 out not so long ago called the Arkansas Farm Boy and Karen just joins me live now from the tlandrae where he was gigging the night. Karen, you're very welcome indeed to the station. Tommy, thanks for having me on. No crack. What's the crack? How kind of a night had you tonight? We had a good night. Yeah, there's some great great dancers up around here, that's for sure. Yeah, come here. You seem to be very busy these days. I'd be seeing you. You put up a lot of posts on Facebook. You seem to be kept going anywhere. Yeah, well, definitely we're busy on social media. We're putting up our posters where we are and what we're doing and yeah, we're opening up actually a few new dance venues. One in the Longford Arms and one down in the Longford Arms is one and the other one is down in Meade, the Ashburn Hotel, yeah. And so we're opening up them in this month as well. They're going back doing the dances as well. So that's great, you know, it's great because it keeps the bands busy, you know. Yeah, and apart from gigging yourself, have you been touring with the family as well, Stephen and them? I know that was been great. We've done it, started doing concert tours and we've done the first turn of them and yeah, my brother Steve and his very talented wife Helen and their kids is very, very talented, you know, so Mark is a great fiddle player and Luke plays the banjo, five string banjo and Jade plays a double bass and yeah, it's after going down a storm, you know, and we're very lucky that it's going well and we're looking forward to doing a few more now, you know. And Camille, last year you did the country doing the Glen Campbell show, didn't you? That was very good and you had a good program there. Yeah, well we're doing it. I'm still doing that as part of the overall concert. I designate a certain section of the show where I do the maybe five or six or seven of Glen Campbell songs and then actually my mum and dad do a special guest appearance as well and sing a little number for us. So it's very much a family affair. Yeah, and I believe, I don't know if it's past yet or if you've done it yet, but I've seen you advertise, you were to come to do a weekend in the Abbey Hotel in Donegal. Has that happened yet or is it? Yeah, that happened and it was a good success thank God. The Abbey is a great spot for country as is the is the Allingham in Bondorn. We're there actually, Tommy, next Saturday night we're in the Allingham Arms in Bondorn and we're looking forward to returning there. So yeah, look at Donegal, it's a great county for it and we're delighted to be up here and playing and being part of the whole music scene up here. Now, for any of our listeners who don't know, before you got into the music business, you were actually a guitar teacher, wasn't it? Now, when did you make the decision to go full-time into the music? Well, it's you know, 2012 actually, you know. I decided I was full-time teaching guitar. I used to teach guitar in a number of the universities around Ireland, Maneuth University and St. Pat's Drum, Condra and then in Dundalk Institute of Technology there as well and I loved it very much but I didn't get much time to play, you know. So I decided I'd give that a little break and go full-time and that was in 2012. So I started recording then and started I brought out Willie's Shoes which was a big success for me and I was able to finish off the first album and I just kept going on from there. I started out as a one-man show and then after in 2018 I launched the full band and we were going full steam ahead before the COVID hit and that hit us hard because we were just about after climbing the hill and so that stopped us in our tracks. But thankfully we're back out again now and you know we have a great team of people. I mean I have great musicians with me, Tommy. I have Charlie Arkins on the fiddle and Billy Burgoyne on drums and very important part of the band, you know. And Eugene Mackamullan who's a brilliant keyboard player, he's on the keys and I have a sound, a very good team with me. You know I have great sound men as well as Speedy Farrell is doing the sound and Ryan Murta as well from Castle Blaney and yeah look at we're working hard like if there's nothing simple out there we are working hard and but we're enjoying it. I love it you know. I love every aspect of it. I love the hard nights and I love the good nights. Yeah that was that was going to be my next question about I met you just before you went on stage tonight and the lineup you have in your band is great but it's funny. I remember when you started out first and I got your music at the beginning a lot of people were asking me was I related to you was I your father at once imagine I'm thinking I was old enough to be your father and bloody shaking them honest to God and you got into the song writing as well. Yeah I tried to bring maybe one or two of my own songs into each album that I bring out. So it doesn't mean I'm not writing songs every day but sometimes a little line or something might pop into my head and I'll go away and write the song and that and back in my heart once again was a song that I wrote and it was the title track of my last album and that seemed to go down really well it was very popular still is we every night we played as part of our dance gig as well and so yeah look at it's great to be able to write a song and put it together and that and I enjoy that part of the the whole creative process as well but but it's sometimes you know you're right but crap as well but you know you take the good ones and the bad ones but yeah look I was actually out cutting the lawn there the other day and I a line of a song came to my head and I decided to stop cutting the lawn and go inside and put a bit of a song together so that kind of a thing but um look and I enjoy music I always have played and played music all my life you know me and my brother Steve played for many years as a two-piece band all around the midlands in Ireland and and then we had a four-piece band and you know so I've been very fortunate to be involved in music all my life I really wouldn't know what to be doing otherwise you know during the COVID I had to take up I did a bit of driving I did it I did a few I was driving a bus a local Lynx bus which was great you know but it started going but you know it just wasn't me you know I I'm a musician and so I'm so thankful to be back out playing music you know it's good and hopefully things will get stronger and stronger now as the time goes on yeah it seems to have that the Irish circuit seems to have come on well now and Glor chair has been very good you were mentoring young Ailish McBride as well wasn't you yeah that's right and she made black as well was on it yeah and um yeah no we really enjoyed that I have to say it's a great opportunity to get get your act together because it's it's going on live tv as well and that so um and I enjoy meeting new singers coming up and long and trying to help them along and it's a great opportunity for them as well as as well as the bands you know the bands get to play some songs and some songs that they might not always get to play at the gigs you know so um I definitely and they've been very good to me I have to say the people on the Lord Shearer have been very good to me and my music over over the years and are you heading back to Monah and tonight we're heading back home I'm actually teaching a bit of guitar still you know I'm teaching in the Cavern Institute on a Tuesday and I enjoy that you know Tommy it's a kind of a break from the live stuff and and I do meet I'm teaching in a kind of a group and I get to meet new people you know and um it's it's a kind of a relief and a release for me so I do that as well and then I try and prepare I'm constantly going you know I'm constantly if I'm thinking of the next song or thinking of the next recording I'm working in the studio as well at the minute on a new song which I hope to have out in the next few weeks please god um so yeah I look at them I was working ahead on on the next project you know yeah you were just mentioning about teaching the guitar it was up in Dury on Thursday night uh Tommy Emanuel yeah one of them what what a musician but he couldn't do with the guitar honest to god it was brilliant ah he's brilliant he's a genius like yeah yeah he really is like a six string uh guitar he's he's the master really like you know um I was very lucky to have have master classes with with Tommy when I was um when I was I was did my masters in classical guitar yeah and John Feely was my teacher and um we had a few master classes with people like actually John Williams and and we're very lucky to have some very top guitar players I got I got a chance to play for them and I remember Tommy Emanuel came in to the college one time and um we played for her she was unbelievable you know just incredible talent like you know come here I have to let you go I have to take the news in the air but thanks very much for coming up we're going to play that song you mentioned uh just after the news but thanks for coming up uh thanks for having me Tommy and all the all the presenters here for playing my music thanks so much