Thomas Rhett, 28
Instagram rarely finds a mention in country songs, but Thomas Rhett sings in Life Changes: She got a blue check mark by her Instagram/ And I wrote a little song about holding her hand. He belongs to a new breed of country stars whose music is stripped down and uncomplicatedly beautiful. When journalist Jody Rosen coined the term “bro country” in a New York magazine article around five years ago, he defined it as “music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude”.
According to Taste of Country: “Brett Young and Thomas Rhett are leaders of country music’s Nice Guy Revolution. The leading men in their songs are gentlemen — the kind of guys mothers hope their daughters will marry.”
When he launched his career as a college student in 2010, Rhett took the traditional Nashville road, which is about writing songs for other artistes (his father is Rhett Akins, one of Nashville’s most successful songwriters). He landed a record deal at Big Machine in 2011 but his early singers didn’t work. It Goes Like This clicked and it led to the release of his self-titled debut album. His second record (Tangled Up, 2015) did even better, thanks to the song Die a Happy Man.
Voice-over: “I’ve really tried to take every year and go, ‘How do we make this show look bigger than life?’ or ‘How do we make this record resonate with people not just in America, but people in the UK and Australia and Asia? I think that stems from writing a true story, and that’s what country music is at the core, a true, genuine story,” he has told The Washington Post.
Songs to stream: Life Changes, Die A Happy Man, Crash And Burn.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Kane Brown, 25
He shot to stardom in the last four years and country traditionalists continue to scrutinise his music. Born to a father who is black and part Cherokee, and a mother who is white (according to a 2016 New York Times profile), Brown was initially signed through Zone 4, an imprint affiliated to the hip-hop and R&B producer Polow Da Don. Instead of running after a deal involving cowboy boots, he represents a generation where identity is more fluid. Though some have boxed him as pop-R&B and not a country artiste, he is as country as any other country artiste is. He lived on a dairy farm and when the going got tough, he slept in the family car while his mom sang Shania Twain and Sugarland instead of lullabies.
His one shot at American Idol was unsuccessful and The X Factor tried to put him in a boy band. He decided to move away from reality shows and started presenting covers online, like Lee Brice’s I Don’t Dance. Brown has now found an audience outside the US. In Latin American markets he has a following and the man has joined Camila Cabello on a duet version of her hit Never Be the Same. His songs about love, hardships and regrets make him come across as one of us.
Voice-over: “Right now, [my race] does matter. People always say, ‘There are plenty of black country artistes out there! There is Charley Pride! Darius Rucker!’ That’s all they can name. They don’t understand what we go through, and a lot of people who are fans of traditional country music, as they call it, look at us and aren’t going to say, ‘Y’all like country music’,” he has told Billboard.
Songs to stream: Lose It, Heaven and What Ifs.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Caitlyn Smith, 31
Her message is simple — don’t give up. In Nashville, as a young musician, luck hasn’t been kind to Caitlyn Smith. Instead of trying to force a singing career, Caitlyn turned out more than 500 songs (with and without collaborators) as lyricist, including the 2015 Meghan Trainor-John Legend hit, Like I’m Gonna Lose You. Her lyrics have been appreciated by the likes of Lady Antebellum, Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton. The long and winding path finally gave way to a breakout moment, which came this year in the form of her debut album, Starfire.
Smith spent most of her teenage years travelling between her home in Minneapolis and Nashville, playing gigs in coffee shops. In 2009, she married songwriter Rollie Gaalswyk, and the two of them co-wrote Wasting All These Tears, which The Voice winner Cassadee Pope recorded and it became a Top 10 hit.
Starfire makes it difficult to categorise Smith, not that she wants to be boxed. While the title track is a rock stomp, Before You Called Me Baby is soulful and This Town Is Killing Me is personal.
Voice-over: “I’ve probably heard ‘no’ from every label in town at least twice. In hindsight, I’m so glad that nothing ever worked out because it took that long journey… to finally go, ‘You know what, I’m sick of trying to write for radio, or trying to write for Joe down the street at the record label. I’m just going to make music that I love’,” she has told Washington Post.
Songs to stream: Starfire, This Town Is Killing Me, Like I’m Gonna Lose You.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Kacey Musgraves, 30
Agnoised relationships have always been at the heart of country music but Kacey Musgraves can create autobiographical slices of life while lending the genre a very cosmopolitan finish. She’s a rebel with a cause, discussing religion, safe sex, homosexuality and the US political climate in general.
Her importance has aptly been summed up by George Garner, deputy editor of Music Week magazine: “If Taylor Swift was the gateway into country music [for a new generation], Kacey had a major role in sustaining... that interest. Here you’ve got true country music supercharged with huge crossover pop appeal.”
The 30-year-old has been writing songs that inspire the youth to speak up, like in Follow Your Arrow she proclaims same-sex love is fine with her, It Is What It Is is about no-strings-attached sex, and the arrogant man gets put in his place in High Horse. Thank you Kacey for remaking country music for a new generation.
Voice-over: “I don’t feel like I would be doing a favour to myself or anybody who enjoys my music if I just repeated myself. Music isn’t made for that reason,” she has told Texas Monthly.
Songs to stream: Follow Your Arrow, Slow Burn, Merry Go ’Round.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Ward Thomas, 24
After The Shires, the biggest country act to come out of the UK are twins Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas.
In 2016, the former convent school girls from Hampshire became the first UK country music act to have a number one album as Ward Thomas, their band, saw Cartwheels shoot up the charts. With both women singing lead harmony and having Taylor Swift and the Dixie Chicks as their inspiration, they write songs from a British perspective.
The songs on their album Cartwheels hold on to the classic country formula of “three chords and the truth” but they also want to push their musical boundary into poppier sounds.
Country music found takers among the youth partly due to the success of the TV show Nashville and though the genre’s appeal in the UK is less, there has been some growth in recent years. According to British Phonographic Industry figures, country music represents 2.3 per cent of the total UK album market, its highest level in nine years.
Voice-over: “Country used to be a dirty word here. We grew up loving it. Our granny would sing us Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline — great, deep, emotional songs,” the duo have told The Daily Telegraph.
Songs to stream: Guilty Flowers, I Believe In You.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Maren Morris, 28
There is fire in her lyrics and joy in her voice. Touring with One Direction man Niall Horan this year, Maren Morris learnt how music brings people together. Travelling outside the US, she understood how the world looks at country music, which many consider is for white people.
“And that really hit me, because when you only do interviews in North America and the UK, you are never going to be asked that question, so it really opened my eyes to the weight that country music could have elsewhere,” the 2017 Grammy winner has said in an interview. Though the Arlington-born singer has already tasted the wrath of right-wingers, she believes that it’s more important to be a positive role model.
The singer who has logged hits with Zedd and Alicia Keys has kept her songs lyrically rooted in the storytelling structure of Nashville but musically — inspired by Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Patsy Cline, Chaka Khan — it knows no boundaries. One of her biggest hits till date is The Church, which she wrote during a trip to Los Angeles, while driving down Santa Monica.
Voice-over: “My lyrics are more country — what I love is the storytelling and the structure, how tight the rhymes can be. But pop melodies have always been intrinsically linked to my writing style…. I didn’t move to Nashville with any inkling or dreams of getting a record deal. I didn’t have those stars in my eyes. I just wanted to take a break, relax and figure out songwriting,” she has told The New York Times.
Songs to stream: The Middle, The Church.
Sourced by The Telegraph
Kelsea Ballerini, 25
Taylor Swift got her start in country music but once she made it clear that she is better defined as a pop artiste, the genre started looking for its next TS. Kelsea Ballerini is at the forefront. The Knoxville girl grew up a Britney Spears fan but her music has a Shania Twain twang.
The 2017 Best New Artiste Grammy nominee is taking country music out of the bro phase. She is known to attach a strong female perspective to the genre. While her debut album, The First Time (2015), coated relationships in pop sheen, the follow-up, last year’s Unapologetically, is mature in its approach to life, like the gloom of a break-up giving way to the ecstasy of new love.
Ballerini discovered country music relatively late in spite of growing up in east Tennessee. Her early days were spent walking around “trying to do the Britney Spears growl: Oh, baby, baby” before stumbling up on Keith Urban’s Stupid Boy on a friend’s Myspace page. At 19, she moved to Nashville where she made her intentions clear, resulting in songs like the pop-driven debut single Love Me Like You Mean It that finds “her on the prowl for man” and Miss Me More, which bids farewell to a man.
Voice-over: “I’ve never been scared, but I’m very naive. The greatest gift I’ve been given is being naive, because I don’t know what I can’t do. And when you don’t know what you can’t do, you think you can do everything. I never cared to be on a big label, I knew who I wanted to produce me…. I always had this laser-vision of what I wanted,” she has told Rolling Stone.
Songs to stream: This Feeling (with The Chainsmokers), Peter Pan, Miss Me More
