Outlaws win Best Acoustic Country Band award

Photo by Rory Geary, from the Northern Standard

Tom Hanway reports:

The Outlaws recently won the Best Acoustic Country Band award at the Glencarn Hotel Entertainment Awards ceremony in Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, their second band award this year. Fiona Dooley presented each band member a crystal trophy, along with a bouquet of flowers to the popular Diane Treanor. The Outlaws are packing Ireland’s best-loved hotel dance halls, brandishing acoustic artillery that include fiddle, 5-string banjo, button accordion and guitar.

Pictured above (L-R) are presenter Fiona Dooley, John McKenna (bass), Barry Leonard (button accordion), ringleader Sean Hughes (guitar, vocals), Diane Treanor (fiddle, vocals), American Tom Hanway (5-string banjo, vocals). Also playing with the band, not pictured, is Brian Walsh (drums, vocals). In May 2007 the band won the Top Entertaining Band award from Tipperary Mid-West Radio, at the station’s Country Awards dinner, Templemore Arms, Co. Tipperary.

Since last month’s release of the Outlaws’ hot new single, ‘(You can’t hide your) Lyin’ eyes’ (Sharpe), the song has become a firm favourite from one end of the country to the other, being requested by fans night after night. Country presenters are now giving heavy rotation to the single in Ireland and the UK, giving great exposure to the Outlaws, and the band is roping in new fans wherever they roam. The Outlaws are blazing new trails in adapting traditional folk and Americana styles into a contemporary alt-country sound - styles which include bluegrass, old-time, Cajun, Irish traditional, Tex-Mex, and honky-tonk.

Empty mansions is currently available in all major record outlets, fine music shops and at all Outlaws’ hoedowns. The band is clandestinely collaborating on brand new material for their next anxiously awaited release. The Outlaws wish to thank their new friends, fans, presenters and all the terrific venues who have made their success possible in Ireland and the UK.

The Outlaws tour dates for November and December can be found on the BIB calendar.