Welsh-based, UK-focused Country Music Reviews and Interviews
Gig Diaries – Good Company (Jun 2026 edition)
The celebration of Good Company’s first anniversary was rather understated. At least in terms of sound. For rather than some of the punchy country and acoustic rock that have been a staple so far, this songwriters’ round leant heavily into whimsical folk. Not that the genre that host Katy Hurt is known for took a backseat entirely. Owen Morton championed…
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Nia Nicholls – Marionette
What I love most about the new EP from Nia Nicholls is the surprising styles that have arisen in her music. For all that the Swiftian comparisons of the past remain, there are also elements of pop that have been hard-pressed into ‘Marionette’ to create sounds more retro than Taylor herself. Take ‘Movies from Cannes’ for instance. The production smacks…
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Hollie Rogers – Everything’s Fine
There is a seamless transition between the last and most recent of Hollie Rogers’ albums. The eclectic nature of both ensures that ‘Everything’s Fine’ builds on the strong foundations laid with ‘Criminal Heart’. Once again, she travels along a spectrum of genres on her latest record, using the music to compliment her storytelling which remains her greatest strength. The title…
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Amy-Jo – Hold Your Horses
Pathetic fallacy. A literary term for when the weather reflects a character’s emotions. And here, looking out the window at the rain and blue sky beyond, is what represents mine after the song I’ve just heard. ‘Hold Your Horses’ could have been written for the teenage me. With my “head to the ground” as I “bury the tears” – a…
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Amy-Jo – Hypocrite
Sat between a mainstay of UK Country music and a Nashville singer-songwriter, Amy-Jo holds her own. It is testament to how far she’s come that the level of performance between her, Two Ways Home and Regan Stewart is seamless. Her rendition of ‘Hypocrite’ at the latest Good Company Songwriters Round self-assured and unwavering. It is surprising how close the actual…
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Taynee Lord – Still Searching
Taynee Lord continues her country mash-up of pop and rock with her latest single ‘Still Searching’. Taking popular symbols from fairytales to tell her own story of love in a modern world. She is honest and unrelenting in her pursuit of ‘the one’. The central image of the frog is two-fold: both representative of those relationships that haven’t worked out,…
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Annie Dressner – Dumb Boy
The nostalgia spilling through from Annie Dressner’s latest single sure hits the spot on a lazy Sunday afternoon. ‘Dumb Boy’ takes me back to my late 90s childhood when its soft punk sound penetrated the airwaves much more than it does these days. Its story of unrequited love never goes out of fashion though. The push and pull of attraction,…
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Gig Diaries – The Jaywalkers
Away from the bright lights of the O2 last weekend, I made my way to the Tin Shed in rural North Wales. Such has been the growth of country music in the UK over the past decade, it is not just the C2C Festival that is now on offer for fans of the genre. And so away from the crowds…
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Gig Diaries – Northern Songbirds 2026 Tour
The final leg of the inaugural ‘Northern Songbirds’ tour came to Liverpool, in the ever more intimate setting of the Kazimier Stockroom. It felt small enough on my first visit a month ago but this time a curtain across one side and a lengthy merch stand on the other meant a tighter squeeze. It took nothing away from the atmosphere,…
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Fieldlily – Grow
The metamorphosis from Wildwood Kin to Fieldlily has not been as radical as the timespan. The Key sisters have retained much of their electro-folk that still washes over the soul like waves on a shore. The difference now, in the absence of drummer Meg, is less a punctuation and more a delicate offering of wisdom gleaned. Their debut EP, ‘Grow’,…
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