Country legend Roly Daniels is being honoured as Ireland’s Honorary Music Ambassador to Tennessee.

The title will be officially conferred on him by proclamation from the Tennessee State Senate at a gala night and tribute concert in The Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday, 20 November.

Perhaps it is fitting that Roly should be chosen to fulfil the role. After all, his first big country hit in Ireland in the late 1960s was one called Sunny Tennessee. Fate has a strange way of bringing things full circle.

Roly is chuffed with the honour and, like the true professional he is, he is looking forward to exercising his new status in style.

“It is a lovely honour and I suppose it goes to show just how much I have become fully integrated into Irish life that this accolade is being bestowed on me.

"This is coming from the Tennessee Tourism Authority which is like Fáilte Ireland over here. It has come out of the blue and I am very happy about it. I am looking forward to leading a contingent of Irish country music followers on a guided tour to Tennessee next May.”

Roly was born and raised in India, moved to England in the early 1960s and crossed the Irish Sea when an Irish music promoter offered him a contract with The Memphis Showband in Dublin. He later spent some years with the Jim Farley Big Band and The Nevada, before fronting Green County, during which time the country music boom was in full swing here.

In 1972, he recorded the Conway Twitty song, Hello Darlin’. It became a massive hit and is a song that will always be associated with him.

“I just have to perform that song every night I go on stage. Forty years on, they still love this song above all others. It did great things for me. One song can give you that all-important break and it can come anytime in your career.”

Declan Quinn from LCM Promos says Roly is a sound choice for the role of ambassador to Tennessee.

“He is a great person to generate enthusiasm and he will relish this challenge. His role is to represent Tennessee as a destination to visit. Roly is recording a new song called Tennessee, which will become the anthem for Tennessee Tourism.

Performers

“A host of country music performers will gather to pay tribute to Roly at the event in Dublin, including Billy Yates, Buddy Jewell and Moore & Moore from Nashville, as well as Ireland’s Sandy Kelly, Patrick Feeney and Jacqui Sharkey. It will be a very special night for Roly.”

Meanwhile, plans are in place for Roly’s 10-day tour to Nashville, Memphis and Branson in May 2014.

“We are receiving loads of enquiries from all over about this trip,” says Declan. “And now that Roly is being conferred with the role of honorary ambassador, it means that he will have great access to so many areas of country music life in Tennessee. Patrons who come along with us on the tour are in for a truly special time.”

The Nashville trip is sure to rekindle memories of when Roly represented Ireland in the 1980s at the CMA Fan Fair Festival in Nashville.

“I was very proud of that honour. It was a special time for me.”

Roly, along with his wife Sara, spends a few months of the year residing in their home near Alicante in Spain, as well as a few months in Dublin. When the mood is right, he loves to indulge in art work. Many of his beautiful landscapes, portraits and other scenes are on display in various homes around the country, especially in the eastern region.

new albums

Roly is looking forward to getting back into the studios to start work on some new albums at the end of this month.

“I really want to record a whole batch of new country material. I have the enthusiasm back to do it and now the time is right. Country music has been very good to me. It is a great feeling to be in such demand after all those years.”