Country singer

She's a singer who has performed with the biggest names in Irish showbusinesss at home and away, and has recently completed a lifetime achievement of recording her own country sounds album. Trionagh Moore-Allen hopes to follow that up, sometime in the future, with an unusual new album of Irish songs. Trionagh has been semi-based in Mount Temple for a couple of years now due to her marriage to Tony Allen of international music duo, Foster and Allen fame. She divides her time between the midlands and her native Co. Antrim, where she still has family and where much of her singing career is based. "We've an Antrim flag on our gate in Mount Temple, and it's like the papal flag, and if you drive past quickly, that's what you'll think it is, but I'm very very supportive of Westmeath playing football, unless they are playing Antrim," she said, laughing. "I feel like I'm an honorary Westmeath citizen, and I love living in Mount Temple." Trionagh grew up listening to her widowed mother singing in the family kitchen. Her Dad died at the young age of 43 years, and her mother brought up Trionagh and her six siblings, all aged between three and 13 at the time. "Mammy managed to pay three shillings for a book, 'Bert Weedon's Play In A Day' so I could learn guitar, and I also had Rolf Harris's stylophone, which was a small electronic musical instrument which was very popular in the early 1970s," said Trionagh. When Trionagh was growing up at that time, she heard music on records at her aunt's house, and then the family got their own radio, and she heard the music of the Gallowglass Ceilli Band, Philomena Begley and Patsy Cline, and all were an influence. "When I got to be a teen I listened to the songwriters singing their songs, like Carole King, Elton John and James Taylor," said Trionagh. Trionagh's own music career begun just after she left school when she went for an audition in Castleblaney, to sing with a group called 'The Everglades', which was run by Paddy King, who was brother-in law of Big Tom. "The story goes that Big Tom told the lads 'that girl should be given a job'," said Trionagh laughing. The Everglades was the first band Trionagh sang with, which was around 1975, and the group became known as Paddy King, Trionagh and the Everglades. They travelled around the country and to England to the Irish clubs. Trionagh found it a tough life because there were times she could be singing in Limerick and after the show she was driven across the country through the night, to the boat to England, and then more travelling the next day, with little sleep. "There weren't great roads then, and it was very uncomfortable and I had little sleep, and I fell into ill health at one stage," she said. Trionagh then joined up with the music group, the Hollywood Stars, in which the members had to dress up as Hollywood stars! Things got better for Trionagh when she met up with Philomena Begley's guitarist, called Dan O'Hara (now deceased) and they started the Blue River Band in Omagh, Co. Tyrone. She then married her first husband, and left the business for a while, and returned to the industry when legendary musician Crawford Bell asked her if she would do a harmony session for a group. "I always loved singing harmony, and it suited me well, because I hadn't got a load of confidence," she said. In 1987 Trionagh's life in music changed forever when she went to Westland Recording Studios in Dublin and sang backing vocals on her good friend Philomena Begley's 25th Anniversary album. John Ryan of the Moate based group, The Hillbillies, produced the album, and liking what he heard, he then asked Trionagh to sing backing vocals on Daniel O'Donnell's, 'From The Heart' album. However she didn't actually meet Daniel for some years after that, because backing singers rarely meet main vocalists. "When you're in a recording session, you don't meet the vocalist, and to be honest you don't want them hanging around, and some do, but then you marry them, and tell them to go away," she said laughing during the interview as she then looked at her husband, Tony Allen, following the comment, which obviously referred to their musical partnership. Trionagh has sung backing vocals on some of the Foster and Allen album tracks. "Foster and Allen are so damn famous, besides being married to one of them, it's such a treat to sing with them," she also said, laughing. She has been in and out of recording sessions for 30 odd years and along with Daniel O'Donnell and Foster and Allen she has worked with the biggest names in showbusiness, including Van Morrison, Brian Kennedy, Dominic Kirwan, Ann Breen and Louise Morrissey. Trionagh also was one of the session performers with the popular Shannon Singers, and with this group she recorded more than a dozen albums of popular Irish tracks. "I loved the recordings with the Shannon Singers, and enjoyed doing the songs of Percy French, and all those beautiful old Irish songs, and I remain very proud of them," she said. She also sang with popular 1980s Elvis impersonator, Frank Chisum, when 'Downtown' Radio employed her to do a show with him. From 1995 to 2001 Trionagh performed as part of the Dominic Kirwan roadshow, and was later invited to sing on tour with the popular Donegal singer, Daniel O'Donnell and travel to concerts in Branson, Missouri, USA. She has been touring with Daniel and company since 2004. "I've worked half my life with Daniel, for 24 years, and we are good friends, and when I decided to do my own album he was so supportive and he invited me onto his Rosette record label, which was a complete honour for me," said Trionagh. "We do a few weeks in Branson every year and we play in the Tri Lakes Center theatre there five days a week and our show is from 2pm to 5 pm." Trionagh first met Tony Allen about ten years ago when she was asked by Athlone musician Kevin Sheerin to come and sing backing vocals on a Foster and Allen album called 'Sincerely'. Kevin was producing the album at Moate's Roseland recording studio. However, she first encountered Foster and Allen's music over 30 years ago while she was running a record shop in Lisburn, Co. Antrim. "I kept tripping over all the records and videos in the shop and saw them on Top of the Pops dressed like leprechauns singing 'Bunch of Thyme', and I thought the green outfits were a great idea," she said. Trionagh and Tony will be married two years in September and the couple are very happy sharing their personal love and love of Irish music. Trionagh's her first solo country album, entitled simply 'Trionagh' was produced by her friend Kevin Sheerin. "I'm proud of the album, but it's very scary still to think about it, because I've been backing other singers for many years, but when you're a solo singer there is nowhere to hide," she said. However, she did like the experience of recording her own album and has a unique idea for another recording. She said she would like to record some Irish songs, particularly the almost forgotten songs of Athlone's John 'Count' McCormack, such as 'I Hear You Calling Me'. "I don't know if there is a market for a female singing them, but I love them and nobody is singing them, and we in Ireland should be battling to keep our traditions," she said. "We don't blow our own trumpet enough." While Trionagh is happy living in Mount Temple, she spends some time in her native Co. Antrim, where her son John is in school studying for his A-Levels. Trionagh has another son Lee, who lives in Dublin. "Tony and I have two boys each and Tony has a gorgeous new granddaughter Sirin-Rose," she said.