Crystal promises a great show for Killarney audience
Wednesday March 10 2010
MUSIC legend Crystal Gayle has seen it all, what with a Grammy, several CMAs and a number of gold and platinum hit records, yet the Nashville resident says she looks forward to the simple comforts, like a pint of Guinness.
Performing in Killarney this Friday night, the raven haired star famed for songs like 'Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue' and 'Talking In Your Sleep' will take time out after the show to meet friends and fans and sample a pint of the black stuff.
"One of the highlights of touring is to get to meet up with people I haven't seen for a long time and get to do a few things like having a Guinness," she says ahead of the INEC show.
Playing just three dates in Ireland, Gayle will also travel to Castlebar and the Helix in Dublin but has left a few extra days on her travel itinerary to sample the local delights and will meet up with long term friend Philip Donnelly – The Clontarf Cowboy – who has written several songs for her. It's not her first time on these shores though.
"I started coming over to Ireland years ago but after I had my first child I didn't do as much travelling. I was there three years ago, though, and so I'm excited to get back over."
On that occasion she played the likes of Sligo's Yeats Country Music Festival and says it's the smaller venues that she looks forward to these days.
"It's nice to get back to these types of venues as they are more intimate. People feed better off you as they're more a part of the show."
She has come a long way from her roots in the Appalachian coal mining town of Paintsville, Kentucky. The youngest of eight children, Crystal was influenced by a wide variety of music growing up.
Having performed with the likes of Johnny Cash, Tex Ritter, Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson and, of course, her sister Loretta Lyne whose story was highlighted in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Gayle was only a country and western star. She says she has a much broader range than that
"I really just like to call myself a singer. Music is more 'countrier' now than when I first started as it was more pop then. I never really cared for labels anyway and I listen to anything from folk, pop, rock and roll to gospel and country "
She has almost three dozen hit records to her credit including the likes of 'If You Ever Change Your Mind', 'The Woman In Me' and 'Livin' In These Troubled Times', so just what can Kerry expect when she takes to the stage with her long term band which includes sister Peggy Sue?
"I just have a good time on stage. There'll be some new things but we really want to bring a bit of laughter and smiles. People don't want to be preached at."
Crystal Gayle performs in the INEC on Friday, March 12.
- KEVIN HUGHES
