6 UK acts making country music cool

By Fraser McAlpine

Country music is often synonymous with one place - namely Nashville, Tennessee - but its influence stretches far further than that. Over the past few years, British acts have begun to achieve what had previously seemed unthinkable, to not only build a strong UK audience, but also to be welcomed on American stages and accepted by hardcore country fans in the nation that invented the genre.

Bob Harris - who this week marked the 20th anniversary of his Radio 2 Country Show - has watched closely as country music has made major inroads to the hearts of UK fans.

"When I first arrived in Nashville in 1999, it was quite insular. A lot of the stars didn’t necessarily see the virtue in travelling outside the USA. So it was a little closed off in that respect," Bob recalls.

Bob singles out one current pop star as having a huge impact on this shift: "Taylor Swift was a fabulous impetus for music to connect with young people... With my show on Radio 2, we have been able to pick up on these new emerging artists and play them to a UK audience, enough to open up the opportunities for those artists to come over and tour."

Previously, British country artists had relied too much on influence from the US, Bob says: "Country artists in Britain previously tended to try to be American. They wore the hats and the plain shirts and they were a copy of what was happening in the States. It really didn’t work."

However, this has started to change. Now, a thriving and self-contained country scene has emerged this side of the pond too. "Country music has been enjoying a massive breakthrough in the UK. It really is incredible. Everything has come together in an amazing way, and I can’t say that I’ve ever known it like this. In my experience it’s the best moment ever, really."

Marking his show's 20-year special, here is Bob's guided tour of some of the UK's best new country-tinged acts today.

• Listen to The Country Show with Bob Harris 20th anniversary special on demand

Born in Rostrevor, Northern Ireland, Catherine McGrath's formative musical experiences involved listening to Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift (during the early country years) while learning to play The Lion Sleeps Tonight on guitar. "I think Catherine is fantastic, she’s really, really good. And she was totally inspired by Taylor Swift. Ten years ago she was listening to Taylor, wanting to be her, listening to her music, learning to write songs. This helped build her confidence to be the artist she is now."

McGrath's debut album Talk of This Town was released in July 2018 to much acclaim, not least from Bob: "I really think it’s an absolutely outstanding album. The songs are so touching and intelligently constructed. They all tell a story."

Harris picks out the song Thought it Was Gonna Be Me, an early single from McGrath, as a standout track. It tells a story of both hope and heartbreak, and Bob says: "The way she expresses it all is just so touching. To get the story into the song as well as she does in three minutes is really something. I am absolutely convinced Catherine is going to be around for a long, long time."

Ward Thomas (a duo comprised of harmonious sisters Catherine and Lizzy from Hampshire) translate the direct emotional punch of country into a British framework. But as far as Bob is concerned their secret weapon is hardwired into their DNA.

"One of the things about Ward Thomas that gives them such a great sound is the sibling harmonies, which is part of the real tradition of country music. It goes back to The Louvin Brothers and The Everly Brothers and that’s what Ward Thomas bring too, having grown up in country music and it soaks through into their recordings. And I think it really shows on the song From Where I Stand, the title song from their debut album."

Despite their US country influence, Bob says that Ward Thomas are still "quintessentially English in their sound," adding: "They are two girls from the countryside who were absolutely entranced by country music."

Crissie Rhodes and Ben Earle have achieved great success so far under their guise of The Shires. They were the first British country act to be signed to a major Nashville label, the first UK country act to have a Top 10 album, and the first to receive an award from the American Country Music Association.

Bob recognised their talent from the very beginning: "We hold regular sessions in my studio, which sits under an apple tree in my garden. We call them the Under the Apple Tree sessions, and we heard about The Shires about six years ago, I mean way before they got near to a recording studio. They were a young, just emerging duo, and arrived in the studio and recorded a session. That's when I became absolutely convinced about them on all levels."

Harris says that their song Tonight is a great starting point: "It's the opening track on their album Brave, and it's so positive. It's a brand new day, it's the story of a couple who have got back together again. It's a really optimistic song, I love it."

"The music is gorgeous, the harmonies are superb. Both of them were ambitious, they really wanted to be successful and they were prepared to work to achieve that. Plus they were absolutely lovely people, so that was the moment I locked in behind The Shires. Everything they've done since then has confirmed that original fantastic impression of them."

Jessica, Camilla and Emily Staveley-Taylor began performing together at open mic nights in Watford, streamlining their own surname to The Staves for simplicity.

"The thing about The Staves is they're very light of touch. It's a very beautiful light, sunshine sound," Bob says. "Take a song like Winter Trees from their first album Dead & Born & Grown. There's something melancholy in the middle of it all, but it's very light and very beautiful music."

"They are unmistakably from this side of the Atlantic. They're not trying to be American. They're not singing in a false accent, they're not putting hats on just to wear them. Their music is coming from a place where they've evolved, and it's unmistakably distinctive. I think that's the big thing that's happened maybe in the last seven or eight years. To give British music a distinctive sound, but it's country, that's where it's rooted."

Beth, Emillie, Meghann Key of Wildwood Kin - another group of sisters with a batch of darkly rootsy tunes - drew harmonic inspiration from classic folkies such as Simon & Garfunkel and Fleetwood Mac, as well as more recent Americana-tinged artists like Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes.

And if it sounds like the kind of heady music mix best suited to an old episode of The Old Grey Whistle Test, you'd be right: "It was lovely with Wildwood Kin because we did a Whistle Test anniversary show on BBC Four, and they and Robert Vincent were both on the show. The reaction to both afterwards was absolutely incredible. Robert's album went to No.1 immediately on the country chart and Wildwood Kin are now doing this big tour. I was thrilled on behalf of both of them how well their music went down on the programme."

Bob says you need to listen to their song Hold On: "They're from the West Country and I always think of it as sort of little villages, fishing communities in Devon and Cornwall and somehow they've managed to capture a little bit of that atmosphere in their music. I think you can hear it particularly in Hold On."

The Wandering Hearts' rise has been rapid, uploading their first songs to the internet in 2016, and signing a record deal just one month later.

A celebrated four-way harmony team, they're making waves in both the UK and Nashville thanks to both their studio recordings and their live performances: "Wandering Hearts are making fabulous music on stage and in the studio. In the studio they've got a opportunity to record those close harmonies, and on stage they're able to express the warmth they have as people. They absolutely love what they're doing and that enjoyment that you see with them just completely transcends to the audience. I think they're incredible."

"We did a gig last weekend with The Wandering Hearts, actually. It was an Under the Apple Tree gig at Bush Hall as part of Country Music Week, and it was one of the best gigs I've ever done."

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