Here comes McBride: Country singer Mary McBride and her band will perform in HCM City and Hue. — Photo Courtesy of US Consulate

HCM CITY — A two-city tour of Viet Nam by American Mary McBride and her band will provide residents of HCM City and Hue with a rare opportunity to enjoy country music.

McBride will perform album favourites like Everything Seemed Alright, By Any Other Name, Every Day is a Holiday and The Way Home as well as hits like No One's Gonna Love You Like Me, the soundtrack of film director Ang Lee's Academy-award winner Brokeback Mountain in 2005.

The singer and her band will also offer master music classes for students in HCM City, Hue and Quang Tri Province, and will participate in charity events there.

Her week-long tour is part a cultural exchange programme sponsored by the US Consulate General in HCM City.

"This kind of the programme is a fundamental part of our efforts to strengthen bilateral relations through people-to-people diplomacy and build cross-cultural bridges of mutual understanding," a press release quoted consulate spokesman Tom Tanner as saying.

"Mary McBride's band will be able to introduce country music to a large audience that probably has not had much exposure to this uniquely American genre before," he said.

The band has guitarists Paul Carbonara and Mark Spencerm, bass artist Greg Beshers and drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks.

She and her band members have performed in more than 1,000 live shows and have collaborated on tours with famous singers and music bands, including Ben Harper, Blondie, Cubby Chacker and B52s.

McBride is the founder of Home Tour, a project which brings music concerts to people living with HIV/AIDS, mental and physical disabilities in healthcare centres, shelters and prisons throughout the US and abroad.

Working as a cultural ambassador of the US Department of State, the band has performed in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Pakistan.

McBride will open her Viet Nam tour at 8pm on April 6 at the Lan Anh Club, 291 Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, District 10.

Tickets for the concert have been provided for free of charge on three days: yesterday, today and next Tuesday from 2pm to 5pm, at the Public Affairs Section/US Consulate General, 8th floor, Diamond Plaza, 34 Le Duan Street, District 1, HCM City.

Her performances in Hue will take place on two nights, April 8 and 9. The concerts, held in Thai Hoa Palace, will be part of Hue Festival 2012.

For more information, visit http://www.huefestival.com. — VNS