No pride like Charley

It's country music, Jim, but not as we know it. Rather, it's how it used to be, before the onset of big hats, outlaws, Dollywood, Garth Brooks, Uncle Tupelo and The Handsome Family.

Charley tells us that his backing band, The Pridemen, are seasoned US country musicians. That's the good news. The bad news is that there's not a pulse among them, the music drips out in surreal, muggy drops. It's music that was loved by parents and children of the 1950s, a blueprint for the much derided and dreaded country 'n' Irish. As such, it's patently dull.

Yet, with a sold-out, 14-date Irish tour (something that, say, Dwight Yoakam might not even contemplate, let alone achieve), it's obvious that Pride is talking to someone other than latter day country music acolytes. His easy going, occasionally quite charming manner and his smooth-as-honey voice raise the level of the concert beyond the merely serviceable. The songs, which included Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?, Crystal Chandelier and Does my Ring Hurt your Finger? traverse an immensely successful 40-year career and by the evening's end the audience are up on their feet crying for more. If only the band had let rip now and again. Or, indeed, at all.

Charley Pride plays the Hazel Hotel, Monasterevin tonight; the Waterfront Hotel, Belfast, on Saturday and Sunday; and his Irish tour continues until March 19th. Details on concert website: www.aikenpromotions.ie