JON PHILIBERT is one of the UK’s most prolific country music songwriters. His songs have been recorded by Bobby Bare, Jimmy Payne, Judy Lindsay and Carmol Taylor.
In 1983, Tom Jones recorded Jon’s song “”I’ve Been Rained On Too”” and took it to number 13 on the Billboard country charts in the US. The song has since been recorded by several other artists including the UK’s Charlie Landsborough.
In 2015, Jon approached Belfast-based country singer James Lynas and offered him a song to record called “”She Don’t Look That Lonely””. It was hugely successful, topping the European ECMA Charts.
JAMES LYNAS is a cleaner by day, and a country music singer by night. Born in Belfast, he started listening to country music as a young child. He includes Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Johnny Cash, George Strait, Elvis Presley and Buck Owens among his influences.
James’ first venture into music was as an Elvis tribute artist at the age of 17, supported by an 11-piece band. But he soon decided it wasn’t for him, and quit three years later. Since then James has concentrated on his first love – of country music.
It wasn’t until he was in his 30s and he decided to record a video of him singing Keith Whitley’s hit “”Don’t Close Your”” Eyes, that things really started to move forward for James. He sent the video to the Phil Mack Country Show on Sky TV and it was shown.
It prompted US songwriter John Cole to get in touch to suggest James record his song called “”Bottle Top Bars and Midnight Ladies””. The video to the song was shown widely.
In early 2016, James recorded a second song written by Jon Philibert. “”I’ll Never Need Any More Than This”” relates very much to James’ own situation. The lyrics tell of a hard-working man holding down two jobs as well as keeping busy with his country music activities.
James has recently completed his first sell-out shows with a brand new all-live band and his first album is due out soon.
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