It's the stuff of archetypal tear-sodden country music songs - single mother drops out of high school, raises two children, waits on tables, deals with her big brother's drug addiction and eventually finds love. Now approaching her 40th year, Stacey Earle (left) - yes, you've guessed it, former hell-raiser Steve is the big brother - has latterly come out of the shadow of her better known sibling. With her debut release, Simple Gearle, steadily gaining commercial and critical ground, it seems that Stacey's time has come. "No one is making this difficult for me," she says. Her mixture of down-home country charm and Gillian Welch-like simplicity (minus the death songs) makes it all the easier. She plays Dublin's Whelans next Wednesday and Mallow's Central Hotel next Friday
