We love all music genres but particularly Country. Our team grew up with music and between us we have over 120 years of listening to and singing everything from Pop to Classical.
Our station is looking for lively music and also really good slow music that fits broadly within the genre, but we will also add music that may not be strictly country but sung by a country artist and particularly Irish artists who perform both in Ireland and further afield. We promote good new artists and music from here in Ireland and abroad. As a licensed station we are putting our money where it will support the Irish music Industry.
The first thing we look for is a good confident performance. In X Factor terms
"The artist owns the song". Secondly it needs to be a good well written song and preferably has a cool catchy lyric. While that's not particularly necessary it helps.
Confidence is key to the overall sound but the backing also has to both suit the song and blend with the voice so that the voice is not lost in all the backing, unless the overall sound is aimed at mixing vocals and instruments for overall effect. The recording should be normalised to 0 db if possible.
A good arrangement can make a song fly. It need not be costly if everything else is right. Eva Cassidy Fields of Gold https://youtu.be/9UVjjcOUJLE A perfect example where the song and voice need nothing more to back then than a guitar.
One thing established artists have is the money to have a solid backing band/orchestra which is a big advantage but not necessarily the over riding factor in a a song's success.
If the song is slow it needs to have superb lyrics and empathy in the vocals. Phrasing is important. A beautiful example is the Patsy Cline number Crazy redone by Mickey Guyton
If you are listening to music which is an emotional experience in itself on certain songs if the singer can convey that emotion they will have the listener hooked from day one, especially if the song strikes a chord with those listening. George Jones is a perfect example. https://youtu.be/1is8Q_1si8Q
Finally the artist must be proficient. No matter how good the song is, if the singer is flat, does not hold the note, it will take away totally from the performance.
Please send your Country/ Irish songs to us, and we will guarantee you to play the best we encounter. We are not infallible just people who love music.
Good Luck.
