Country to Country 2018 lineup revealed
Country to Country; Europe's biggest country music festival is back for its sixth year from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th March 2018 with another incredible line up that fans can expect from the C2C team.
Joining Faith Hill, Tim McGraw and Little Big Town will be one of America’s biggest country stars; Kacey Musgraves who will headline the festival for the very first time.
Alongside stellar headliners are multi-platinum and acclaimed artists Emmylou Harris, Kip Moore, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Combs, Margo Price and Midland.
The festival brings three days of the best in country music and programming that fans have come to love and expect with performances from the world’s best country stars as well as emerging talent from Nashville, Ireland, UK and Europe.
Chris York, C2C Festival promoter for SJM Concerts commented, "Once again Country to Country is delighted to be bringing the finest in US talent to the UK and Ireland. Our sixth year brings some welcome returning stars as well as a wealth of new and up and coming artistes across many stages in London.
We are delighted to be returning to Dublin and moving to the wonderful Hydro in Glasgow where the event goes from strength to strength. Our fantastic partners the CMA continue to help us deliver the best event for the fans. This event would not be what it is without the amazing fans of all things country over here"
Artist Profiles
FAITH HILL & TIM MCGRAW
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have been dominating the music charts since the early ‘90s. They began touring together in 1996 on McGraw’s Spontaneous Combustion tour. In 2000 they created the Soul2Soul franchise with their record-breaking “Soul2Soul” tour, becoming that year’s top grossing and most successful U.S. tour. Their success continued in 2006-2007 when “Soul2Soul II” returned to the road, which was the most attended tour of the year in any musical genre and remains the highest grossing multi-year North American tour in country music history.
KACEY MUSGRAVES
The Texas native has earned massive critical acclaim for her first two albums, the Gold-certified debut Same Trailer Different Park in 2013 and Pageant Material in 2015. Musgraves took home the award for "New Artist of the Year" at 2013's CMA Awards and also won two Grammy Awards for Best Country Song (“Merry Go ‘Round”) and Best Country Album (Same Trailer Different Park), the ACM Award for Album of the Year (Same Trailer Different Park), and most recently the 2014 CMA Award for Song of the Year (“Follow Your Arrow”). The Kacey Musgraves Country & Western Rhinestone Revue has sold-out famous venues all over the world, including the Royal Albert Hall in London.
LITTLE BIG TOWN
Little Big Town-consisting of members Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, and Jimi Westbrook – first entered the music scene more than 18 years ago. This will be their first-time headline Country To Country. Praised for their flawless “silvery vocal harmonies” (The Guardian) and their “irresistibly upbeat” (Rolling Stone) style, Little Big Town are an award-winning live act with prowess and effortless on-stage chemistry. Little Big Town have earned almost 40 award show nominations and in the past five years has taken home nearly 20 awards, including multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM awards, and an Emmy award.
KELSEA BALLERINI
Kelsea Ballerini skyrocketed to stardom with the US Top 5 release of her GOLD debut THE FIRST TIME producing three consecutive PLATINUM-certified, #1 smashes - “Love Me Like You Mean It," “Peter Pan,” and “Dibs” – a feat never achieved by a female (including duos or groups) in Country music history. Her fourth single, “Yeah Boy,” also achieved GOLD status and rose to the lofty perch of #3 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
LUKE COMBS
With gritty, grizzled vocals, brazen songwriting talent and one hell of a live show, River House Artists/Columbia Nashville’s Luke Combs stormed onto country music landscape as a force to be reckoned with. Named a 2017 Artist To Watch by Amazon Music, Billboard, Bobby Bones, CMT, Huffington Post, Nashville Lifestyles, Pandora & Rolling Stone, the 27 year-old Asheville, North Carolina native released his debut This One’s for You on June 2 and opened with 43,000 total activity in sales & consumption, making it the largest album debut from a new country artist in 2017.
LINDSAY ELL
Named one of The Huffington Post’s “Top Country Artists to Watch,” Lindsay Ell is a triple threat: accomplished musician, unique vocalist and songwriter. The young Calgary native learned to play guitar while traveling with her father to country-bluegrass camps as a young girl. Ell honed her craft as a musical stylist and songwriter after being discovered by BTO and The Guess Who’s Randy Bachman (“American Woman” / “Taking Care of Business”) at the age of 13. Ell’s highly anticipated debut EP, Worth The Wait (produced by Kristian Bush of Sugarland), debuted at No. 8 on the Nielsen Soundscan Country Albums Chart.
EMMYLOU HARRIS
With a career that has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, garnered a remarkable 12 Grammy Awards and stirred music lovers for more than thirty years and counting, Emmylou Harris has been rightfully hailed as a major figure in several of America’s most important musical movements of the past three decades. A steadfast supporter of roots music and a skilled interpreter of compelling songs, she also has been associated with a diverse and dazzling array of admiring collaborators from Bright Eyes to Tammy Wynette and from Neil Young to Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.
JILLIAN JACQUELINE
With words and music to live by, the twenty-something singer/songwriter is well sculpted. Real, true and humble, yet admirably confident, the traits resonate in her music. With pop melody sensibility, Jillian takes artistic liberty with her lyrics, but they’re as flat-out and straightforward “honest” as they come. Her new recording project, Honestly, places Jillian’s life under a magnifying glass to reveal unbound, themes of regret, nostalgia, heartache and frolic. Featuring song titles like “Hate Me,” “Reasons”, “God Bless This Mess”” the emotionally-weighted album spotlights “less is more” tracks that clearly demonstrate a comfortable intimacy to unveil Jillian Jacqueline’s identity—undisguised.
ASHLEY MCBRYDE
Ashley McBryde, the fierce singer/songwriter who The Tennessean vows is “worth discovering” and Rolling Stone calls a “Arkansas red-clay badass, with the swagger of Hank Jr. and the songwriting of Miranda Lambert,” recently made her Grand Ole Opry debut with her heartrending ode-to-self, “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” which she released last month due to demand.
KIP MOORE
Over the last few years, Kip Moore has spent most of his time on the road, building one of country music's most loyal audiences. He’s a road warrior, armed with a live show that mixes the bombast and wild desperation of Bruce Springsteen with the rootsy stomp of Merle Haggard, living out of a tour bus with his bandmates and playing more than 200 shows per year. For a songwriter who'd grown up in a quiet pocket of southern Georgia, performing to crowds across the world — crowds that knew every word to his albums, Up All Night and Wild Ones— felt like a dream come true. Kip’s latest release is a 5-track EP, album is called Underground.
LUKAS NELSON
Raised in a musical family, the son of Willie Nelson; Lukas Nelson learned early on that true originality is hard won. Since forming Promise of the Real 10 years ago, Lukas and his bandmates have played hundreds of shows including major festivals and built a devoted, ever expanding fan base. In 2014, destiny came knocking when Neil Young recruited Promise of the Real to be his road and studio band. The new album "Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real" is out now and has received rave reviews. With a bounty of invaluable experience under their belt, expect the guys to deliver an indelible blast cosmic country soul, the sound of American music reborn.
MIDLAND
Originally formed in Dripping Springs, Texas, Lead vocalist Mark Wystrach fronts Midland’s rich sound, rounded out by lead guitarist Jess Carson and bass player Cameron Duddy. Rooted in tradition both in sound and style, the band initially garnered attention playing clubs in the Texas region. Their self-titled debut EP features five tracks, boasting songwriting credits from each member. Midland intentionally nods to the wild west with Country music that is reminiscent of the 1970s and 80s with a modern day twist. They’ve opened for idols Dwight Yoakam and Willie Nelson and are currently in the studio with Shane McAnally (Sam Hunt, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves) working on their full length release for Big Machine Records.
MARGO PRICE
One of the finest new voices to emerge from the U.S.A., Margo Price was the first country signing to Third Man. Her critically acclaimed debut album chronicles her life to date and pulls no punches as she sings about very real hardships and heartaches – the loss of her family's farm, the death of her child, drinking and brushes with the law on this deeply moving collection of ten original tracks. Her voice has that alluring mix of vulnerability and resilience that was once the province of Loretta and Dolly. It is a tour-de-force performance that is vivid, deeply moving and all true