Ray lynam and the hillbillies to reunite

Great news for country fans: the unparallelled Moate country singer, Ray Lynam, and his band, The Hillbillies are to reunite this year.

It's just been announced that the band will hold an Irish tour this Autumn - and the promoter says it is "likely" that the tour will include at least one Westmeath date.

As it happens, this Friday too, "The Essential Ray Lynam", a 32-track double CD is to be released.

Ray is a singer who can move at ease from his Eagles-style Country-Rock original, I Don’t Want to See another Town, penned by his onetime band leader Kevin Sheerin, to "Gypsy Joe and Me", by Dolly Parton, and other songs by Hank Williams, and James Taylor or The Bee Gees on this double CD.

Many of these quality original recordings were never re-released after Ray recorded them on vinyl during a peak in the popularity of Ray and his Hillbillies back in the 1980s. They sounded great back then, but now having been enhanced in a digital format, they sound even better.