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WELCOME TO HOME COUNTIES COUNTRY
Forget rhinestones and cowboys… Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes – aka THE SHIRES – are more at home with cider and suburbia. They tell Charlotte Pearson Methven about becoming Britain’s most successful ever country music act
The British duo redefining country music
IT all began at a cider festival. Actually, it began with a Facebook status update, and then a cider festival. I am hearing the unlikely tale of how photogenic duo Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes – otherwise known as The Shires – have become the UK’s most successful ever country music act. How their debut album Brave cracked the top ten and went gold, making them one of last year’s biggest-selling breakthroughs of any genre, alongside James Bay and Jess Glynne. How they headlined Glastonbury’s acoustic stage in June and recently released a second album, My Universe. And how, to boot, they have a large and very loyal social-media following.
Their names are so perfectly suited to country that, until they speak, I can hardly believe they are really from, well, the shires. I half expect them to break into the dulcet tones of the US Deep South, country music’s heartland. But they are surprisingly British – Ben, 29, from Hertfordshire and Crissie, 28, from Bedfordshire – and have worked hard to ensure that their music reflects this, with lyrics such as, ‘We can build our own Nashville under these grey skies’ and ‘They’ll say it’s way too cold for cut- off jeans’.
Telling me the story of how they met, they complete each other’s sentences so often that it seems impossible that it was only three years ago. ‘We had both looked for other UK country artists to work with and found that everyone was putting on an American accent and singing about rhinestones and cowboys, and neither of us wanted that,’ explains Crissie, who is strikingly pretty in a blonde, long- eyelashed way that calls to mind Sienna Miller or Mollie King, equal parts boho rock-chick and bombshell. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ she adds quickly, ‘I love the rhinestones and getting dressed up – anything that’s glittery, I have to wear it.’
Though theirs is the story of a professional partnering, it has all the fateful moments and near misses of a great romantic epic. The pair (both in serious relationships with other people), had individually harboured secret ‘crushes’ on country music for years, but despaired of finding either an audience for it in the UK – which has not traditionally embraced its (very un-British) penchant for straight-talking and moaning over heartache – or a fellow enthusiast to make sweet music with. (Country tends to work best in a duet: think Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers crooning ‘Islands in the Stream’, which The Shires now cover.)
‘I love that whole male-female harmony thing,’ says Ben, whose long-haired dark looks (he is half Jamaican, a quarter Italian and a quarter English) are a perfect foil to Crissie, and who discovered country when a friend introduced him to the US group Lady Antebellum. ‘It felt like an epiphany; in that moment, I knew what I wanted to do.’
Ben abandoned plans to go to university and spent the next few years writing songs and searching for someone to sing them with. Desperate, he lamented, ‘There must be a female country music singer out there somewhere?’ on his Facebook page. A mutual friend replied, looping in Crissie, who was at the time working as a wedding singer. ‘I would often get asked to sing Shania Twain and Dolly Parton, and people would say, “You really suit that style.”’
Crissie is a lifelong country fan
We really complement each other – I am an introvert; Crissie a performer
thanks to her grandmother, ‘who was married to an American soldier and would play me Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson when I was little’. After exchanging a few messages, the two arranged to meet at Ben’s home in St Albans.
‘I could have been anyone,’ Ben jokes. ‘I definitely gave my mum the address I was going to, just in case,’ teases Crissie. ‘But we clicked the moment I walked through the door. Whole evenings and days would go by without us noticing because we had been talking about music or had gone off on a Spotify tangent. I don’t see teenage or 20-something boys in the crowd, it’s, like, “I think you’re here for the wrong show!” We played in Portsmouth and this massive, tough-looking bouncer asked if he could have a photo with us. He looked nothing like what you would imagine a country fan to be, but he had specially requested to work the door for our show. There is no greater validation for us than seeing how the audience is changing.’
Friends of theirs who work as singers are now being asked to perform Shires songs at weddings. ‘It’s so humbling,’ says Crissie. ‘But we still feel like the same people who performed our first gig together at that sausage and cider festival [in Haynes, Bedfordshire, in July 2013] when we carried our own equipment and only had six songs to our name. The crowd loved those songs so much they were shouting, “again, again”, so we performed the whole set twice. Someone there knew someone who knew a manager, and that’s when it all took off for us.’ And in one of the many fateful twists in The Shires’ story, the pair had almost pulled out of the gig because Ben felt they weren’t ready and should focus on writing.
‘We really complement each other because I am more of an introvert and a songwriter, while Crissie is a natural performer and extrovert,’ explains Ben, who admits he suffered such bad stage fright last year that he needed hypnotherapy, which has helped him hugely. ‘Crissie has also taught me so much about how to handle the nerves. I used to have to be pushed on to the stage when we performed a big venue such as the O2 or Hyde Park. I’d be up there, but all I wanted to do was run away. I felt as though I was letting Crissie think either of us could believe we had found someone with the same passion and encyclopaedic knowledge of country. It seemed almost frowned upon here, as if people didn’t want to admit to liking it because of its image.’
But in the short time since the two joined forces, they have gone a long way towards dispelling the stereotype of country musicians as stetson-wearing good ole boys and gals. While the likes of Taylor Swift (before her transition to pop), Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, LeAnn Rimes and Carrie Underwood, with their glamorous personas and slicker take on the genre, brought country a little closer to the mainstream, for those who – like Ben and Crissie – came of age in the 90s and noughties, The Shires have taken it a leap further.
‘We were inspired by all of those artists,’ says Crissie. ‘We love Taylor. We’ve seen her live, but not met her. She would be our dream collaborator. I knew all her songs before she was famous, when they were more country. She has broadened the audience for our kind of music.’ And they’re not the only ones benefiting – there’s also Dixie Chicks-inspired sister duo Ward Thomas, from Hampshire, whose second album, Cartwheels, just reached number one in the charts, and who may give The Shires a run for their money.
But the pair are just happy to see country finally gaining a foothold. They can hardly believe their success. ‘I thought Brave might sell 20,000 albums,’ says Ben. It sold 150,000. ‘When we started out there was no UK country music community online, and now there is so much on Twitter and Instagram,’ says Crissie.
‘I think we showed people that it’s OK to like country and that it can be mainstream and British in its own way,’ Ben adds proudly. ‘It’s weird when we play a gig now and
down. It’s only very recently that I have started to enjoy it.’ Crissie adds: ‘I’m the chilled one, too chilled perhaps. If only we could have an ounce of each other, we would both be perfect.’
The pair are certain that their success – which has been described as ‘overnight’, but has felt to them like a life’s work – is down to their refusal to bow to expectations of what country music ‘should’ be. ‘From day one we agreed that country music was about honesty, storytelling and lyrics. We will never sing about anything that is not real for us. I think people relate to our songs because they are so honest,’ says Ben.
‘Overcoming heartbreak is a big theme,’ says Crissie. ‘Writing the songs is a form of therapy for us and I think they have that effect on listeners, too. One woman who had recently had heart surgery came up to us after a show, shaking like a leaf, and told us that our song “Brave” helped her get through it.’
Particularly poignant for both are ballads they wrote about their fathers. Crissie’s dad died 20 years ago, when she was only eight, and she wrote ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’ as a tribute to him. ‘He always encouraged me and brought out the best in me,’ she says, her eyes misting. ‘The song is about that special relationship between a father and daughter. I’ve had dads come up to me and tell me it has moved them.’ Ben’s song ‘Everything You Never Gave’ comes at the fatherhood theme ‘from the other end of the emotional spectrum. My dad is still alive, but our relationship has been strained. He wasn’t around much. So when I found out I was going to be a father I decided to write a song about wanting to give my child everything my dad never gave me.’
Ben’s first child, a son called River, was born on 25 June, just hours before The Shires were due on stage at Glastonbury. Ben raced from Hertfordshire – where he had spent 36 hours by his fiancée Vicki’s side during labour – to join Crissie for what was a very emotional set. He’d posted a photo announcing the birth on Instagram, so his fans were ready. ‘They were all shouting, “How’s River?” and everyone was hugging me. I was crying on stage. It was so special.’ Of the song, he says, ‘It’s really important to open yourself up like that. So often the songs that are the most personal and specific become the biggest hits.’
Ben and Crissie are waiting with bated breath to see how My Universe will be received. ‘It’s more collaborative because we wrote all the songs together, whereas on Brave we incorporated stuff from before we met. It’s got bigger sounds and is more produced,’ says Ben. ‘I’m hoping this could be our chance for an even greater breakthrough. Our ambition has increased massively since doing Glastonbury and opening for The Corrs [in January on the Irish group’s UK comeback tour].’
As well as going platinum with the next album, headlining Glastonbury’s famous main pyramid stage is another goal for the duo. ‘There’s nothing I love more than Glasto,’ says Ben. ‘I’ve been going for ever and each time I would say, “Next year I’ll be up on that stage.” It’s the coolest place – the mud and the rain and no one cares. You just feel the love going through it.’
Their ultimate aim is to break the US. So what if Nashville comes knocking on their door? ‘England will always be home, but there may come a time when to make this work, we need to move out there for a bit,’ says Crissie. ‘Nashville is the most inspiring place, where music spills out on to the streets and even the person delivering your pizza is writing amazing songs. It feels like our second home.’
They have already played the landmark venue there, the Grand Ole Opry, joining the ranks of country’s biggest names. ‘The most heartwarming part was seeing all the British fans who had come over to support us in the audience, waving their flags. US fans might know your four greatest hits, but the Brits are proper music geeks who will memorise every song and follow you anywhere.’
It’s hard to believe, when they’ve attracted such a cult following so quickly, that The Shires could so easily not have happened. Just months after she and Ben first met, Crissie had reached the boot camp stage on The X Factor as part of Nicole Scherzinger’s team, and although she was tipped to win, in the end ‘I got booted out,’ she laughs. ‘Had I made it, that would have been the end of my work with Ben, as X Factor would have taken over my life.’ A little-known fact is that, the previous year, Ben had auditioned, too. ‘But I was edited out completely,’ he laughs. ‘And now two X Factor rejects have a top-ten album together!’
The only thing that could make this country fairy tale even more perfect, I note, is if Ben and Crissie were a real-life couple with a turbulent yet creative relationship, in the mould of Tammy Wynette and George Jones. ‘No, never!’ they both exclaim. Ben has been with Vicki for six years, while Crissie is with Chris, an American singer she met in a bar 18 months ago. Now the four socialise together and Ben and Crissie say their other halves are hugely supportive of their work. ‘Ben is my musical other half,’ Crissie winks. ‘It would be way too intense to work together as we do and be in a romantic relationship,’ adds Ben. ‘We are so good together because we communicate so well with one another and neither of us takes anything personally. If Crissie says to me, “I’m not sure about the way you sang that,” I’m fine with it. But if she was my girlfriend, I might say, “Well, I don’t like the way you cooked the bacon this morning!”
‘We don’t have much time for anything but our work. And it is so nice to be sharing it with each other. We met on Facebook and music was the only thing we had in common, but now we’re such good friends. Who would have predicted that?’
The Shires’ new album My Universe is out now on Decca. Their UK headline tour starts on 15 November; for further details, visit theshiresmusic.com/tour
It’s important to open yourself up. So often the most personal songs are the biggest hits