26 May 2020

Rising UK artist Shannon Hynes has released her new single Country Words, which she has described herself as “an ode to the women of country music.” You can listen to the song here. The single comes three months after Hynes’ last release, which was Comfort, while it is also the third track that the Welsh artist has shared in the last six months, with Off Guard coming in November. It is expected that all three appear on her upcoming debut EP. Speaking about the song, Hynes explained that it emerged from a place of frustration and given that she doesn’t consider herself to be a confrontational person, she channelled some of her heroes and put her feelings into song form. “Country Words is a no frills, exactly what it says on the tin song,” Hynes explains. “I was having trouble with someone I was working with at the time, myself not generally being a forthright person when it comes to situations such as this, so I turned to songwriting. “It got me thinking back to some of the classic, incredibly strong, sassy songs that the likes of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn released back in the day, most notably and a favourite of mine Fist City. Country Words is my take.” To celebrate the release of the track, Shannon Hynes has also brought out some dedicated merchandise for Country Words, which you can find here.

The Wandering Hearts have announced that their much anticipated second album will be self-titled and will be released on August 14. The video for lead single on the album, Over Your Body, can be seen below and you can pre-order the album here. [wpdevart_youtube]97d0VgLSshs[/wpdevart_youtube] The trio – made up of Tara Wilcox, Chess Whiffin and AJ Dean-Revington – shot onto the scene with their debut effort ‘Wild Silence’ in 2018 and have gone from strength to strength ever since, receiving critical acclaim along the way. Speaking about the new album, the trio said that the early writing sessions for the album saw them open up on their personal experiences, notably love, death, fear and life and while taking these themes head on was challenging, the group believe it has made them closer than ever. “Tackling some of these topics can feel very heavy, especially when times seem equally tough and asking for help is sometimes hard,” The Wandering Hearts said in a statement. “However, knowing that we’re stronger together than apart is the key. “Hope has become the core of what this record stands for and what it means to us. Never losing hope that we can at any moment change the outcome of our future.” The record was produced by Simone Felice and David Baron, while the vast majority of the album was put together at the pair’s mountain top studio near Woodstock, New York. Upon the release of their debut album, The Wandering Hearts very quickly won Bob Harris’ Emerging Artist Award at the UK Americana Awards and their rise also carried over to America, where they became the first band to play both the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium in the same week.