Brave (The Shires album)

Brave is the debut studio album by British country music duo The Shires.

Background

Crissie Rhodes has performed at weddings, pubs and clubs performing songs by artists such as Dolly Parton, amongst others. Her country music influences included Alison Krauss, Martina McBride and Faith Hill. Ben Earle was previously a solo artist and had supported KT Tunstall on tour. As a struggling songwriter, who had been writing for 10 years, he had tried to get cuts for other artists. He discovered country music in 2012 via Lady Antebellum the American Grammy Award winning group. He cites the Kacey Musgraves album Same Trailer Different Park as a major career inspiration.[1] Earle and Rhodes met after Ben, with an aim to become part of a duo, posted a "There must be a country singer somewhere" message on the social media website Facebook, seeking a partner, to which Rhodes responded.[2][3] As part of BBC Radio 2's coverage of the festival, the Shires were included as a segment in a documentary titled Nashville UK which assessed country music's standing in the UK and as one of its promising artists their determination to export their British country roots to their American counterparts.[4] The Shires have composed songs with hit Nashville songwriter Steve Mcewan (Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood) and Play Productions an accomplished Swedish writing and production company, who comprise Tim Larsson, Johan Fransson and Tobias Lundgren, who have worked with Rascal Flatts and Celine Dion.[3][5]

They were invited to the C2C: Country to Country 2014 Festival and performed at The Town Square Pop Stage on Sunday March 16, 2014 outside the London O2 Arena.[6] Their first single "Nashville Grey Skies" was released on April 4, 2014 and received its first airplay on the Bob Harris BBC Radio 2 Country show on April 3, 2014. It was added to the BBC Radio 2 "B" Playlist for the week commencing Saturday May 3, 2014 and climbed to the "A" playlist the following week.[7][8][9] The song was written by Ben before visiting Music City which is a song about hope with a pipe dream of building, and the UK having, a country music capital of its very own.[10] It takes the musicality influences from America whilst maintaining a Britishness with the song writing. It contains facetious lines such as "Well they say it's way too cold for cut-off jeans and they won't be drinking moonshine and G & T's" and "We can build our own Nashville under these grey skies".

On 21 April 2014, the Shires travelled to Sweden and then headed to Nashville to begin preparations and record their debut album. They toured the UK with Ward Thomas[11] and Little Big Town,[12] prior to their own headlining tour in 2015.[13]

Chart performance

The album peaked at number ten on the UK Albums Chart, making the Shires the first ever homegrown British country act to have a top ten album in Britain.

References

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