Twinnie and The Best of British Country and Americana

June 11, 2024 9:27 am GMT

Last Edited June 18, 2024 10:26 am GMT

Spotify

Country Music might be one of the most quintessentially American artforms, but that hasn’t stopped singers and bands from Dear Old Blighty having a jolly good go at it over the years.

Back in the ‘50s Frank Yonko & the Texas Drifters, Slim Traynor and Hank Walters & his Dusty Road Ramblers were all flying the flag for Britain in country music, while in the ‘60s "Britain's Mr & Mrs Country Music,” Miki & Griff took their version of Burl Ives' 'A Little Bitty Tear' all the way into the UK Top 20 and even received a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry.

The Hillsiders opened for everyone from Marty Robbins and Jerry Lee Lewis to Gene Watson and Glen Campbell as they enjoyed over three decades touring all over the world, and even recorded a seminal album with Bobby Bare in 1967 called The English Countryside produced by the legendary Chet Atkins.

Usually though, the closest we ever got to homegrown country music in Britain was when the Kinks or the Rolling Stones dabbled in it. In the ‘70s and ‘80s it felt like country music was everywhere in Britain, but however much we insisted that Olivia Newton John was a one of our own, it still seemed impossible for any genuinely British acts to break through.

In 1992 the Rockingbirds turned up on Top of the Pops, but it was an isolated incident in a landscape that was being hungrily fed country music from across the pond 24 hours a day as CMT Europe launched into the homes of country music lovers across the UK in the ‘90s,

The Woolpackers, a band formed by actors from the TV Soap opera Emmerdale, reached number five with ‘Hillbilly Rock Hillbilly Roll’ when it was released as a single off their album Emmer Dance in 1996. The album sold 100,000 copies, but it stalled at number 26 on the charts, and it would be almost another 20 years before a British country act would crack the UK charts when The Shires finally took their album Brave into the UK Top 10 for the first time.

They paved the way for twin-sister duo Ward Thomas, from Hampshire, whose sophomore album Cartwheels became the first-ever UK country album to top the charts when it was released in 2016. And just weeks after Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas’ album of crossover country pop hit the top spot, The Shires took their follow up to number three.

It seemed like British country music had finally planted a union jack in the country music sand, and ten years on, homegrown acts are regular fixtures alongside American artists at British music festivals. The Long Road festival taking place this Summer is no exception. Remember Monday, Brown Horse and lots more will be performing over the weekend of August 23rd-25th in Leicestershire, so we decided it was as good a time as any to celebrate the Best of British.

Below we run through 10 of the biggest and best British acts around at the moment. With bags more for you to discover in our Playlist of The Best of British Country and Americana you’re bound to find something that’s your cup of tea.

Listen to the full Holler playlist above.

Here's our Pick of 10 of the Best British Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know.

Twinnie

“I'm hard to miss,” Twinnie says laughing. “I'm nearly six foot tall. I'm British. I’ve got this accent and my name's Twinnie!”

It’s not the only thing that makes her stand out. After moving to Nashville in April 2023, Twinnie's boundary-pushing blend of effervescent sophisto-pop and country storytelling has put her head and shoulders above most of her Brit country contemporaries.

“England massively affects how I portray country music,” she says. “If it was a hit internationally, like Dolly and Shania Twain and Taylor, that's who I kind of grew up listening to. I think we're in a space now where there's so many versions of country. It's so diverse as a genre. I hope Beyoncé is really welcomed and accepted because she's doing an amazing thing. She's putting the genre on the map internationally for people that are not acquainted with country music. I think you've seen that with HARDY and Jelly Roll that get played on rock radio. It's exactly the same thing. I think we're in a very interesting space right now. It gives me hope and the creative freedom to just do whatever I want and see where it lands.”

“I get it quite a lot where people say I’m too pop to be country and too country to be pop,” she continues. “To be honest, I think all of it is kind of bullshit. I don't really believe in genres. I believe in great work. With all the controversy about whether Beyoncé should be in country music, and I'm like, ‘Does it matter?’ It's broadening the genre that wasn’t the same 30 years ago. It constantly evolves.”

“I had such an eclectic taste in music growing up,” she says. “Everything from 2pac to Billy Joel. My first job was with Brian May. I love ABBA. I'm such a theatrical person as well. That's how I grew up on stage. So, I try and put that in my music. I don't see music as having any rules.”

Twinnie has been breaking the rules ever since she self-released her debut self-titled EP in 2016 before dropping the Better When I'm Drunk EP via BMG two years later. Hit singles followed before she made mainstream waves with her standout debut studio album Hollywood Gypsy in 2020 - a sold-out headline tour of the UK followed in support of the record alongside performances at acclaimed music festivals including CMA Fest, C2C Festival and Bonnaroo.

Following her Welcome to the Club EP, which she released alongside an award-winning short film that traced the mental health journey of the project, Twinnie released the more subdued and reflective Blue Hour (After Dark), and now she’s readying its second chapter as she continues with her self-proclaimed ‘sad girl era.

“I don't want anybody to ever feel like an outsider,” she says. “I've felt that multiple times in my career and in my personal life. I never want anybody to feel like that. ‘Welcome to the Club was an anthem for what I was feeling internally. I love it when films get made with music. I'm such a visual person and I direct all my own videos. Welcome to the Club was kind of like the five stages of grief about a relationship. I went to therapy in this film, and every time we talk about a different issue we lead into the music video.”

Watch the award winning short film for Welcome to the Club below.

“Then Blue Hour was about my relationship of ten years just crumbling,” she explains. “He was just gone, just like that, and I couldn't deal with it really. So, music was the only way that I could deal with it. I was like, ‘Okay, I'm gonna be sad for a long time.’ But in order to heal, most of the time, I have to write about what I know.”

“This blue hour happens twice a day and I just thought that was a really cool concept,” she says. “I'm going on to my next project, which is called Happy Hour, and then the next one, I'm always three albums ahead. It's this industry that slows me down because I would honestly release an album probably every four months if I could. But it's such a lot of work that goes into it.”

Fresh from the release of the Max Boyle duet ‘Take A Break’, she released ‘The Greatest Love Story’ inspired by the true-life romance of her mum and stepdad, who met when they were young, but due to miscommunications and a letter never being received they went their separate ways for 20 years before they reunited and stayed together ever since.

“It’s a song that lives in the world of what could have been,” Twinnie says. “My mum's story is very poetic but also comforting to know that everything works out the way it should. If they’d have gotten together all that time ago me and my siblings would have never existed and neither would this song”

A true Gypsy, Twinnie grew up in the Romani Travelling community in England where her love for storytelling first started and took her on to writing credits for artists such as Kylie Minogue, Bryan Adams and The Shires. Alongside winning Best Short Film at the British Film Awards, since moving to Nashville last year, she also found time to tour with Lindsay Ell, Chase Rice, Russel Dickerson, Seaforth and Blessing Offor.

“Music makes my soul happy, and there's so much of it in this town,” she says about Nashville. “I'm such a community person. I love community. That's how I grow up. I grew up in the gypsy community, and there’s a lot of synergy to how I grew up to Nashville. I think cities have personalities, and this really suits mine.”

In November of last year Twinnie even made her Grand Ole Opry debut.

“The Opry thing was wild,” she tells us. “It was actually Jamey Johnson that got me on that. I just met him randomly at a listening party, and we were just talking as humans. To be honest, I didn't even know who he was. I was aware of his music, but I didn't recognize him because he's got this massive beard. He asked me what I wanted to do and why I was over in Nashville, and I think I told him I was a doctor or something at first, because when I'm out, I just want to connect with people. I don't really want to talk about music all the time because I do it every day. He was like, ‘Are you really?’ and I had to tell him, ‘Well, I'm actually here for music, you know’ And he was like, ‘Oh, I've heard that before,’ but he told me to send him some music, so I did.”

“I told him it'd be my dream to get my grandparents over before they popped their clogs,” she says laughing. “Sorry, Grandma and Grandad. He was like, ‘Well, let's make it happen.’ He listened to my music, and when he introduced me, he said I had made history for being the first Romani traveller to ever step inside the circle, so that was a big one.”

“I lost my mind last year,” she admits, explaining the reasons for moving to Nashville. “I went through an absolutely horrendous breakup of a ten-year relationship. Ghosted me. So I was definitely in a bad spot, and I just needed to get out. I needed a new life. So that's me being brutally honest. I never heard him from him again until recently. I just needed to get to Nashville because I didn't like being at home. I'd been in London for 18 years and I was over it. So, it was a great time to move, and what better place to come to than the place where your whole soul feels inspired?”

“I'm such a truth seeker and my biggest fear is not fulfilling my potential,” Twinnie says before she rushes off. “Regardless of if I get played on radio, or if a label signs me or I get played on the radio, it's irrelevant to me because I know at some point something is gonna give because I work far too hard for it not to. If you give up, nothing's gonna happen, but if you don't give up, something's gonna happen. The fame and the riches that are a by-product of success don't interest me. I want to use my platform for good. I want to inspire someone, and that's the beauty of music. You never know who's listening and what they're feeling and how you might change someone's life, even if it's got bloody two streams or 20 million streams.”

“I just feel like I'm out here doing it for the UK,” she says laughing. “And also, I don't know if anybody cares about me back there anymore, but I just want to do it to say that somebody else can do it as well.”

Don’t worry, Twinnie. The UK definitely still cares.

Twinnie's latest single ‘Girl In Your Songs’ is out now on IKAW.

Listen If You Like: Shania Twain, Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce

Simeon Hammond Dallas

Twinnie isn’t the only one feeling a little moony this Summer. Simeon Hammond Dallas’ latest single - the country-tinged sun-drenched soft pop instant classic ‘Do I Die' - finds the singer from Camden Town, England, in a quietly existential mood as she looks back on the past two years and tries to make sense of all her successes.

After finishing 2023 with a showcase in Nashville at AmericanaFest and co-headlining Bush Hall in London with Song Suffragettes, she began 2024 by opening for Grammy-winner Allison Russell and making her Country2Country and BBC Radio 2 live debuts.

Raised on her parent’s eclectic record collection, taking in everything from The Cranberries to Ella Fitzgerald, Hammond Dallas’ own music is a no-fucks-given distinctly millennial take on Americana and blues that sounds like Bonnie Raitt would have if her songs had been written by Alanis Morissette.

‘Do I Die’ is available now.

Listen If You Like: Jillian Jacqueline, Maren Morris, Caylee Hammack

St Catherine’s Child

Named after the patron saint of eloquent women, St. Catherine’s Child is the pet project of transatlantic singer-songwriter Ilana Zsigmond. Born in England to musical parents, she spent the majority of her childhood in New Haven, Connecticut, bouncing back and forth between continents as her parents toured, but after settling back in the UK in 2015, she formed a band that reflected the Americana aesthetic that surrounded her throughout her childhood with the articulation and dry wit of her British sensibilities.

The result is the kind of softly stunning, mesmerising country tinged indie that Americans do so well, but we rarely pull off on this side of the Atlantic.

Every Generation EP is available now on Ki An Projects

Listen If You Like: Plains, Erin Rae, Courtney Marie Andrews

Brown Horse

Signed to the legendary British label Loose Records, Norfolk-based six-piece Brown Horse are setting the pace for melodic guitar-driven alt-country rock this side of the Atlantic with their debut album, Reservoir.

Invoking the spirits of turn-of-the-millennium alt-country artists like Son Volt, Lucinda Williams and Drive-By Truckers from the US, Brown Horse’s 10-track debut, recorded over just four days in a barn surrounded by farm fields and wetlands, is nevertheless soaked through with a peculiarly British kind of melancholy and angst.

Reservoir is out now on Loose Records. Brown Horse play The Long Road in August.

Listen If You Like: Nathaniel Rateliff, Drive-By Truckers, Uncle Tupelo

Catherine McGrath

Once the great hope of British country music, Catherine McGrath seemed to drop off the face of the earth slightly after releasing her brilliant major label debut in 2018. Featuring co-writes with Liz Rose, Jimmy Robbins and Nicolle Galyon, Talk of This Town, was a masterclass in Nashville country pop, but despite reaching number 13 in the UK country charts, a highly anticipated follow up never materialised.

Thankfully she’s been giving us reasons to be optimistic lately with shows in London and Ireland and rare sightings in and around the London live scene. She’s been teasing clips of her in the studio with Beatrice and Albin Alm, Ben Earle from The Shires, Irish Country songwriter Derek Ryan and Anna Krantz, even going so far as to release a single, ‘Next New Year,’ at the end of 2023.

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait until the end of this year for more new music from her.

‘Next New Year’ is out now.

Listen If You Like: Tenille Arts, Little Big Town, Ashley Cooke

The Shires

They may not have made it through to the final stages of TV talent show The X Factor, but Ben Earle and Crissie Rodes are very much the winners when it comes to the British country music.

Crissie Rhodes had been singing Dolly Parton and Faith Hill songs at weddings, pubs and clubs when she came across a message on Facebook that Ben Earle posted saying he was looking for a country singer to form a duo.

"There must be a country singer somewhere," he wrote. And there was.

Hailing from the neighbouring counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, the duo signed to Decca Records in the UK and UMG Nashville in the US, becoming the first English country act to be signed to a major Nashville label. They went on to be the first UK country act to have a top ten album and the first to receive a CMA Award.

Their recently released Undone recordings find the pair revisiting old songs from their 10 year career and stripping them down to the beautiful barest essentials.

The Shires' Undone is out now.

Listen If You Like: Lady A, Sugarland, Little Big Town

Ward Thomas

Following hot on the heels of The Shires were twin sister duo Ward Thomas. Their second studio album became the first album by a UK country act to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart surpassing the previous record by The Shires.

Born two minutes apart, Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas grew up on a farm in rural Hampshire and specialise in a quintessentially English brand of joyful country pop that feels as wholesome and fresh as having a picnic in a flowery meadow on a sunny day.

Following their most recent album, Music in the Madness, they released a playfully angsty duet with fellow Brit country star Kezia Gill entitled ‘Quarter Life Crisis’ and teamed up with Catherine McGrath for the anthemic ballad ‘If It All Ends Today.’

Listen If You Like: The Shires, Kelsea Ballerini,Maddie and Tae

Remember Monday

The British country trio made up of Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele originally found fame in the quarterfinals of the BBC television show The Voice where they controversially chose to perform their own original song ‘Jailbreaker’ instead of a cover song. Hell bent on blazing their own trail from the off, the British public took to social media to applaud the band’s brave choice and Remember Monday went on to pick up the award for Best Group at the British Country Music Awards that same year.

Specialising in a unique brand of finger clicking feminist country pop that sounds like a cross between Destiny’s Child and Carrie Underwood. Whether they’re satirizing the way society patronises and demonises women or calling out sexist double standards and voicing their frustrations with everyday sexism, Remember Monday always sugar their incendiary gender politics with an empowering pop country gloss.

Remember Monday play The Long Road Festival in August.

Listen If You Like: Carrie Underwood, Carly Pearce, Lauren Alaina

Paris Adams

After making her live debut as a solo artist on the Caitlyn Smith tour of October 2022, founder member, lead vocalist and main songwriter of The Adelaides, Paris Adams launched her solo career with fierce intent when she dropped ‘Gold’ at the top of last year.

Recorded in Nashville with Grammy winning producer Femke Weidema, the single was followed up by the equally fiery ‘Stupid with U,’ ‘Alien’ and her more reflective recent single ‘Trigger’ as she staked her claim to the throne as the Queen of British Country Music.

The Trigger EP is out now.

Listen If You Like: Runaway June, Carly Pearce, Danielle Bradbery

Ags Connolly

Country Music People described Ags Connolly as a “national treasure,” and we can put aside our competitive impulses for a moment to thoroughly agree with them on that. A country traditionalist hailing from Oxfordshire, England, Connolly has been transforming the venues and pubs of the UK into spellbound honky tonks ever since he released his debut EP, The Dim and Distant Past, in 2012.

Influenced by country outliers like David Allan Coe and Johnny Paycheck, his lyrics draw as much from singer-songwriters like Guy Clark and Loudon Wainwright III as they do outlaw country, and his first three albums are masterclasses in modern day country traditionalism, while his latest studio album, Siempre, takes the hints of Texas border sounds heard on his previous albums and peppers them with Tejano foot tappers and swinging barroom waltzes.

Siempre is out now on Finstock Music.

Listen If You Like: Joshua Hedley, Kelsey Waldon, Guy Clark

See below for the full playlist.

1.

Welcome to the Club

Twinnie
2.

Do I Die?

Simeon Hammond Dallas
3.

Every Generation

St. Catherine's Child
4.

Shoot Back

Brown Horse
5.

Talk of This Town

Catherine McGrath
6.

Daddy's Little Girl

The Shires
7.

Carry You Home

Ward Thomas
8.

Hysterical Women

Remember Monday
9.

Gold

Paris Adams
10.

I Hope You're Happy Now

Ags Connolly
11.

My Hometown

Mikala Fredriksson
12.

Follow What You Love and Love What You Follow

Robert Vincent
13.

Wish I Could

The Wandering Hearts
14.

High Time

Lauren Housley & The Northern Cowboys
15.

The Living Kind

John Smith
16.

House of Cards

Kezia Gill
17.

Studio Apartment

Chanel Yates
18.

Tennessee (feat. Chris Shiflett)

Sam Palladio
19.

Ride Out In The Country

Yola
20.

Uh Huh

Jade Bird
21.

Warrior Daughter

Wildwood Kin
22.

Mona Lisa

Roseanne Reid
23.

You Can't Love Me Anymore

Jack Browning
24.

California Fire

Bailey Tomkinson
25.

Tamed by Tennessee

Callum Kerr and Chris Andreucci
26.

(I Think That You Look) Better In Yellow

Ferris & Sylvester
27.

Black Train

James Dunne
28.

I'll Never Leave You Alone

The Staves
29.

Long Gone Wrong

Daniel Meade
30.

Nobody

Bess Atwell
31.

A Little Love

Jack Francis
32.

A Full House

Louis Brennan and Michele Stodart
33.

Forget You

First Time Flyers
34.

Alabama Girl

Jordan Harvey
35.

To The Light

Ashley Harding
36.

London's Lonely

Louise Connor
37.

Beautifully Broken

Danni Nicholls
38.

It's Getting Late

Yoshika Colwell
39.

The Road

Our Man In The Field
40.

Runaway Car

Peter Bruntnell
41.

NOLA

LOCKS
42.

Happiness is a Bird

The Hanging Stars
43.

Sable

The Roebucks
44.

Dusty in Memphis

The Dreaming Spires
45.

Hold in Your Breath

Steady Habits
46.

What's the Matter with You

Elles Bailey
47.

When I'm Over You

Sasha McVeigh
48.

Better In Blue Jeans

Laura Oakes
49.

Waterfall

Motel Sundown
50.

How Long Have You Known

Kezia Gill and Jade Helliwell
51.

Devils for Witches

Fin Pearson
52.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Jonny Morgan
53.

High Heeled Shoes

Megan McKenna
54.

Could've Been a Love Song

Gasoline & Matches
55.

One Night Stand

Hannah White
56.

Raining In Glasgow

Dean Owens
57.

My Baby, My Sweet

Michele Stodart
58.

Women

Daisy Chute
59.

We've Got A Lot To Learn

Danny George Wilson
60.

5 Years Into Marriage

Matt Owens, Hannah White and The Delusional Vanity Project
61.

Moody River

Holly Carter
62.

Oh Girl

Katy Hurt
63.

Rolling On

O&O
64.

Needle On Vinyl (Baby Let's Dance)

Laura Aston
65.

Wherever I Chose

Jason McNiff
66.

4am

Deeanne Dexeter
67.

Leave This Town

Jake O'Neill
68.

Dead Inside

Abbie Mac
69.

Love Sick

Eddy Smith & The 507
70.

Time in a Bottle

Megan O'Neill and Mark Caplice
71.

I Wanna Love You (But I Can't Right Now)

Bennett Wilson Poole
72.

Broken Jaw

Luke Tuchscherer
73.

The Poet

Katie Nicholas
74.

Kiss You Now

Jess and the Bandits
75.

You're Gonna Break My Heart

My Crooked Teeth
76.

Home Again

Savannah Gardner
77.

Some Sad Songs

Brandon Ridley
78.

Helpless

Robbie Cavanagh
79.

Come Over

Morganway
80.

Everything's Going South

Legends of Country
81.

Gradually Learning

The Rockingbirds
82.

One Last One-Night Stand

Pete Gow
83.

(Never Stop Building) That Old Space Rocket

Danny & The Champions of the World
84.

Distorted Desires

Demi Marriner
85.

Move On

William the Conqueror
86.

Ain't It Funny

Jackson Ward
87.

Mr. Shame

Emilia Quinn
88.

Hurt

Kate Ellis
89.

One Last Trip Around The Sun

Police Dog Hogan
90.

Call Me When It All Goes Wrong

The Rails
91.

Haunted House

Treetop Flyers
92.

Everything Is Free

Lady Nade
93.

He's My Dad

Gary Quinn
94.

If This Was a Love Song

Raintown
95.

You Only Love Me When You're Drunk

Devon Mayson
96.

Thoughtless

Clara Mann
97.

Tassels and Flares

Luke Flear
98.

Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone

The Arlenes
99.

A Tear for Every Year

Morton Valence
100.

Devil in the Details

The Broken Family Band