The Shires announce long awaited Belfast return
British country duo The Shires are pleased to announce a Belfast headline show.
British country duo The Shires are pleased to announce a Belfast headline show at The Limelight 1 on Tuesday November 15th 2016.
The first UK country act ever to have a top 10 album in their home country, The Shires have been at the forefront of the British Country music movement which has seen a sea change in the opinion of the British public, who have embraced the genre and UK bands making music inspired by US country artists.
The Shires’ success has been unparalleled and has seen them perform at Glastonbury Festival, the Grand Ole Opry and last year even saw their debut go Gold - a huge achievement for any British artist.
About The Shires================
Last year the duo of Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes became one of the UKs biggest breakout successes of 2015 after they released their debut album ‘Brave’ early in the year on Decca Nashville.
The Shires have taken the support from industry tastemakers they received early on in their career and built it into radio plays, record sales and legions of fans and have helped changed the perception of country music across the UK in the process.
Having recently headlined the Acoustic stage at this year’s instalment of Glastonbury festival, The Shires aren’t taking time off, as they prepare their second album, which is due later this year.
2015 was a standout year for the Home Counties duo, starting the year with a record deal and one hell of a debut single in ‘Nashville Grey Skies,’ The Shires spent time in Nashville finishing what would become the album ‘Brave’ which was released in March.
Four singles from that record then made it onto Downtown's playlist this summer, a series of successes which then saw them booked for such TV appearances as performing with Tom Jones on Children in Need, sharing the sofa on Graham Norton’s show with Robert De Niro and Ann Hathaway and playing and being interviewed on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch amongst many others.
On the surface, then, The Shires have raced from 0 to 100mph in no time at all. Had you asked them about any London dates in their first months together and they’d have asked you back whether Watford, St. Albans and Biggleswade count.
Now, of course, if you asked them where they’ve played recently they’d point out their shows at Glastonbury, London’s O2 and of course Nashville’s Grand Old Opry, where they recently took their uniquely British take back to the land that inspired it all. But behind all those first impressions lies the story of two musicians who had been working for this for a long time.
“We don’t want to be known as just springing out of nowhere, because behind the scenes, we’ve worked really hard,” says Crissie. “We’ve done our legwork, and the two of us finding each other has just worked.” Adds Ben: “I hate this word, but it was just serendipity.”
Earle isn’t shy of describing his years of dues-paying as a solo singer-songwriter, nor does Rhodes deny her time of working the covers circuit as a vocalist, after she finished music college in Surrey and returned to her countryside roots. “I was singing ‘9 To 5’ just as a fun song for people to dance to,” she says, “and there were a lot of people coming up to me saying ‘You sing that song really well, you really suit country.’ I didn’t realise how much I listened to it.”
“I’d reached the point where I was literally broke,” says Ben, “and I put a thing on Facebook saying ‘There must be a country singer somewhere.’ But then a friend of a friend mentioned Crissie, she came round the next day, we recorded some songs and it’s been so easy since then.”
So things have been moving very fast indeed in the world of the Shires, and coming back from Nashville with a bevy of hits in hand at the beginning of the year, their first move was to secure another Downtown A-list single with ‘State Lines,’ two more A –listed singles followed, ‘All Over Again’ and ‘I Just Wanna Love You,’ demonstrating the depth of standout tracks on the record they’d made.
Both Ben and Crissie are self-declared admirers of the craftsmanship of country songwriting, and in ‘Brave’ they’ve an album that stands as a testament to their ability to write country songs, showing they’re as far from some twangy tribute act as you could get. Their success isn’t limited to the UK either, with ‘Brave’ having made impacts in both the Australian and New Zealand iTunes charts too.
Crissie's beautifully melodic vocal is deceptive, because at a times she can blow the roof off when she lets rip, this is matched by Ben's earthy almost soulful tones, that when combined with Crissie's is sonically a beautiful combination and with which The Shires have literally found a piece of country to call their own. They love American music, but they’re proudly British and intensely keen to add some real indigenous flavour to the pot.
Now The Shires are working on their new album in Music City: Nashville. The duo are working with top country music producers and are recording their album at Sound Stage Studios, one of the most prestigious recording studios in Nashville, which has cut records for other country superstars such as Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum.