After a sell out concert at the Mount Wolseley last year followed by his most successful year in his career to date Carlow’s biggest music export Derek Ryan is coming home on 2nd August 2014 to play The Woodford Dolmen Hotel.
It’s all happening for Derek Ryan at the moment, just last month he appeared on RTE’s ‘Late Late Show’ and TV3’s ‘Morning AM’ as well as across Radio shows in Ireland and the UK. From hosting his annual weekend in Donegal earlier this year to having just recorded a brand new single “Hold On to Your Hat” with Irish icon Sharon Shannon as well as completing a UK tour and performing in the prestigious Olympia Theatre in Dublin last week he is in fine form and ready to give you a show to remember.
Derek Ryan’s rise to stardom on the country scene has been phenomenal and there are few country stars who can claim to have made such an impact in just over three years. Not only has Derek’s concert tour sold out in venues across the country, he has also swept the board at award nights this year receiving ‘Best Live Performer of the Year’ from the Sunday World and was also honoured to be awarded with ‘Album of The Year’ for his fantastic fourth album, Country Soul, by Irish Country Sound. His success has not stopped here with his DVD “The Entertainer”, making it in to the UK iTunes country charts in the first week of its release, and number seven in the Irish charts with heavy competition!
Sharon Shannon, well known for her many different musical collaborations ranging from Shane Mac Gowan of The Pogues to Imelda May, not to forget her number one hit “Galway Girl” with Steve Earle. Together they made for the perfect musical blend with Derek’s self penned new single ‘Hold On to Your Hat’. With a recent video filmed in Co. Clare, Derek seems to be much more than a country singer / songwriter, it appears that this new self penned song is having an influence on style with many fans coming to gigs ‘holding on to their hats’
Speaking of his new single, Sunday World’s “Performer of the Year” said: “I can’t believe I’ve released a song with the one and only Sharon Shannon! I’ve always listened to her music. She’s worked with some fantastic artists over the years, and she is working with me – it’s unbelievable!
With his new album set for release in August and plans to take his tour to Australia in September, Derek is taking the opportunity to return to his native county Carlow to where it all began. The Woodford Dolmen Hotel is the place to be on 2nd August doors open at 8.30pm so hold on to your hats and get yourselves there.