“Merry Swiftmas” I proclaimed yesterday morning as I picked up a copy of Taylor Swift’s seventh studio album Lover the minute doors opened at the local record store, sporting a Taylor Swift t-shirt and my reputation socks! HMV sold out of copies quickly in Manchester but according to one article online Taylor’s star is falling, the pop-stars career is crashing rapidly... seriously? This is an artist who sold a million copies a...

Taylor Swift introduced us to her new era a few months ago with the release of Me! featuring Brandon Urie. In the music video she dropped lots of little Easter eggs for us to find about this next chapter and now many of those little hints are starting to come together and make sense! The album's title Lover was written almost as a big flashing neon sign in the middle of the video and today the title track, which is the fourth...

There's no one quite like a Swiftie, Taylor Swift's die hard fans who are all secretly detectives and boy do they need those skills. I'm happy to call myself a Swiftie and have been since the very start, I had to set my alarm for 5am UK time to see the new release but it was worth it! In the early Swift days you had to allow a little extra time to pick out the capital letters in her song lyric booklets to decipher who each son...

Brooks and Dunn’s career is something to be marvelled at, 20 number 1 hits to their name, 2 Grammy’s, multi-platinum selling albums including one that’s certified sextuple-platinum and winning every duo of the year award at the CMA’s between 92 and 2006 bar one, it’s no wonder they have just this year been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, is there anyone more deserving? And now this week they are releasing another...

After their recent chart success with Bebe Rexha came to an end, Florida Georgia Line are back with a brand new album called Can’t Say I Ain’t Country… well gents people can say that and they are doing but lets take a look shall we at the album as a whole and see why this group, who has been incredibly successful in the genre of Country, divide opinion amongst Country fans? The album is quite unusual, it has 19 tracks, 4 of wh...

Brett Young is back with a number one record! Yes Ticket to L.A. has just gone to number one on the Billboard top Country albums chart! It deserves the top spot, being one of the best records released this year, in my opinion. At the album playback at Big Machine I looked around the room to see most people nodding and tapping along with a contented smile on their faces and since it’s release social media has been buzzing with...

I didn’t know what to expect when I was tasked with going to the Bridgewater Hall to review The Overtones, I knew a little about the group but had never seen them live before. I had guessed that it would be an emotional event with the loss of their lead singer still fresh in the mind but since then they have released their sixth studio album on an independent label and I was keen to see how the events of the past year would im...

Right from the offset it is clear this album takes us back to authentic Country music. Interstate Prelude which lasts just over a minute introduces us to the traditional instrumentation we commonly associate with classic Country. Track 2 Stop Drop and Roll One begins with beautiful harmonies from the three Annie’s. When the three unique voices come together it really is music to your ears, they blend and compliment each other...

When sat in the cinema waiting for Christopher Robin to begin a few weeks back I saw a trailer, the soundtrack sounded good and it mentioned Bradley Cooper playing a Country singer, then Lady Gaga’s voice kicks in and the trailer alone had me muttering “wow” under my breath. I had to see that film! Not long after I received the invite to the preview screening the night before release organised by Entertainment Focus Country an...

Sonia Leigh’s career is something to be marvelled at. Her versatility as a songwriter is unrivalled and the hard work she puts in as an independent artist is reflected in the miles she travels and the amount of shows she does year in year out. But more than all of this Sonia is the kind of person who gets along with everybody, she can often be found at the end of a show sharing a smile and a pint with her fans and she’s always...