Laois is always home for Country Music Queen Trudi Lalor

Trudi Lalor needs little introduction. Rising to star status in Ireland's huge Country Music scene, she has achieved more than most while at the same time always flying the flag for Laois.

While she now lives in Tipperary just outside Cashel with husband Billy Morrissey, who is also her manager and promoter, Laois is never far from her thoughts and she's a regular visitor to home.

Her father Paddy, aged 85, is still alive and well. She also visits family and friends and is also involved in local Laois projects.

“I still call it home. Home is Laois to me. I'm 23 years living in Tipperary but home is Laois,” she said.

Born and raised by Paddy and Philomena in St Fintan's Terrace she's the youngest of 11. For Trudi home means more than a place, it means a community who support each other.

“I was very lucky to grow up in a community of neighbours and friends who looked out for each other. So when I go up home I make sure to meet them because I have had unwavering support from them since I first started out,” she said.

She reflects on starting out singing as young as 12 when she began singing at events like weddings accompanied by her late brother Alan.

“It was a lovely way to be able to meet a lot of people at a young age,” she said.

Apart from community, family played a big part in getting her started beginning with her mum. She says her mum had “a beautiful voice”. More below picture.

Pictured: Trudi Lalor and mum Philomena Keyes record for Amnesty International.

“When she knew I was involved in music from a young age she always supported me,” she said.

Music surrounded Trudi at home in a house which she would later come to realise was a 'singing house'.

“Even from a young age when aunties and uncles would visit there would always be a singsong. I would be the one who would want to perform and sing. I would often wonder when are we going to a neighbour's house but ours was the singing house.

“The radio or record player was always on. There wasn't much TV. My older brother Alan lived in Dublin and would come home at the weekends with the latest records like Don Mclean, Don Williams, John Denver, The Fureys, even Strauss, every music you could think of,” she said.

Trudi had tunnel vision when it came to deciding that music was what she wanted to pursue as a career.

“I never actually thought about doing anything else even though the nuns in the Brigidine Convent might have wanted something different, I followed my heart. It just seemed like the natural thing to do,” she said.

The Mountrath woman decided to go for it as a professional artist when there was no such thing as social media. This led her to the local competition circuit which she could not enter until she was 18.

“I did not care whether I won or not because I was getting an opportunity to sing live with musicians in front of a crowd and that really helped me,” she said.

She found the live concert interaction really suited her as a performer and entertainer.

While she had lots of musical influences and tastes, Trudi had to decide at some point what genre of music she wanted to take up. She found that the entertainment and engagement aspect of Country Music was what helped her make up her mind.

Her interest in the Country scene was nurtured by the late Mary Seale who brought Trudi to shows by Shawn Cuddy, Declan Nerney, Daniel O'Donnell and others. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Trudi Lalor on stage in Abbeyleix with Kieran Fogarty in 2000. Pic: Alf Harvey

“When I saw that, I said to myself now that is what I want to do,” she said.

To make the breakthrough Trudi knew she'd also need to be a recording artist. She took advice from her later to be husband Billy. He told her she would need a record to get radio play to promote her name. The resourceful Laois woman set about the task which would lead her recording what is now the Laois anthem.

“One of the songs I wanted to record was about Laois and there was no county song about Laois at the time,” she said.

But she knew the song Abbeyleix by Christy Cullen, a Mountrath native like Trudy and also a good friend of her mother.

“I rang Christy and told him I would love to record a song about Laois but I told him I loved the song Abbeyleix and asked him if I could change the word Abbeyleix to Lovely Laois. He said absolutely and was delighted,” she said.

This led to a recording studio in Limerick, where by chance The Cranberries were recording the same day. Trudy got chatting to Dolores O'Riordan the same day in 1993.

She recalls that the song was first played by Midlands 103 but she needed to give the four track record a springboard. Aged around 20 at the time Trudi set about the job.

“I organised my own launch in the Hazel Hotel in Monasterevin. John Kelly, who was running the hotel at the time, could not have been nicer. He said I could have use of a room with no rental.

“I then went back to Billy Morrissey with confirmation of a hotel and a date and he said he'd put a band together,” she said.
Trudi says she was lucky that she had done a show a year previously in Moate run by her uncle. She met stars at the event like TR Dallas and Ray Lynam.

“So I rang them to see would they sing a few songs. It was real ggenerosity of spirit from them as they had only met me briefly,” she said.

Within a few days Trudi had lined up nine big acts for the launch concert. She got some PR from the Leinster Express at the time and she also had to get the tickets printed which were snapped up by Laois people especially from Mountrath. She says they organised buses to what ended up being a sold-out show in the Kildare town, “It was phenomenal,” she said.

Trudi modestly recalls being lucky at the time though she does agree that hard work was a big part of making it happen.
The success of the show was followed quickly by an album released on Hazel Records. It was produced by Ray Lynam.

A keen follower of Laois GAA teams, Trudi is honoured that Lovely Laois is now the Laois anthem. She performs it at all her shows.

“I'm very very proud to be from Laois. No matter where I get to perform around the world I make sure to get to sing lovely Laois,” she said.

More than two decades after her first single, with many records, songs and shows under her belt, the Laois artist is now one of the best known stars in Ireland's Country Music scene.

She's delighted to be part of a healthy scene where artists can make a living.

“It's absolutely huge. What has really helped is the likes of Garth Brooks selling out five nights in Croke Park. That has given a new awareness that there is a vibrant scene in Ireland that has never been as big,” she said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Trudi on stage.

She is also pleased that country music is no longer dismissed.

“There is a whole level of respect because Irish country music was laughed at as old hat,” she said.

Trudi said the biggest ever Irish country music festival was held in Dublin this summer at the National museum in Collins Barracks called Ceol Country. Trudi hosted the event which attracted 10,000.

Trudi's popularity has also grown due to the Late Late Show Country Music specials. She said her part in the show grew from having just one line in a song to sing to being a panellist and performer.

“The Country Music special is the second most popular Late Late behind the Toy Show,” she said.

She said the audience scale has also led to great respect for country music to a point where there is a huge following. Another string to Trudi's bow which attracts a lot of Laois fans is the week of shows in Portugal every summer with her husband Billy and a host of Country Stars.

“Half of Laois comes with us. It's all dancing and waltzing and reuniting,” she said.

Trudi believes that one of the things that sets the country scene apart is that the artists look out for each other and are a community of musicians. She said this community includes the fans.

“The fans are like friends,” she says.

Trudi has had lots of success in her life but like everyone has faced personal loss. Her bother Alan played a big part in Trudi's love of music but he tragically took his own life to suicide in 2010.

“He was the life of the family and would always be the one you'd want at your party where he would sing and entertain but over a number of years he wasn't at parties and wanted to be left alone. We saw a steady decline in his mental health,” she said.

This culminated in his tragic death in July 2010 on the same date as her mother and brother's birthday.

“I remember I was doing a show that night in the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney and Billy broke the news to me after my dad called. The feeling of shock was beyond comprehension. Only people who have been through it will know what I mean,” she said.

Trudi would be inspired to not let the loss of Alan's life be in vain when her mother spontaneously began to sing the song Beautiful Isle of Somewhere at Alan's graveside.

“It was a song we would sing at our family gatherings. The three of us would always sing it. Totally unprepared at Alan's graveside mammy started to sing it and we all started singing it,” she said.

This led to an idea that her mother should record the song which she did in one take. At the time Amnesty International was trying to raise awareness about mental health so they used the song in their campaign.

This led to Trudi being interviewed as an advocate for families who had suffered a similar loss. She also attended a Dáil meeting about mental health and suicide. She strongly believes in the use of kinder language around suicide. Trudi also says courtrooms should not be used for inquests in to suicides because the victim of suicide is innocent.

Trudi looks back on what was a ‘horrible’ journey that she and her family had to go on in the wake of her brother's passing but she did take some strength from the experience. She returns to visit her brother's final resting place frequently.

“He is with us all on our journey through life,” she said.

While family tragedy led Trudi into activism, a societal crisis led her down another avenue of helping people.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns herself and her husband Billy set up the Reach Out movement to help fans of country music who were left isolated by the pandemic.

“I contacted all the singers in the business to see if they would make phone calls to people in the business to see if they would call people who needed a phone call at that time,” she said. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Trudi sings at a recent fundraiser in Mountrath at Bloom HQ during Heritage Week. Pic: Alf Harvey

Apart from her singing, Trudi is also the editor of the country music lifestyle magazine RSVP Country. She presented a weekend show for a number of years on Tipp FM. She is also working on a lot of projects through Reach Out.

More recently she teamed up with her past pupils of the Brigidine Convent in Mountrath. A chance meeting in Cashel led to a meeting with an old school friend she hadn't seen in 30 years.

This meeting came back into her mind during a bout of Covid which confined Trudi to home for weeks. During her confinement the Mountrath woman decided to set up a Facebook page to organise a reunion for the class of 1990 which took place in 2020.

At the end of the meeting they decided to help with the ongoing redevelopment of their old school which is now BloomHQ.

They organised fundraising events which have led to the opening of a music school. One of the rooms was dedicated to Rachel Keogh, a former classmate who died of cancer.

The fundraising is continuing with the next aim to overhaul the gardens. A Christmas Cookery demo takes place on November 13 with Paul Flynn.

Trudi described the group as “incredible”.

“We've a great old team and I'm loving it,” said Trudi.

Her singing and many other projects reveal a woman who lives life to the full always with others.

“I love life and am happy when I'm doing things. It's lovely to sing or to win awards but it is all about people for me,” she said.