Halloween is a mere 10 days away, and, fittingly perhaps, the new Daniel O’Donnell release, How Lucky I Must Be, comes with its own horror movie, of sorts. It’s a sort of palate cleanser to all the sweet ballads on the 12-track record proper, and is as darkly Irish as anything imagined by Pat McCabe and as camp as a row of tents. The plot deals with a new museum of Daniel waxworks which come to life at night and maraud like zombies through a Donegal town. Only the smooth and syrupy tones of our Daniel, emanating from the television, can stall these lacquered monsters in their tracks, but it’s up to the man himself to spray his hair into place and finally save the townspeople from his evil alter egos.
Daniel O’Donnell has joined fellow members of the country music scene across Ireland in paying tribute to a “true gentleman and brilliant drummer” who died in a crash involving a tractor and car.