This is where you can read about clubs from their members or club promoters to see what is happening on the Country music circuit. It is updated as and when we receive reports and get the time to include them.
Country Revival, Dagenham, Essex
John Permenter
Nick Catford
22nd December 2024
In the mid-1990s, Texan fiddle player John Permenter started travelling to Europe and quickly built up a strong fan base in the UK where he was backed by two top British Country bands, Memphis Roots and Little Rock. He moved to England in 2008 and after getting married he became a UK citizen. He now works solo or fronting the John Permenter Band which includes two members of the reformed Memphis Roots, his old UK backing band. He has been a regular visitor to the Country Revival CMC in Dagenham for many years and was back once again for the club’s Christmas party on 22nd December. It was good to see the club so full with many people dressed appropriately for the end of term shindig.
As usual, John kicked proceedings off with his theme song, Asleep at the Wheel’s Texas Fiddle Man which set the mood for the mood for the evening good Country music from a great musician. John has won two CCN awards for Musician Of The Year in 2021 and 2022. The fiddle is a traditional Country instrument which, 30 years ago, was still seen quite regularly in the many bands on the club circuit. These days, a fiddle player is rarely seen so it was good to have John in the house and in fine form and “in love” he told me more than once!
Being a Christmas party, there were, of course, plenty of Christmas songs, not Country but you can’t have a Christmas party without Christmas songs. There were a number of Frank Sinatra classics tonight and the first of these was Let It Snow. There was naturally plenty of Country as well and in the first set, these included Josh Turner’s Your Man, Tracy Byrd’s Heaven In My Woman’s Eyes, Troy Cassar-Daley’s Things I Carry Around, Alan Jackson’s First Fool In Line and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Shotgun Boogie, a real western swinger that took us back to 1950. Then it was time for a couple from Elvis, Don’t Be Cruel and Blue Christmas.
Being a fiddle man, John had to sing Charlie Daniels’ Devil Went Down to Georgia which brought the loudest applause of the evening. John is a real Country boy, often fiddling his way onto the dance floor and at one time even joining in with the dancers. We had a triple from William Michael Morgan, Missing, In Walked You and Good Enough, Drake Milligan’s Save It For A Sunny Day and a couple from George Strait Amarillo By Morning on of my favourite George Strait songs and All My Ex’s which was a good opportunity for a barn dance.
More Christmas songs included Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song, another Frank Sinatra favourite Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas followed by Here Comes Santa Clause which was composed and first recorded by Country singer Gene Autry in 1947. Instead of the usual raffle there was a special Christmas raffle with four times the usual number of prizes. Members could only buy one raffle ticket each and had the option of unseen bags of booze or a Christmas gift or a small hamper.
Many of John’s backing tracks were recorded by Steve Place on lead guitar, Steve is from Little Rock trio one of his former backing bands when he first came to the UK in the 1990s. As the evening progressed we heard Zac Brown Band’s As She’s Walking Away and Old Dominion’s Memory Lane; then it was time for some more George Strait, you can never get enough George Strait in my view. We heard Codigo, I Just Want To Dance With You and The Cowboy Rides Away.
John did sing Midland’s Running Wild and Susan Ashton’s Closer and a few other newer songs but it was mainly classic Country tonight and these included Travis Tritt’s T-R-O-U-B-L-E, Rodney Crowell’s I Couldn’t Leave You If I Tried, Keith Whitley’s When You Say Nothing at All, Mel McDaniel’s Louisiana Saturday Night and another seasonal favourite, Perry Como’s Winter Wonderland.
As the evening drew to a close, John strayed a little away from Country singing James Taylor’s How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You). Having sung a number of Frank Sinatra’s Christmas songs, latterly Silent Night, it’s probably appropriate that he closed our Christmas party with a classic from the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn, it had to be Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. The Texas Fiddle Man did us proud taking 2024 out in style. The generous and well deserved applause said it all, Phil and Teresa had booked a Christmas cracker with John Permenter.
See below my phone video of John Permenter at the Country Revival.
Milton CMC, Gravesend, Kent
Rancher
by Nick Catford
15th December 2025
With DJ Philip providing the music in the breaks and before Rancher took to the stage, the dance floor was already busy before Steve and John kicked off on 15th December with Tebey’s Blinding Lights (Sin City Lights) and Jill King’s Can’t Let Go a nice rockabilly track with John on slap bass which kept almost everyone on their feet; Train Wreck remains as popular as ever. It was good to see the Milton so full a week before Christmas. It was quickly clear we were all going to have a great evening of Country music, dancing with a good selection of Christmas classics to put everyone in party mood.
Their programme was well chosen with plenty of newer material and some familiar classics to suit the knowledgeable dancers at the Milton. The opening set included Dwight Yoakam’s Guitars, Cadillacs, Miranda Lambert’s Ain’t In Kansas Anymore, Dan Davidson’s Won’t Forget and Lee Kernaghan’s Backroad Nation. It was literally one good song after another.
Steve has had a lifetime entertaining, having joined his first band in 1978 when he was 11. He later formed Southern Comfort duo with his father and the rockabilly Nite Shift trio with some school mates. After getting married in 1986 he decided to go solo to spend more time with his family and by the mid-1990s, he was running three line dance clubs in Berkshire. Steve was a line dance DJ and singer and his wife Debbie was a dance instructor. With this line dance background, Steve is very good at reading his audience and he knows exactly what to sing to keep the dance floor full and he always helpfully suggests suitable dances.
A few more songs that stood out early on included Chris Janson’s Cheap, Darryl Worley’s Messed Up In Memphis, William Michael Morgan’s Gone Enough, Buck Owens’ Think Of Me, Alan Jackson’s Remember When, Josh Kiser’s I’m Never Drinking Again and, of course, some Christmas songs like Elvis Presley’s Blue Christmas.
Steve and John Hallet work well together. They are both good musicians with Steve swapping between acoustic and electric guitar and John swapping between double bass and electric bass. John first met Steve at one of his line dance clubs and they quickly became friends. With the popularity of line dance acts like the Dean Brothers and The Cheap Seats, they decided to form Rancher in 2002 and have built up a very loyal following since then. Several times tonight Steve commented that he wished he could play all his gigs with John. After numerous CCN Duo Of The year nominations since 2018 they finally got the coveted CCN award in 2024.
It was nice to hear a good helping of songs that other acts don’t include. Tonight these included San Millar’s I Been Found a good Country rockabilly song and a reminder of Steve’s time with The Niteshift Trio in the 1980s. We also heard Drake Milligan’s Save It For A Sunny Day, Caitlyn Smith’s The Card You Gamble, James Johnston’s Old Country Barn, Raleigh Keegan’s Jealous of the Sun and Cody Johnson’s ‘Til You Can’t which Steve described as his favourite Country song at the moment. Steve programmes and edits most of the backing tracks which gives Rancher a unique sound. Vince Gill’s Loving You Makes Me A Better Man closed the second set.
The double bass is a very visual instrument and is seen all too rarely these days. I was pleased to see a bass solo on Teddy Swims’ The Door in the third set. There was plenty more good, mainly up tempo, songs that ensured the dance floor remained busy all evening. In the final set we heard a couple from Luke Combs, 5 Leaf Clover and Lovin’ On You, Randy Travis’ Where That Came From, another very popular song at the moment. Then we had Old Dominion’s Memory Lane, Enrique Iglesias and Miranda Lambert’s Space In My Heart, Josiah Siska’s 3 Tequila Floor and The Lennerockers’ High Class Lady, a song many artists sing towards the end of an evening. Rancher took us out with Solomon Burke’s Cry To Me and for an encore it was Slade’s Merry Christmas Everyone. A quality evening from an award winning duo.
See my phone video of Rancher at the Milton below.