TR Dallas set for appearance at Daniel O’Donnell TG4 concert

By David Flynn

International singing star TR Dallas (aka Tom Allen from Mount Temple) is looking forward to being one of the special guests next week at Daniel O’Donnell’s ‘Opry le Daniel’ concert in Derry’s Millennium Forum,

The Country and Irish music concert which takes place on Tuesday, March 25, in Derry will be recorded with a live audience for Daniel’s TG4 show, which will be screened at a later date. Also on the night, singing with TR Dallas, will be another Westmeath native, Kilbeggan’s John Hogan, and singers Dominic Kirwan, Gina, Marc Roberts and Claudia Buckley.

The guest appearance at Daniel O’Donnell’s Millennium Forum concert comes at an interesting time for TR Dallas. It’s 55 years this year since he started recording music, and in a few months he will bring out his new treble album called ‘55 Songs For 55 Years’.

“The first song I sang in public was ‘The Fox and the Goose’ and I was about seven years old in Mount Temple School, when Miss Kearney put me up on a stool to sing it for the other children,” said Tom laughing, to the Westmeath Independent this week. “The first song I recorded was in 1970, with a group called the Fine Avons from Castleblayney. It was a cover of a George Jones number, ‘The Stranger’s Me’.”

Tom Allen, in the years before and after he became known as TR Dallas, mixed and sang with the biggest names in the country music world of Nashville, Tennessee.

This year also marks another milestone for Tom Allen, because it’s 45 years since he first recorded the song, ‘Who Shot JR Ewing’, which was an event that changed his musical life, and led to him changing his professional name to TR Dallas.

It began for him in March 1980, when a fictitious incident occurred on the American TV drama series, Dallas. The series was at its peak of popularity all over the world when its main character, JR Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was shot by a mystery assailant.

The episode was screened on CBS in America on Friday, March 21 and was shown shortly afterwards on RTE One in Ireland.

‘Who Shot JR?’ became a catchphrase on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the summer of 1980, alongside a marketing campaign of t-shirts, hats and badges.

At the time, Tom Allen was living in Moate and had just left the Mainliners group and was working with Donie Cassidy, band manager and future politician.

“In late 1979, I got a call from my good friend, the singer, Brendan Shine, who asked me to meet some lads who were starting a band,” said Tom.

The Tom Allen Band were playing the night-time circuit around the country at the time of the JR shooting. After the episode aired, Tom and Donie were given a cassette of a song called ‘Who Shot JR Ewing?’ written by Rocky Stone from Cork.

Tom and the band recorded the song, and within days he was invited to perform the number on Gay Byrne’s Late Late Show television programme.

The song entered the Irish charts shortly afterwards and was released in the UK, where it also made the Top 100, and was played almost every day on Terry Wogan’s BBC Radio 2 morning show. It was also picked up for airplay on the local stations in the UK.

Donie Cassidy came up with the idea of Tom wearing a hat, just like JR Ewing on Dallas and the UK record company suggested the changing of Tom’s name to TR Dallas to capitalise on the popularity of the TV series that summer.

“Donie was one of the best promoters in the business,” said Tom.

In his first few years of performing as TR Dallas, Tom had four songs, ‘Who Shot JR Ewing?’, ‘Daddy’s Girl’ ‘The Last One To Touch Me’ and ‘Hard To be Humble’ in the Irish charts.

Tom said the "Who Shot JR?’ record came for him at a good time, because there was only RTÉ television and radio then, and, if you got on there, it was heard by everybody.

“There’s some great Country Music performers in Ireland today, and the sad thing is that we can’t get on national radio or television,” he said. “One Late Late Show to celebrate country music yearly is not enough. The country music industry brings in taxes and creates a lot of employment in hotels and other venues, but for some reason RTÉ doesn’t want to play our music.”

Tom is looking forward to doing the guest appearance on ‘Opry Le Daniel’ next week.

“I know Daniel since he started his own band in 1986 and he was great for the industry at the time, and since then,” said Tom.

“He used to go to the dances I was playing at. He’s a lovely, lovely man, and very witty.

“He was a huge boost to the country music business that we needed in the late ‘80s and he has become an incredible success story internationally. He is one of the few people in Irish music that was able to crack the American music market.”

“‘Opry Le Daniel’ is one of the most watched shows on Irish television, and that’s down to the talent of Daniel and Big Mountain Productions. ”

Tom and his wife, Therese, live in Moate, and have two grown-up sons, Don and Gary.

“My ambition is now to live a healthy life for the rest of my life, and I like doing what I do, touring and doing guest spots. It’s a lovely lifestyle, but I thank God for my family and my health,” said Tom.