The Shires (duo)

The Shires are an English country duo composed of singer-songwriters Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes. The duo formed in 2013 and released their record-breaking debut album Brave in 2015, becoming the first UK country act to chart in the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart.^[1] They hail from the neighbouring counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, respectively. Earle sings vocals, plays piano and guitar and Rhodes shares lead vocals.

The duo fittingly took the band name in order to maintain a British identity and take a small part of the England back to the United States. "Shire" is the original term for what is usually now known as an English county. After playing hardly half a dozen shows together, The Shires caught the attention of Decca Records, who signed them in the UK, and they secured a contract with American record label Universal Music Group Nashville, thus becoming the first ever English country act to be signed to a major Nashville label.^[2][3][4]

Career

2012–13: Early beginnings

Crissie Rhodes has performed at weddings, pubs and clubs performing songs by Dolly Parton amongst others. Her country music influences include Alison Krauss, Martina McBride and Faith Hill. Ben Earle was previously a solo artist and had supported KT Tunstall on tour. As a struggling songwriter, who had been writing for 10 years, he had tried to get cuts for other artists. He discovered country music in 2012 via Lady Antebellum the American Grammy Award winning group. He cites the Kacey Musgraves album Same Trailer Different Park as a major career inspiration.^[4] Earle and Rhodes met after Ben, with an aim to become part of a duo, posted a "There must be a country singer somewhere" message on the social media website Facebook, seeking a partner, to which Rhodes responded.^[2][3] As part of BBC Radio 2's coverage of the festival The Shires were included as a segment in a documentary titled "Nashville UK" which assessed country music’s standing in the U.K and as one of its promising artists their determination to export their British country roots to their American counterparts.^[5] The Shires have composed songs with hit Nashville songwriter Steve Mcewan (Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood) and Play Productions an accomplished Swedish writing and production company, who comprise Tim Larsson, Johan Fransson and Tobias Lundgren, who have worked with Rascal Flatts and Celine Dion.^[3][6]

2014–present: Brave

They were invited to the C2C: Country to Country 2014 Festival and performed at The Town Square Pop Stage on Sunday March 16, 2014 outside the London O2 Arena.^[7] Their first single "Nashville Grey Skies" was released on April 4, 2014 and received its first airplay on the Bob Harris BBC Radio 2 Country show on April 3, 2014. It was added to the BBC Radio 2 "B" Playlist for the week commencing Saturday May 3, 2014 and climbed to the "A" playlist the following week.^{[8][9] [10]} The song was written by Ben before visiting Music City which is a song about hope with a pipe dream of building, and the UK having, a country music capital of its very own.^[11] It takes the musicality influences from America whilst maintaining a Britishness with the song writing. It contains facetious lines such as "Well they say it's way too cold for cut-off jeans and they won't be drinking moonshine and G & T's" and "We can build our own Nashville under these grey skies".

On 21 April 2014 they travelled to Sweden and then headed to Nashville to begin preparations and record their debut album. The duo toured the UK with Ward Thomas^[12] and Little Big Town,^[13] prior to their own headlining tour in 2015.^[14] In March 2015 the duo released their debut studio album Brave. The album peaked at number 10 on the UK Albums Chart. The Shires opened for The Corrs on their comeback tour in 2016 including shows at Birmingham's Genting Arena, Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena, Liverpool's Echo Arena, The O2 Arena London, Manchester Arena, Glasgow's SSE Hydro, Dublin's 3Arena and the SSE Arena Belfast between January 19 and 29. ^[15]

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Awards and nominations

Live radio appearances

They made their national radio debut on May 1, 2014 with a recorded live session with Bob Harris OBE on BBC Radio 2. They performed 2 songs "Brave" and "Only Midnight". They told Bob about their history, their experiences of Nashville and why country superstar Brad Paisley has offered to play on their album.<ref name="Bob Harris Session"

On June 14, 2014 The Shires performed on Liverpool's Waterfront for Smooth Radio. The afternoon event attracted in excess of 30,000 visitors — one of the highlights being their cover of 'Young Hearts Run Free'.

Quotes

• "The first play anywhere I believe by a new duo called The Shires Ben [Earle] & Crissie [Rhodes] from Bedford... convincingly good aren't they, I think that's terrific, new single coming out, getting them in for a session really enjoy them very much" - Bob Harris BBC Radio 2 broadcast April 3, 2014 ^[19]

• "Now we heard Bob Harris not so long ago, one of his favourite new outfits is this one, me too, they're The Shires...like them a lot" - Richard Allison BBC Radio 2 broadcast May 3, 2014 ^[20]

• "Our boss here loves this, it's The Shires, Nashville Grey Skies on Radio 2" - Steve Wright BBC Radio 2 broadcast May 8, 2014 ^[21]

• "This is awesome, this is The Shires..they sound fantastic, the new song is called Nashville Grey Skies, love it" - Richard Allinson BBC Radio 2 broadcast May 10, 2014 ^[22]

• "They're great, the talent and quality of the record is fabulous, contemporary music at its best, very polished" - Marie Crichton BBC Radio Shropshire broadcast May 3, 2014 ^[23]

• "Brave is one of the most enjoyable albums of the year, and so unique in the UK charts today" - Matthew Wiggins On Air with Chris and Matt Looprevilradio broadcast November 10, 2014 ^[24]

References

External links

• Official Website

The Shires at AllMusic