“I Have So Many More Stories to Share”: Colby T. Helms Looks Ahead to Eagerly Awaited ‘Tales From Virginia’ UK Tour

Ahead of his keenly anticipated debut headline Tales From Virginia UK tour, proudly presented by JOY. Concerts and Holler Live, alt-country prodigy, Colby T. Helms, sits down with Holler to tease what ticket-holders can expect from his forthcoming setlist.

Helms kicks off his run of shows across The Pond this Sunday (February 2nd), with a set at Brighton's The Hope & Run, before the fast-emerging Americana singer-songwriter brings his catalogue of richly textured Appalachian odes to cities such as London, Norwich, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Colby T. Helms is quickly establishing himself as one of the leading voices in the next wave of Appalachian country artists, committed to both preserving the the region's rich, eclectic musical heritage, and helping it to evolve in a contemporary setting.

Given how Colby T. Helms’ music is steeped in the historical and cultural influences of his native Virginia, you might assume his discography would struggle to travel and resonate with those who didn't experience the same kind of upbringing as Helms.

In reality, the opposite is true, with Colby T. Helms boasting a quickly burgeoning UK fanbase, which was consolidated during his stellar set during 2024 Americana Music Week.

Colby T. Helms’ appeal is multi-faceted, with some listeners enjoying the escapism the up-and-coming artist provides through his weathered, visceral vignettes of Appalachian living. Others champion the fact that, although he often sings about specific settings and characters, his tales are always permeated by strikingly relatable themes, which resonate just as powerfully with a fellow Virginian land-surveyor as they do with someone working a 9-to-5 office job in London.

“My first album, Tales Of Misfortune, was all about my life growing up in Southern Virginia, and the struggles I went through”, Helms explains, “I had a lot of depression and mental health issues, and lot of times I felt alone. A lot of Americana artists gear their music towards helping people, and I really love that aspect. That's something I always want to do - help people through whatever problems they have in their life through my music, as an outlet. So I try to be that outlet when I'm performing live. I try to bring a vulnerable state of mind to every performance”.

He expands, “I try to lay it out like it's my very first performance every single time, so that each audience member gets a raw, intimate experience. I want to bring a hopeful and jolly vibe, because there was a time when I never thought that I would be doing what I'm doing. So the fact that I'm able to do it, it just brings me a lot of joy, and I hope that I can brighten somebody's day just by being there”.

Colby T. Helms’ drive to offer comfort and optimism to those that come along to his UK shows stems in part from the volume of gigs he's attended, “I'm going to play some I'm going to play some old-time instrumentals on the guitar this time, so I'll have some good driving music to get people to dance. The type of energy that I try to bring is a welcoming energy, because I have also been an audience member myself, and I have been to a lot of live performances. I know what it feels like to go to a show and have the artist separate themselves from the crowd”.

Throughout our conversation, Colby T. Helms gushes about the unique qualities - and challenges - posed by UK crows, “In the UK, the folks are way more attentive to the songwriting itself, and actually intently listen. I found everybody to be super respectful and into what I was, I was talking about, which was awesome for me. A lot of times in America, you don't always get the the most attentive crowds in the world. I've played in a lot of places where people couldn't stop talking over you, and it was hard to catch their attention and keep it. Everybody that was at the show in the UK wanted to hear my stories, and paid attention to the little nuances that I'll throw into my songs. I'm super excited to get back over here, because I have so many more stories to share with everybody”.

Rest assured those who have been lucky enough to get their hands on tickets to Helms‘ Tales From Virginia run share his eagerness for these shows to start this weekend, with the tour set to strengthen Helms’ blossoming relationship with fans across the Atlantic.

Purchase tickets to Colby T. Helms’ 2025 Tales From Virginia UK Tour here.

In addition, in his interview with Holler, Colby T. Helms discussed his new album, Tyler Childers’ influence and more:

“The first album was all about me; this next album is going to be about people in my life that have influenced me. There are many people in my life that have been through struggles, and I've tried to help them...I feel like the audience members are going to identify with at least one of these characters. Either they are that person, or they know somebody that's like that. I guarantee you that after the show, audience-members are going to come up to me saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this reminds me of my cousin’, or ‘This reminds me of my old boss’...I think it's so important for people to take a step back and realize that we're all just humans on this planet influencing each other. We have to make our make our efforts count”.

“I'm a huge history buff, man. That's a huge part of my music. At one point, I thought about becoming a historian. I almost went to college for history. I live in a very historic region of America. My family settled in Virginia in the 1750's, and they've lived there ever since. They came from England, so I feel like I'm going back to my motherland.

On my mom's side, we have Scottish and Irish ancestry, so it's a dream come true for me. The only thing I wish is that my dad was alive and could be here, because my dad was a huge history buff, and he taught me so much about local history, frontier history and colonial history. It rubbed off on me a lot. I know he would have loved to go to England and Scotland. I know we have a day off in Edinburgh, so my girlfriend's coming with me this time, and I'm super excited to show her around. I actually got to go to Edinburgh when I was in high school, because I was in theatre and we played at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh...We went up there and got to perform a musical up there. I was 14 or 15 when we went on that trip, and it was the coolest trip of my life. The hills of Virginia are very reminiscent of the hills of Scotland, so I feel like I'm home when I'm there”.

“In high school, I was listening to Tyler Childers when he only had two albums out - Bottles and Bibles and Live at Red Barn Radio...Tyler started to blow up when I was about 16, and Purgatory came out. Purgatory was produced by Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson. Well, David Ferguson is the guy that's about to produce my next album.

When Purgatory came out and Tyler Childers all of a sudden blew up, it kind of gave me a sour taste, because I was like, ‘Man, I've been listening to this guy since way before, and now everybody likes him, but they only like him for a couple of his songs’.

I really looked up to Tyler Childers. He has inspired a lot of young people in Appalachia to be able to have the confidence to release their songs without feeling stupid. Appalachia has this terrible stigma around it that everybody here is either on drugs, ignorant or inbred, and Tyler Childers has made Appalachia cool again. It started a little bit of a fire under everybody's ass to start doing their own thing.

If Tyler Childers is the only comparison that somebody can make to me, then that is in no way offending me, because he's the entry level to Appalachian music, and then super enthusiasts can get as deep as me...He bridges the gap between mainstream music and Appalachian music. My music is for the people that want to take it a step further and really get into the culture, because I still play bluegrass. I still play the music of this region. I haven't quite established myself yet, but hopefully after this album comes out, my hope is that this will establish me a bit more, like Purgatory did for Tyler. Then maybe after that, I could start releasing some more cultural songs that are regionally specific to where I'm from”.

For more on Colby T. Helms, see below: