TR finds it Hard to be Humble again!

TR Dallas is one of the veterans of the Irish Country scene who is still gigging regularly at a time when many of his contemporaries are only doing occasional guest spots. He has even released a new version of his biggest hit, It’s Hard to be Humble with a slightly different arrangement to the original.

So why, after all those years, has TR Dallas (aka Tom Allen) decided to record a new version of his old hit from 1980?

“To be honest it’s a bit of nostalgia really plus the fact that everywhere I play both young and old sing along with it and they all know the words of that song,” replied TR.

When it was a hit, in 1980, it went to number six in the Irish Pop charts and stayed for over 20 weeks in the Top 20. The song was also a Top 10 hit in the Country charts in the USA for the writer the late Mac Davis, who passed away in 2020, also penned In the Ghetto for Elvis which was his comeback number one in 1969 after four barren years of him not having chart toppers.

While the writer, Mac Davis, had a number one in the Pop charts with another of his compositions, Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me he failed to compete with TR for any place in the Irish charts with It’s Hard to Be Humble, his original version did reach number 27 in the UK charts at the same time that TR’s one was number six here.

Even though TR Dallas is possibly better-known, and certainly more visibly known, via his hallmark Stetson hat for his first hit Who Shot JR Ewing, his version of It’s Hard to be Humble was the most commercially successful song that he ever recorded and will always be identified with him.

So why then has he come up with a slightly different backing arrangement for his new version of It’s Hard to be Humble?

“My idea now with the new version was to make it more Irish sounding and more suitable for Irish dancing audiences. I also omitted the talking lines at the start of the original recording and just went straight into singing the song this time.

“We also used some local young people from here in Moate for backing vocals. They are all members of the Sandra Julian Stage and Dance School. Sandra is married to Alan Mellott from Shrule which is a village that’s half in Galway and half in Mayo. So, you could say the West had an input into the new version of It’s Hard to be Humble,” laughed TR.

The song won the Best Irish Record accolade at The Tuam Herald Pop Poll Awards in 1981 and TR will be back playing for the dancers in Tuam’s Ard Ri House Hotel in mid-November.