The Shires are such a long way from Nashville

DAVE FREAK talks to Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes, the British duo who have made country music cool

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N the five years since songwriter Ben Earle put a call out for singers via Facebook and a mutual friend hooked him up with Crissie Rhodes, The Shires have become the UK’s biggest country act, hitting the Top 10 with 2015’s Brave and follow up, My Universe.

Such is their success that the US Country Music Association recognised their achievements with a CMA Award, and they’ve even played The Grand Ole Opry - the very home of country music, in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It does feel that it’s been unstoppable,” Ben nods, discussing their steady climb. “I’ve been waiting for it to blow over but every year, every song, every album release, there seems to be something else.”

For Crissie, the source of their success is simple. “I think that’s a lot down to our fans,” she says. “For such a long time, country music hasn’t really been cool in the UK and I think more and more fans are spreading the word about us, and bringing their friends along, who don’t like country music, to our shows. And they say, ‘Oh! I don’t like country music ... but I like this band!’ They buy albums for people’s birthdays and Christmas, and I think all those word-of-mouth things have been responsible for our success ...”

But that recognition wouldn’t be there without the music. Produced and partially written in Nashville, their third Top 10 album, the recently released Accidentally On Purpose, features more than its fair share of hooks. From the pure pop of Echo and sweeping Guilty, to yearning Ed Sheeran-like Stay The Night and piano waltz Loving You Too Long - it’s all about the strength of the song.

“The song is the building block, everything is about the song,” stresses Ben. “You can put bells, whistles, pop production on, but if there isn’t a great song there, then people aren’t going to like it. I think with pop stuff and country, people just want to sing, they want a great song that they can sing,” he continues. “That’s why country is so universal.”

While there are still artists who wouldn’t look out of place on the set of Bonanza or Rawhide, the likes of Shania Twain and Taylor Swift , and the cast of the hit TV show Nashville, have proved that ‘country’ is an increasingly broad church.

“Country has changed,” says Ben of the genre’s shift. “It’s a lot more relatable, it’s about things we understand now,

Country has changed. It’s a lot more relatable, it’s about things we understand now. Ben Earle

whereas a few years ago it was all about - or it felt like it was all about - trucks, cowboys, dead dogs, that kind of stuff, all those kinds of stereotypes.

“But Nashville is so metropolitan now, there are people from Europe, Australia, and lots of other places, and you can hear that in the music. Now country artists are singing straight-up love songs, straight-up party songs. With some of them, if you stripped them down, and said they weren’t country, they could easily be pop songs - some even have rapping as well! There’s something for everyone now.”

As they head into the summer, the duo top off their 21-date UK tour with a selection of festival appearances which will see them rub shoulders with such established and varied acts as the swinging Michael Buble (British Summer Time in London’s Hyde Park, July 13) and Scottish duo The Proclaimers (Oxfordshire’s Towersey Festival, August 24-27).

It’s a time Ben, particularly, looks forward to: “Other festivals around the world aren’t really like the ones we have here. We have so many now - the food’s always great, the beer’s always great, the atmosphere’s awesome, everything’s great. It’s so nice, with everyone having such a great time especially if - fingers crossed - the sun shines.” ■The Shires play Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on June 8. Tickets from Ticketmaster. They also play The Long Road at Stanford Hall, Leics, September 7-9, thelongroad.com