COMMENT: enduring appeal of country music is baffling

IF ALIENS were to land in Ireland and only had access to RTÉ, what on earth would they have made of the recent country music special on the world’s longest running chat show?

Just when I thought ‘The Late Late Show’ couldn’t get any worse, the guest list on this particular night was the stuff of nightmares – mine, anyway. No disrespect intended to the individual performers, of course, as they obviously have a diehard, dedicated following and talent to boot. 

Who the hell am I to begrudge them their popularity and success?

As readers of this column will have previously noted, I almost joined the Croke Park residents in their objections to the Garth Brooks concerts in 2014 – but for very different reasons to them. 

My mission was to save the world – well, Dublin at least – from being flooded by a deluge of Stetson wearing country music fans from beyond the Pale. In a blatant case of musical NIMBYism, my aim was to retain Croker’s status as a cultural icon; the spiritual home of our national sport and occasional venue for some decent rock concerts over the years (U2, The Police, Simple Minds etc).

Clearly, though, I am in the minority and RTÉ will have been well happy with the ratings for ‘The Late Late’ country and western special – a staggering 707,000 tuned in!

I can’t quite put my finger on what I dislike most about this particular genre. It just makes my ears bleed. I have described it – perhaps snobbishly and unfairly – as “music for people who don’t like music”.

I heard a great comment last week, suggesting that if you played a country and western record backwards, you got your dog back, your woman back and it cured your alcoholism. 

While the enduring appeal of country music in Ireland continues to baffle me, it’s hard to criticise the recent ‘Late Late’ special given the massive audience figures it attracted.

That said, I still have my ‘Down With That Sort of Thing’ placard in the shed in case Mr Brooks ever plans another comeback spectacular in our fair city. We need to remain vigilant, that’s all I’m saying.

t.mccullagh@dublinpeople.com