I bought the boots that walked out on me

THE lounge singer Dixie Walsh keeps on keeping on.

The character at the centre of Pat Shortt’s stand-up comedy show, I Am The Band, currently touring venues in Ireland, hasn’t had it easy. The catalogue of misfortune visited on his life is like the track list on a country album.

“It’s a cliché but there’d be a fellow who is after losing his wife and his dog and his truck. If you’ve lost any of them you’re a good country singer,” says Shortt. “His life is in tatters, which he sings about: ‘I gave you the ring and you gave me the finger’; ‘I bought the boots that walked out on me’. He goes on about how his life is ruined while there are people dancing around him, and people speaking through his lyrics; no one would listen to them, they’re all just laughing and dancing.”