10 June 2020

Nashville Meets London have joined forces with the Royal Albert Hall to put on a virtual country gig on July 18 featuring a number of high profile acts. Anyone can watch via the Royal Albert Hall YouTube channel, which you can find here. Taking place at 19:30 BST, The Cadillac Three, Tenille Townes, Michael Ray and Twinnie will be performing as the show tries to raise funds for the iconic music venue, which has been closed for the first time since the Second World War. Country Hits presenter Matt Spracklen will be hosting. Speaking about the collaboration with Nashville Meets London, Lucy Noble – the Artistic Director of the Royal Albert Hall – said that the series so far has been a huge success and that she is ecstatic to be able to bring country music to the fray. “This series has spotlighted an incredible collection of world class talents working in an extraordinary array of genres,” Noble said. “Since we launched on 9 April, we’ve featured everything from Baxter Dury to Bach cello suites, from spoken word to homegrown soul. “Now we’re absolutely delighted to announce the first country music concert as part of Royal Albert Home, showcasing four fantastic acts who’ll bring a little bit of Nashville into your living room. “The line-up illustrates just how exciting and eclectic the world of country is right now, and we can’t wait to share this show with you.” Since the series has started, the likes of Rufus Wainwright, KT Tunstall, Richard Thompson and Ayanna Witter-Johnson have done streamed gigs for the Royal Albert Hall, with people donating £50,000 to the cause.

Temecula Road have given their fans a new piece of work to listen to, which comes in the shape of a cover of Miley Cyrus’ The Climb. You can watch an audio video below. [wpdevart_youtube]s4bYdd1JYe0[/wpdevart_youtube] The song, which was written by Jessi Alexander and Jon Mabe, went multi-platinum after Cyrus released it as a single and now Temecula Road – made up of sisters Maddie and Emma Salute as well as Dawson Anderson – have shared their version of it. Speaking about why they chose to cover it, the group said that it is a song that has always been close to their hearts and with the current global situation, it’s a song that resonates a little bit more. “We have always loved this song and its message especially hits home for us with everything going on in the world right now,” Maddie said. “We came up with this arrangement and recorded the vocals ourselves during quarantine,” Emma added. “We hope you find as much comfort in listening as we did in creating it,” Anderson concluded. Prior to lockdown, Temecula Road were on course for one of their busiest years to date and in the build up to 2020, made their Grand Ole Opry debut and also supported Scotty McCreery on his UK and Europe tour. The trio were also set to perform at C2C 2020, before the festival was pulled at the last minute as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.