SPOTLIGHT on country singing sisters Ward Thomas

The Ward Thomas sisters are bringing the sound of Nashville to rural Hampshire. By Laura Silverman

WHO? Country-music-loving 22-year-old twins from Hampshire (the new Nashville). BIG BREAK Catherine and Lizzy grew up on a farm near Petersfield, riding horses (not necessarily in cowboy hats), raising chickens and singing Beatles songs (their parents were in a 60s cover band). In their early teens, the twins’ Canadian cousin introduced them to the Dixie Chicks and the sisters fell for the emotional twangs and pangs of country music. The first album they bought was Avril Lavigne’s Let Go. During sixth form, they began composing and their singing teacher Ann Bailey (a former backing singer for Donna Summer) put them in touch with a couple of producers in Nashville. The twins co-wrote their first album From Where We Stand, released in 2014, with Ann and multi-instrumentalist Matt Greaves (who is now working on Gary Barlow’s musical The Girls). It topped the iTunes country chart and won UK Album of the Year at the 2014 British Country Music Awards. CREATIVE CLAN The Ward Thomases are a creative lot. Their mother is an artist, their elder brother is an actor and their grandmother Evelyn has written more than 40 novels, including The Tamarind Seed, which was made into a 1974 film starring Julie Andrews. HAMPSHIRE OR NASHVILLE? The twins first went to Nashville’s Music City Center when they were 16 and have since visited almost a dozen times. ‘We love the creative vibe, but Hampshire is still our home,’ says Catherine. Their tracks might sound American, but the lyrics come from the twins’ experiences. ‘Where the Sky Is’, from their new album Cartwheels, was written ‘with our love of the British countryside in mind’. ON THEIR IPODS Taylor Swift, Passenger, Kacey Musgraves and Beyoncé.

Ward Thomas’s new album Cartwheels is out now on WTW/Sony Music