NATHAN Carter sometimes feels like he is living a double life.

In his native home of Ireland he beat Beyoncé and Drake to the top of the charts with his 2016 album, Stayin’ Up All Night.

And the 27-year-old returned to the top of the Irish charts earlier this year with the appropriately named, Livin’ The Dream. Altogether the country singer has had four records top the charts in Ireland in four years and he even has his own TV series there called The Nathan Carter Show.

But England has been a lot slower in catching on to the Nathan Carter craze.

So in the process of crossing the Irish Sea he goes from a star-studded reception to much smaller venues.

The gap is narrowing though with Nathan generally attracting more fans in England every time he visits thanks to his tireless tours and the work he does to promote the music in between.

He said: “I constantly try and get the TV opportunities. I get a lot of that in Ireland whereas in the UK it’s slightly different.

“But I appeared on The One Show about two months ago and that really helped. My social media following went up by about 1,000 people.

“I think it’s those sorts of opportunities that will change things and bring the UK up to the standard where Ireland is.

“We do very well in Scotland as well and I think it’s because the Celtic side of things is pretty big in those places.

“Radio is also key in that Scottish and Irish radio play country and Celtic music on a daily basis. I think that’s the main difference.”

But Nathan, who grew up in Liverpool before returning to Ireland, reckons that country music is slowly making its way into the mainstream in England thanks to the likes of Country To Country (C2C) festival.

He added: “The likes of The Shires and Ward Thomas have definitely broken through the barriers over the past couple of years. On the likes of Radio 2 they’re getting played every day so the attitude is changing.

“And the C2C festival has proven to be a breakthrough for country music and is bringing over all the main acts from the States. Between that and radio, opinions on the genre and the perception of country music is changing.”

Nathan picked up the accordion when he was just four and soon after he learned the guitar and piano.

He then became head chorister in the Liverpool Boys’ Choir where he even performed in front of the Pope.

Nathan was inspired by his music loving granddad John.

He said: “My mum and dad don’t play at all but my granddad is huge music lover.

“So while I was growing up he was always playing music in the background. I took influence from the likes of Johnny Cash, Crystal Gayle and Willie Nelson.

“I was about 15 when I started doing gigs. I’d get terrible money but would go out and play at different places in Liverpool like cabaret clubs.

His big break was recording a Bob Dylan cover called Wagon Wheel.

Nathan added: “That got six million views on YouTube and ended getting played across daytime radio.

“England never caught onto it but that was the song that basically did it for me.

“It changed from playing dance halls to 300 or 400 people to theatres to 2,000 people.”

His first wow moment was playing to more than 3,000 people at the INEC in County Kerry.

Nathan said: “I came out on stage and it was completely full. It was a great gig and I still remember it to this day. We still go there to this day so it’s great to go back and relive old memories.”

These days if he is not on the road or in the studio then tireless Nathan will recording his TV show.

With musical guests it is about like Ireland’s answer to Later With Jools Holland – but with added ‘challenges’ like his attempt to become a stunt driver and even disguising himself as an elderly woman for a TV prank.

Nathan added: “We just finished filming a five-part series. We had people like Mel C from the Spice Girls, Paul Carrack, Martine McCutcheon, folk bands, rap bands, pop bands – you name it they all appeared on the show which was great fun.

"I’ve never been a presenter before so I had to adapt into that role but I got to duet with a lot of stars that I never would have dreamt of singing with.”

Nathan Carter performs at the Parr Hall on Wednesday. Call 442345 or visit pyramidparrhall.com