for details of his next.
Jimmy first came to the attention of the Birmingham Audiences when he appeared on Bob Brolly’s Big Charity Show, in the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on Sunday 22nd June 2003. Since that first appearance Jimmy’s star has certainly continued to rise.
Absolute Irish is Ireland’s newest radio station playing non-stop Country and Irish music.
Reflecting the massive popularity of Irish country music, ‘Absolute Irish' will broadcast from its base in Waterford 24 hours per day, seven days a week.
Irish country music is huge and continues to sell out venues across Ireland.
It is now a massive industry with growing followers, young and old, and will – no doubt – be very well received by music fans.
With dedicated shows on most local radio stations across Ireland, Absolute Irish no doubt whet the appetite of Country and Irish music fans across Ireland.
Absolute Irish Radio is playlisted to showcase the new and popular Country artists while playing the classic Irish songs that we all grew up listening to.
