The Country and Irish superstar does not attempt to reinvent the wagon wheel on his eighth album in ten years
The great Irish record-buying public have already sent this new album from the poster boy of Country and Irish straight to No 1, his fourth album in a row to achieve that feat in Ireland. The rise of the 27-year-old from Liverpool is no huge surprise - Carter has become the prince of a critic-proof genre of music, which, once neglected, has roared back into irony-free life.
No matter that he makes Garth Brooks sound like Johnny Cash and Crystal Swing sound like The Handsome Family, there is something almost admirable about the defiant cheesiness of it all.
Backed by a very tasty band, on Livin’ The Dream Carter continues on down a well-travelled highway as a kind of Butlins red coat of country pop. The exuberant and life-affirming title track - written by the great Don Mescall - is certainly a crowd-pleaser while Holding a Good Hand amps up the good ol’ boy honky tonk bar band for some Garth Brooks lite.
Elsewhere, string-leaden Just Happened to Me adds FM radio rock guitar for maximum socks given and Summer’s Here is like an uncomplicated companion song to In The Summer Time by Mungo Jerry. Carter also turns Donna Taggart’s Jealous of the Angels, a real tearjerker about missing a loved one who has passed away, into his very own hymn.
But this Mr Carter show does have a few surprises in store. A cover of Richard Thompson’s Beeswing, (a song already performed by Christy Moore) lacks the brittle ache of the original but it at least reveals that Nathan is willing to take chances.
No cliché is left un-turned but don’t be too surprised if Carter does indeed cast his shadow across that Nashville skyline.
Alan Corr @corralan
