Brandon McPhee comes to Longford's Backstage Theatre

Brandon McPhee has an impressive CV. The Scottish musician has played before royalty, made television appearances in Britain, Ireland and the USA and is an established recording artiste with seven CDs and eight DVDs under his belt.

He has recorded with Philomena Begley and Foster & Allen, and last week released his latest single, a duet with Daniel O'Donnell.

This list of achievements is all the more impressive when it takes into account the fact he is only 25 years old.

At the age of 10 Brandon pressed the first notes on the button accordion at his granddad Donald’s knee. A good listener and keen pupil, he was soon playing “The Dark Island”. To say he took to the instrument is an understatement; by the age of 17, Brandon was the All Scotland Senior Accordion Champion.

Since then his musical prowess has flourished: “I started off on the button accordion,” he told the Leader, “when I turned 17 I started singing. My shows is a combination of singing and accordion, and a mix of different genres. I include country, Scottish, Irish, and folk into the show. I've been fortunate to win some awards on both the accordion and the singing, so I love both equally.”

Taking his show to Longford, the epicentre of Irish county music, makes sense. Brandon believes local audiences will warm to what is on offer.

“People who like Scottish music tend to like country music,” Brandon said, “It's fair to say a lot of people who enjoy Scottish country also love Irish music. There's a very close family of music lovers who support those kinds of music. I'm lucky to have that support, because without the fans there's no music and no musical heritage.”

Longford is just one stop on a busy Irish tour, but one Brandon is looking forward to: “We're in Lisburn, we're in Longford, Castleblayney and Banteer. Then we're at the Hot Country Awards show in County Monaghan. We're up for an award at the Hot Country Awards. This will be the seventh time we've been up for an award.”

Brandon has built his reputation on the strength of his live show: “It's a variety of country, Scottish folk and Irish music, there's songs, there's tunes and there's four of us in the band, there's some guests, Manson Grant from Manson Grant and the Dynamos who will be singing some songs.

The Scottish musician said unfortunately Daniel won't be in Longford: “It's a huge honour for me to record it along with Daniel. He took time out of his busy schedule to record it and the music video. His record label is now taking on the song.”

The Brandon McPhee Show will take place in Backstage Theatre on Friday March 22. Tickets, costing €23, are available online or at the box office.