First Published in Country Music International – February 1999

While Nashville continues to churn out stars for the Millenium, Kent-born TONY CARLING has released a new album featuring western swing, romantic ballads, honky-tonk and country-rock that points the way for Britain's would be country stars of the future

Every once in a while, an act emerges that doesn't fall into the recognised perception of a British country act. This year it's Tony Carling, a singer-songwriter who has maintained a low-profile while working diligently on his songwriting. The result? One of the finest debut country albums by a British country performer in years.

Though his father was a Geordie, Kent-born Tony grew up in Mitcham, South London, and he was surrounded by music from an early age. "My father could pick up any instrument and get a tune out of it," he reminisces. Singers like Frankie Lains, Cat Stevens and Neil Young, were big favourites, so I was listening to country music without knowing it."

During his teen years he played in various local bands and began to dabble with songwriting, performing in the backrooms of pubs, halls and rehearsal rooms. Tony would sing, because, as he says, he was the only one with the bottle to get up and sing, and gradually he worked more of his own songs into their repertoire.

In the mid-1980s he formed Hogwash, described rather colourfully at the time as a psychobilly band. "We were really an up-tempo, barndance group," he explains. "We played old souped-up hillbilly tunes, obscure Ernest Tubb songs and fiddle tunes. It was a whole show with a backdrop, a little bit like Rednex.” Hogwash lasted five years, amazingly with the same line-up, and played a wide variety of venues, ranging from rock clubs to old people's homes and even a few country clubs. "It was a bit of a novelty, but we had a lot of fun and kept people up dancing."

Rough Justice followed Hogwash, an alternative country-rock outfit playing a kind of soft-rock, Eagles-type music, but by this time Tony was getting restless with aspirations to have his songwriting taken more seriously. One evening, he saw a TV programme showing Nashville's Bluebird Cafe and decided to try his luck in Music City. 

"I went out there without having any contacts," he continues. "I'd known Pinto Bennett for several years. I thought he was in Nashville and might help me out with contacts.”

Pinto came to his rescue, and phoned a couple of friends in Nashville, one of whom, Crazy Eddie, took the aspiring British songwriter in. He made all the rounds of Music Row, eventually linking up with several publishers. It only took a few days to realise that to craft songs to the high standard demanded in Nashville was going to take time and dedication. Over the next few years he made two or three trips to Nashville every year, learning his songwriting craft and building a reputation.

"I have met people like Kostas," he says. "And Tricia Walker. She's a very good friend. I go out to her place for her annual barbecue. It's just a case of hanging out with these people, because you never know when you're going to sit down with someone and write a really great song."

One of the most fruitful song collaborators has been Chris Crawford, who has had songs cut by Tracy Byrd and several other country stars. Tony describes him as being 'country as a dirt road, a guy who pulls no punches'. "One day Chris was driving me out to his place in Lynchburg in the country," he recalls. "We were in his pick-up, and he was chewing tobacco. He has this coke can on the floor that he uses to spit the tobacco into. I was just throwing lines at him, and said: 'Like the flowers need the sun,' or something like that. He spat into his can, turned to me and said, 'I promise you that line will never leave this truck.' That cracked me up."

Tony and Chris also worked in the studio on demo tapes, and it was while listening to these that Tony decided to self-finance an album and release it on his own Melancholy-Haze Records. "I'd spent years writing songs,' he explains. "I was demoing stuff in Nashville, and they sounded so good that I decided to turn it into an album." The self-titled album, produced by Chris Crawford in Nashville, has not only drawn favourable reviews in the country press, but also gained extensive radio plays, especially in Holland. It is a compelling mix of up-tempo honky-tonkers, romantic ballads, western swing and kick-ass country-rockers with a distinctive stamp that has unique written all over it.

Even with all the praise, Tony Carling has his feet firmly planted on the ground. "I could get really excited about things, but I've gone past the star aspirations. Life for me is the journey, not the destination. I think people spend too much time and money trying to achieve goals. For me it is the music, creating and crafting the songs." Meanwhile, Tony has formed his own Lost Legends band, and has several festival appearances lined-up for the summer, a tour of Ireland in the spring and a return to Nashville this month for further writing sessions. He hopes to be able to tour Europe before the end of the year.

"I'm also planning another album," he says. "A more stripped-down acoustic set, quite different from the last one. I'm going to record it over here with a handful of musician friends. I've got these acoustic party-pickin' songs that lend themselves to that kind of treatment."

You have to admire a man who is determined to create music on his own terms. His approach defies conventional wisdom, yet in a small but significant way, it is paying dividends for him. "I'm not in it to make lots of money or to become a big star," he concludes. "I just want the opportunity to write and perform my music. For me that's what it's all about.”