It’s a long way from Texas to Ireland. However, a talented young singer named Nathan Carter has found a common thread: Christmas.
Nathan Carter was born in Liverpool, England, though his parents were from Newry in Northern Ireland. Carter visited Ireland frequently when he was a kid, taking part in traditional music festivals, and has lived there since he was 18. At the tender age of 4, he was already playing the accordion in school concerts and by the time he was 10, he’d won the All-Ireland Title for Traditional Singing. While he was at it, Carter also mastered the piano and guitar. Dancing, however has never been his forte: “I tried Irish dancing for 10 minutes — the teacher told me to stick to music. I’d no patience for it anyway.”
In 2007, Carter released his first album, the appropriately named “Starting Out.” Since then, he’s been spearheading an effort to revive “country and Irish” music — yes, there is such a thing; it’s a Celtic adaptation of American country music. And indeed, it was his 2012 version of Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor’s song “Wagon Wheel” that made him a star. “A friend of mine had the track on her phone and she said I should record it. I thought it was a bit annoying, but I brought it into the studio anyway and it took off, and it has become an anthem at my shows.” The handsome young singer has become something of a heartthrob, much to his bemusement. “When I was at school I wore big glasses and none of the girls would ever have picked me, so I find all of the attention very strange.”
Carter hasn’t neglected Christmas music, for example, there’s his 2015 album “Beautiful Life at Christmas.” More recently, he’s done an amazing cover of “That’s Christmas to Me” by Texas-based Pentatonix.
The music video of Nathan Carter’s version of “That’s Christmas to Me” is posted below. Let’s hear your review in the Facebook comments. Be sure to like and share!