 That is the answer to everything taken from Nathan Carter's brand new album, The Album is Called. A little old town and here to tell us all about it is the man himself, Nathan. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, David. How's things? Not doing too bad, Nathan. Always great to chat you on the programme and you're very welcome. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's lovely to be back on Highlands. Thanks for playing a track from the new album there. And that particular track, The Answer to Everything, of course, we're all kind of Joe Dolan fans in the Irish country music industry and indeed in the Irish music industry itself. But you are a massive fan of him as well and you got the chance to record that and you were also doing a documentary for him recently. Yeah, I did a programme for RTE which was called Shoulders of Giants and my episode was all about looking back at one of my favourite singers from the past, which growing up in our house, Joe Dolan was a huge singer and someone that we all admired, loved his songs. So it was a real treat for me to go back and meet some of his family, some of the band members and I did that on the show. If anyone tuned in, they would have seen it. It was only 20, 24, 25 minutes long, but it was a really interesting, for me anyway, it was very interesting to look back at his history and the amount of hits he'd had and his gigs that were obviously just known and synonymous with Joe, as everyone says at the time, there's no show like a Joe show and there definitely wasn't. So it was nice to look back and I recorded that song really. It was my Nan's favourite song of all time, the answer to everything. So she's been on at me for years to record it. So I eventually got to record it on this album and hopefully people like it. Yeah, well it's turned out great and I've been having a little listen to the album over the last couple of days. It's great and I suppose the time that you've got to be away from touring and away from the stage all the time, you've been able to do a little bit more writing. Yeah, I co-wrote seven of the tracks on this new album. I was living with my brother Jake in the middle of lockdown. So rather than fighting with each other, we decided to start writing songs together. So we co-wrote three of the tracks, the title track being Little Old Town. There's another one called Glory Days and a ballad on it as well. Wrote a couple of songs with John Farry and a couple with a few American songwriters as well. We did a couple of songs off the album. So as well as that, we did a few covers as well like the answer. My latest single, which is actually an old John Pryne number called You Got Gold, which your good self has been playing a lot on Highland, which has been great to hear and people seem to be enjoying that. So it's a mixture of covers and new songs on this new album. Only released last Friday actually and it will have been out a week tomorrow. So we managed to eventually get some physical CDs because we were really struggling to get actual albums into the shops. But thankfully, Sharp Music managed to get them into Tesco's and all the local record shops. I know there's one in Donegal Town there as well, which our good friend up there. I think it's Eugene. He's been Eugene Gallon. Yeah. So so yeah, it's going to be in all the local shops. And hopefully if anyone wants to go out and grab a copy, they'll be able to do so from from today. Well, the album is great and I'm sure it's been very well received so far. And I kind of have to apologize to you because about two about two months ago, you sent me the little old town track and he says, what do you think of this? And I says, oh, that's grand song. But in fairness, now it's really grown on me and I absolutely love it now. Yeah. I remember sending you at the time and I didn't tell you who wrote it and the fact that it was B and Jake. And then you said, oh, yeah, it's all right. But I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't think it's a single now. To be honest, this is all right, fair enough. I'll go with something else then. So maybe you did me a favor anyway, because you got gold ended up getting more plays than anything else I've released in years, you know. So I've been I've been lucky enough with that one. People seem to be seem to be liking it. And I guess the fact that John Prine has recently passed away. And I'm sure he was a huge musical influence to you as well and indeed to us all. Yeah, well, I wouldn't really have known much of John's stuff. John Prine's stuff through the years, only when he passed away there, like in the last 12 months that I started looking up YouTube sitting there at night, looking up songs and stuff that I could maybe consider recording. And I came across, you got gold. And I instantly instantly I said, I've heard this before, but it wasn't from John Prine. Yeah. And then I remembered the Foster and Arlen had recorded it years and years ago. I remember listening to it when I was about six years old on a cassette tape. You probably don't know what they are, David. To be honest, they're an old thing, a square thing that used to put in in a car, you know, and then we got CDs eventually. But yeah, I remember listening to Foster and Arlen singing that song all those years ago. You're making me feel very old now. A square thing, a piece of bread. Now, Nathan, you have a big show. It's not just like a piece of bread. You have a big show coming up in January in Letter Kenny. It's Saturday, the 22nd of January. Tell us all about it. Yeah, delighted to be coming back to Donnie Goal. It's one of the very rare occasions I get to play in Donnie Goal, to be honest. It's going to have been over two and a half years since we were there. So we're going to come back to Letter Kenny, 22nd of January, which is a Saturday night. And it's going to be a concert with myself, your good self and a couple of special guests as well that are going to be there on the night. And looking forward to coming back. I think it's been so long since we've been able to perform in Donnie Goal and tickets are now on sale for that particular gig. It's going to be a new show that we're we're putting out in the new year. A lot of tracks from this new album. Yeah, I'm featuring some of the stuff which has been successful over the years, you know. So as I say, tickets now on sale from Hotel Reception. And you can check out my website for any more details. That's Saturday, the 22nd of January in the Mount Erigal Hotel. I'm going to be there. Nathan Carter is going to be there and a few more special guests as well. Nathan, I think it's worth mentioning because there is a guy from Donnie Goal, a good friend of mine called Matthew Cramsey. And he is part of a new venture, which has which is the brainchild of yours. Yeah, so around about six months ago, I did run auditions to put together a new folk band, a young folk band. That's, you know, for years, I've been going into pubs and seeing young, extremely talented musicians singing old folk songs and this seems to have been a bit of a revival like there was in the country scene, you know, five, six, seven years ago. I could see that happening in the folk scene and young kids coming out singing grace and Caledonia and Fields of Athenry and all these old songs. So I said, it'd be great to find a load of these really talented young musicians, put them together and see, can we give them a chance and give them a few gigs and see where it takes us? So we did and Matthew is one of the lead vocalists in the group. He's an extremely, extremely talented young man, a fantastic songwriter. And I suppose how could he not be with his dad being shirney? You know, he comes from great stock and he's an amazing singer. I actually heard him in Oma playing one night in the Copa Tap. I was on a stag do and Matthew entertain those all night. He was one of the best entertainers I've come across. So he's part of the band. There's five young lads ranging from 20 years old to 26. They're all multi-instrumentalists and fantastic singers. And if anyone wants to check out the stuff, the band is called Keol, which is obviously Irish for music, C-E-O-L. Go and check them out on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook now and see what they're doing. Well, there you go. Nathan, lots of people want to send in their hallows and I want to wish Keol all the very best as well, in particular. Matthew, a great guy and good friend of mine as well. But lots of people want to say hello. Michael O'Sullivan wants to say hello. Norma Lawson, Neve McCusker's in there, Mary Ferry, Barry Kinney. He's always in there, Barry. He's from, I think, Wexford. Also, we have Helen in there, Frank Gammer. Thanks very much, everyone who's writing in. Yeah, long time, no see. And hopefully we'll get to see some of the folks at some gigs up ahead, please, God. Nathan, just before we let you go, what's the plans for Christmas? How are you going to be spending it this year? I'm actually going back to Liverpool to see my mum and dad and me and Alan Granddad this year, just for a couple of days. And I'll be eating too much food and drinking too much drink, as usual. And slobbering out on the couch, watching as much rubbish as possible. Thankfully, we've got a few gigs when we come back from Christmas. We're going to be in a castle bar in the TF and down in the INEC. And then we start our tour in January as well. So looking forward to it. It's a funny time of year. There's people no longer with us that should be there at the table. But, you know, like every family, it's it's sad, but it's it can be happy at the same time, hopefully as well, you know. Yeah. And of course, that show is coming to letter Kenny on Saturday, the 22nd of January, and that is in the Mount Errigal Hotel. Nathan Carter and Ban plus a special guest, Nathan, we want to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best with the album. If you had to pick a favourite song off it, what would you say it would be? We're kind of losing them there. He's in and out. And probably my favourite song on the album is called The Returning, which is written by a friend of mine called Don Steff. A great go away musician, sing a song. Have you got us? That is Nathan Carter. We're going to try and get him back in the next couple of minutes. But in the meantime, we're going to take another track from his album. And this is the title track called Little Old Town.