The Queens of Country show 2008 featuring five fantastic female performers was a huge success.
JW Promotions have just released the 2009 tour dates This show will have Billie Jo Spears, Jeannie Seely, Philomena Begley, Louise Morrissey and Dee Reilly.
Thursday 26th February – The Helix Theatre, Dublin
Box Office – 003537007000
Saturday 7th March – St Josephs Hall, Omagh
Contact Tommy – 07753936701
Sunday 8th March – TF Royal Theatre, Castlebar
Box Office – 00353818300000
Ticket information to be announced.
BILLIE JO SPEARS
Billie Jo Spears landed a few big country hits during the '70s, thanks to a sultry, bluesy voice that made her a perfect torch balladeer; while she never quite edged her way into stardom in the U.S., she earned a devoted following in Great Britain and toured there frequently.
Spears was born in Beaumont, TX, in 1937 and made her professional debut at age 13 in an all-star country concert in Houston; not long after, she recorded the single "Too Old for Toys, Too Young for Boys" as Billie Joe Moore for Abbott Records.
After high school, she sang in nightclubs and looked for a record deal, recording some demos with producer Pete Drake. She got a contract with United Artists in 1964 and moved to Nashville, where she worked with producer Kelso Herston.
Her initial singles fared poorly, and when Herston moved to Capitol two years later, Spears followed. Success continued to elude her until 1969, when "Mr. Walker, It's All Over" climbed into the country Top Five. She charted several more times through 1972 but was forced to have surgery on her vocal cords twice over the next two years in order to remove nodules and polyps that could have robbed her of her voice entirely.
Spears made a full recovery, however, and returned to United Artists in 1975. She scored her first number one hit with the sensual "Blanket on the Ground" that year, and two of her 1976 singles -- "Misty Blue" and "What I've Got in Mind" -- reached the Top Five. She had several other minor hits that year and also cut an album of duets with Del Reeves. "If You Want Me" made the Top Ten in 1977, the last time Spears would visit that territory; several more singles reached the Top 20 by decade's end, but songs like "'57 Chevrolet" and "Lonely Hearts Club" were much bigger hits in Britain, and Spears began to devote more of her touring attention to the overseas market.
Her last Top 20 single was 1981's "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," after which she and United Artists parted ways. Spears recorded sporadically for independent labels, usually based in the U.K. or Ireland, during the '80s and early '90s. She recovered from triple bypass surgery in 1993 and continued to tour, travelling regularly to the U.K. to perform for a still-affectionate fan base. (Written by Steve Huey)
On the night of September 16, 1967, Jeannie Seely marked an important milestone in her music career by joining the world-famous Grand Ole Opry. The distinctive-voiced lady referred to as “Miss Country Soul” became the first – and to date, the only – Pennsylvania native to become an Opry member.
Today Jeannie makes clear that it's still a thrill and an honour each time she performs on the Opry stage. "I feel very fortunate to be part of the Opry tradition," the Grammy-winning singer says, "and I truly am indebted to all the wonderful fans who have supported me over the years.”
Jeannie Seely is among a select group of country artists who have scored No. 1 hits as a solo artist, as a duet partner, and as a songwriter.
Born on July 6, 1940, in Titusville, Pennsylvania – the town where the world’s very first oil well was drilled in 1859 – Jeannie grew up as the youngest of Leo and Irene Seely's four children. The family's two-story farmhouse still stands along a dirt road outside of nearby Townville, a community of about 300 folks located in the north-western corner of the state.
Jeannie's interest in music was influenced strongly by her parents. Leo Seely worked hard on the family's farm and at a Titusville steel mill, but found time on weekends to play the banjo and call local square dances. Irene Seely would sing with her daughter every Saturday morning while the two baked bread together.
“I grew up in a time when all the neighbours gathered together to help each other get the hay in and that kind of thing,” recalls Jeannie. “It seemed like everybody back in the country played guitars and fiddles, and when we got together there was always pickin’ and singin’.”
Jeannie is in fact credited for breaking the "calico curtain" by being the first woman to wear a mini-skirt on the Grand Ole Opry stage. "I really didn't think anything of it at the time, but it did cause quite a stir," she laughs. "The Opry manager even called me into his office."
During the late 80's Jeannie starred in several major stage productions. She played Jean Shepard’s daughter and Lorrie Morgan’s mother in the 1986 country musical called Takin' It Home. In 1988 she portrayed "Miss Mona" in a sold-out run of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and the following year took a non-musical role as the title character in Everybody Loves Opal.
In 1988 Jeannie published her own book, Pieces of a Puzzled Mind, containing a collection of Jeannie's unique witticisms. Also known as "Seely-isms" around Nashville, Jeannie notes that many of the sayings actually began as song titles or opening lines.
Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Jeannie appeared frequently on shows like “Nashville Now”, “Crook and Chase”, “Music City Tonight”, “Grand Ole Opry Live”, “You Can Be A Star”, “Family Feud”, and “Prime Time Country”. She served as a regular host of “Opry Backstage”, interviewing everyone from new and upcoming acts to superstars like Garth Brooks.
In the fall of 2003 Jeannie released her own acoustic and bluegrass project on OMS Records titled Life’s Highway. The album features musicians Josh Graves, Glen Duncan, Steve Wariner, Jesse McReynolds, and Buck White – as well as harmony vocals from Charlie Louvin, the Osborne Brothers, and the Whites.
Country Weekly magazine reviewed the CD and wrote, “Life’s Highway is one of the year’s most welcome surprises – a thoughtful, inventive acoustic winner that’s a much needed slap in the face for anyone who might have forgotten how Jeannie earned her gig as one of the friendliest faces on the Grand Ole Opry.
Some photographs from past shows.
PHILOMENA BEGLEY
Country Queen for Forty Five Years.
“I would have to say that life in show business is certainly a lot harder now than it was at the start of my career”, says Ireland’s undisputed ‘Queen of Country Music’ Philomena Begley as she embarks on a special tour to celebrate 45 years in the music business ably supported by her son Aidy Quinn and his six piece Band.
However she added “I still wouldn’t like to give it up. It’s in the blood and I’m enjoying my work a lot better now than when I started out”.
Born in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone Philomena started singing at a very early age in The Old Cross Ceili Band, later fronting The Rambling Men. She has appeared in most prestigious theatres and venues throughout the world including Carnegie Hall, New York, Wembley Festival, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sydney, Australia to mention a few. She also performed many times at The Grand Old Opry in Nashville following an invitation from her good friend Porter Wagoner in 1978. Philomena is now busier than ever appearing at music festival weeks and weekends throughout the world including Spain, Portugal, New York, South Africa and The Caribbean.
Philomena always turns in a top quality performance that reveals why there’s no arguing her status as Queen of Country Music. As Daniel O’Donnell, a long time friend and fan once said “When Philomena sings a song you believe her, you feel that she’s experienced every emotion she expresses. That’s a unique gift for a singer and certainly one of the qualities that has kept her at the top of the ladder over the years.
Having recorded 25 albums and numerous singles, the first of which was a song entitled ‘My Little Son’ Philomena Begley has graced the charts many times over the years. Prism Records recently released three double albums featuring 40 of Philomena’s best-known songs on each double collection.
Louise Morrissey has long been one of Ireland's best loved singers and entertainers.
She has achieved great success in both Ireland and the UK, and has brought her easy style of country and folk to many other countries, including the USA, Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
She has toured the UK with Charlie Pride, Foster & Allen, and Dominic Kirwan.
Louise and her band visited the Lebanon in 1994, where they entertained the Irish UN Peacekeeping troops.
Louise is the second youngest of her family of six. She has two sisters and three brothers. She was born and raised in Bansha, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
Louise's career began at the age of fourteen with her brothers Billy and Norman, as part of the Morrissey's folk group. They regularly toured Ireland, the UK, and Canada. Their hit songs included "The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill" and "Sweet Forget-Me-Not".
Dee Reilly will join the Queens Of Country tour for 2009
Deirdre Reilly beautifully personifies the dramatic influence that Irish music has had on today’s American Country scene. Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts to a mother from County Cork and a father from County Mayo, Ireland, Deirdre began performing at age five. As a teenager she sang with her step-father’s show band and traveled around New England and parts of New York with her own band. Deirdre’s talents were revealed on a national level at age eighteen when she toured the United States with Paddy Noonan’s Irish Variety Show. In 1989 Deirdre auditioned at the Berkeley School Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts for talent scouts from the Opryland Show Park in Nashville, Tennessee.
After hearing Deirdre sing, there was little deliberation among the scouts about offering her a contract to perform in their most popular show “COUNTRY MUSIC USA” for the coming summer season. Deirdre eagerly accepted that contract and was well on her way to exploring a world of music that she innately was destined to pursue. That summer led to three consecutive seasons at Opryland Show Park where she quickly began to open many doors in the music industry.
In-between her stints at Opryland, Deirdre continued to work the Irish scene in the United States and exposed herself to an ever growing audience that shared her musical tastes. “I have always maintained that the roots of Country music are Irish and it would only stand toThe Much Anticipated Single is here!!!...."The Sixteenth of May"....To order, email DeirdreReilly1@aol.comreason that Irish audiences would embrace Country music the same way that I do. My story is not complicated. I was born in America to Irish parents who love Country music. I grew up in a house full of music. At that time the most popular music among the age group of my parents who are immigrants from Ireland was the music of Hank Williams Sr., Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Johnny Horton, Lorreta Lynn, Patsy Cline…and the list goes on…With their newThat was the genre of “popular” music that they as teenagers grew up with in Ireland and then came to share with so many of their Irish and American friends when they moved here. My parents, being away from home… so many miles away from their home, began to embrace again the music that they grew up with-the music that was so much a part of who they are-and that was Irish traditional music. found appreciation for Irish traditional music and their deep passion for Country music I, unknowingly benefited from their experiences, their musical journeys and their love for both Irish and Country music. I have so much to be thankful for!” (Deirdre Reilly)
Deirdre Reilly’s warm, engaging style, powerful voice and dynamic stage presence have made her one of the top entertainers in Irish music today. With fans from Los Angeles to Dublin, Deirdre is a hit with audiences of all ages no matter where she goes. “Deirdre’s love of what she does shows all through her process of being a professional musician. She is totally professional on stage and off, always exuding that “star quality” she was born with, always totally prepared and always willing to take the time to meet her fans even after the most demanding concerts.” (quote from former manager Fred Kewley-Nashville, Tennessee)
Deirdre Reilly has four albums to her credit: “The Patriot Game”, “A Country Collection”, “A Toast To The Irish Colleens” and her latest release “Unpredictable Stuff”. Deirdre’s new release contains mostly original material hand selected by Deirdre herself. And since the release of the album in November 2000, it is already gaining international attention. She was recently quoted as saying, “While I am very proud of all of my recordings to date my favorite is my latest release “Unpredictable Stuff”!”
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