John McNicholl is progressing plans for a trip with friends to Nashville in October. The Derry man is no stranger to Music City having visited Nashville on a few occasions and led a number of organised tours to the Tennessee region. The tour will depart Dublin on 23 October and return on 1 November.

“Previous trips to Nashville have been very enjoyable,” says John. “We are looking forward to going back there again with many friends joining us for the trip. We will be attending some of the best shows available and also making the trip out to Dollywood and Pigeon Forde.”

Meanwhile, John’s new album, The Singles, has just gone on release. It is essentially a top 20 collection of songs released as singles by John over the years. Most of them will be very familiar to followers of John and feature a variety of styles ranging from traditional country to middle of the road, ballads, pop and dance songs.

They include the wedding song, Walk Down the Aisle with Me, The Night has a Thousand Eyes, Hopelessly Yours, Oh Julie, Heavenly and Crazy Over You. John’s jiving medley selection features three classic showband era hits, Old Man Trouble, Be My Guest Tonight and Good Looking Woman.

There Were Roses, a classic folk song from the pen of Tommy Sands, also features in this compilation album.

John also includes the George Jones song, Walk Through This World With Me, along with the ever popular, Dig A Little Deeper in the Well, a number that was a major hit for Shaun O’Dowd in former times.

Sandy Kelly, who fronted a television show with John on the Sky channel in recent years, joins John for a lovely rendition of Welcome Home. Mary Byrne from Dublin, the former X Factor finalist, shares the vocals with John on Dream Lover.

John McNicholl and his band are playing in White’s Hotel, Wexford, on Saturday 17 June, The Ramble Inn in Co Antrim on Saturday 24 June and The Times Hotel, Tipperary town, on Sunday 25 June. John is doing a guest spot interview on the Michael Commins Late Show on Mid West Radio at 10.30pm on Sunday 18 June.