Carlene Returns to UK / Ireland in June!

American country singer Carlene Carter makes her long-awaited return to the UK for a series of mid-June solo concert dates, with tickets going on sale Friday, April 15 for the following shows in England and Ireland:

June 10 - St Barnabas Church / Oxford, England

June 11 - O2 Academy Islington / London, England

June 13 - The Trades Club / Hebden Bridge, England

June 14 - Whelan's / Dublin, Ireland

June 15 – Ballymaloe Grainstore / County Cork, Ireland

June 16 - Glor Theatre / County Clare, Ireland

June 23 - The Con Club / Lewes, England

Having started her career in the UK with her self-titled debut album (recorded with Graham Parker and the Rumour in 1978), Carter made London her home for several years during her marriage to Nick Lowe (who produced her third and fourth albums, Musical Shapes and Blue Nun), and spent a year on the West End stage in the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.

Carter's strong connection with British fans was reestablished when her most recent release, Carter Girl, debuted at #3 on the UK Country Albums chart and was named Best Americana Album of the Year by Sylvie Simmons in MOJO magazine.  Rolling Stone wrote: "to a certain generation, she was the cute and spry American babe who headed to the UK and struck up some relationships there, nearly all of them musical... this new album, produced by Don Was, is evocative, mature, and consistently impressive... A strong and very welcome showing for one of pop music’s long-missed characters, now back again."

As the special guest on the John Mellencamp tour, Carter has been performing her one-woman set in sold-out theaters across North America most of 2015 and April of this year.  She told the Austin Chronicle: "I was pretty chuffed that I could open for a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer as an acoustic act by myself. Working with Mellencamp, I made new fans, people that may have never heard of me. They may have heard I was related to the Carter Family or Johnny Cash somehow, but what they got was pure Carlene. Very much in the spirit of the Carter Family, I’d just go out and do what makes people happy. I really enjoyed the process of playing by myself and I’m going to continue to do it for a while. It really does prove my theory that it’s all about the songs."

Carter says of the upcoming shows: "I'm so looking forward to the dates in England and Ireland, as I have deep roots there and it always feels like I'm coming home when I land at London Heathrow!"  Her "special guest" on the tour will be her husband, actor and singer Joe Breen, whose own family is from County Clare, where his sister Christine Breen and her husband Niall Williams are well known writers living on the family homestead.  Carter says: "I'm so excited to be bringing the music of the Carter Family via this 'Carter Girl' and share some songs, stories from my life, and have a lot of FUN at every show."

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