2021

If you talk to any UK based artist on the UK country scene, there is a strong chance that Tim Prottey-Jones has written with them, produced for them or has supported them in some way. The former Wandering Heart has been keeping his finger on the pulse and has chosen now as the time to launch his solo career. Given that he has worked in bands mainly, it is a bit of a shock to the system on that front, but it is something that he is relishing as ultimately, everything he produces is for him and him only.  “I don’t know what it is about putting your name to something personally,” Prottey-Jones said. “It almost feels like you’re working behind the scenes with a band name and I quite like that.  “But I think there’s something about this year where it’s just one of those years, where you just go ‘if I can’t do it this year, then when can I?’, so I think it’s purely stems from how proud and happy I am of the music that I’m coming out with and at the end of the day, this music is just for me. It’s only me that’s got to sing it and it’s only me that’s got to perform it.”   A blend of sounds   While Prottey-Jones hasn’t yet figured out if he’ll be making the collection of singles he has at his disposal into an EP or to push on and make an album depending on how it goes, what he has figured out is his sound – even if no-one knows what to expect. By combining a number of genres together and complete with his own twist, Prottey-Jones has something going and is very keen to see how people take to it.  “When I put Bite the Bullet out, I don’t think people knew what to expect and I think that comes from being in a band, producing and writing for other artists and it being a case of knowing what my sound is. My only answer to that is wait until you hear all these songs put together, because they pretty much will sum it up.  “There will always be elements of rock due to my love of that growing up, country runs through without a doubt because that’s what I love and there’s pop stuff in there because from a production point of view, that excites me as well. I’ve tried to fuse all of those things as well as showing off parts of my voice. If I have any luck, you’ll certainly know what I’m all about.”   Never say never   While Prottey-Jones is very much a solo artist now, the heights he hit as part of The Wandering Hearts were astronomical and while he isn’t intentionally trying to make lightning strike twice in that respect, he doesn’t see the harm in trying to push himself as far as possible as you just never know what is going to happen in the music world.  “The stuff that we achieved with the band, some of it was honestly out of this world incredible. It may never be recreated. Playing at the Ryman for our first American show alongside people like Chris Stapleton – that’s a real pinch me, bucket list kind of moment. There really is no point me saying “I’ll never do that again”, because you just don’t know. I never thought that was gonna happen and I never thought I’d get a major record deal, but I did and those things happened and they happened fairly late on in my career really.  “You never know. I feel like I’ve learnt a lot over these past five or six years and probably even more so since the band. I think I know now what I need to do, what I don’t want to do and I need to trust my instincts as well I think. Those instincts were right when the band started and when I put that band together and who’s to say I can’t do that again with my own stuff?” Regardless of whether he hits those heights again or not, it’s a very safe bet to assume that Prottey-Jones will be a shining star in the UK country scene for as long as he wants to be.     

J R Harbidge has given fans a taster of what is to come from his upcoming new album by releasing lead single Wrong Side of the Fight. You can listen to the song here or watch the video below. [wpdevart_youtube]ubUpfMMMTQI[/wpdevart_youtube] Harbidge’s second album ‘Long Black River’ will be released on April 30 and Wrong Side of the Fight is the first single from that, with the Cannock based artist following up on his 2018 debut ‘First Ray of Light’. Speaking about the song, Harbidge said that it has been kicking around for over 25 years, but only got finished in 2020 as the artist simply couldn’t find a melody for it until that point, while also offering some insight as to how the album went for him. “It’s a song that started life when we were 15 and got completed when I turned 41,” Harbidge said. ““I remember having that music on a four-track X28H multi-track recorder as a teenager and I have spent years trying to get a melody for it. That song waited until 2020 to disclose its undeclared magic. Songwriting is a mysterious process, isn’t it? “This album was both a joy and a chore at the same time.  I loved writing and recording the songs, I loved getting some fantastic musicians playing on the album and I loved collaborating with a new collaborator on one of the songs.  I also loved getting loads of my FB and Instagram friends to sing on the ‘yob chorus’ at the end of side-by-side: all great experiences!”  

JP Saxe has joined forces with reigning CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Maren Morris for his new single, a duet titled Line by Line. You can listen to the track here or watch the video below. [wpdevart_youtube]dgmjeMo_pDY[/wpdevart_youtube] Grammy Award nominated JP Saxe wrote the song with Morris and Jimmy Robbins, with the Canadian singer-songwriter hoping the track will hit the same highs as his previous duet – If the World Was Ending, featuring Julia Michaels. Speaking about the song, Saxe praised Morris as one of his favourite artists, while Morris opened up about the song meaning and how everything came together. “My first thought about this song is that it’s surreal I get to be sharing it with one of my favourite artists ever,” Saxe said. “Regarding what it’s about…as songwriters, we spend a lot of our lives trying to bottle up a feeling into a song, and often, the biggest feelings, the best ones… the complicated, detailed, messy, incredible ones… just aren’t going to fit. “Line by Line is our recognition of that… of how one song just isn’t enough to capture it all, but how we’re just going to keep writing, futilely and lovingly, anyway.” “I have always loved being contemplative of the artist vs. muse relationship in songs,” Morris added. “Line by Line acts as a promise that I’ll never be done writing about my muse in this life because he can’t be summed up in one song. “Writing that day with JP was the most fluid, inspiring session. He’s a lyrical faucet. He threw out the line ‘immortalising my sincerity’ and it blew my mind. I think all in all, we wrote the whole song in an hour and immediately recorded it”

Maren Morris has revealed that she has pretty much written her third record and will be heading into the studio very soon to start recording it. The as for now untitled third record is greatly anticipated as it follows in the footsteps of 2019’s ‘GIRL’, which won a CMA Award for Album of the Year and also spawned the huge hit The Bones. Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, Morris explained that she is pretty much there in terms of having the album written, while also going on to say that she found the positives in having to cancel her tour due to the pandemic. “I have got, I would say, mostly a full record written,” Morris said. “And I’m leaving in a couple of weeks to start recording with Greg Kurstin. It (cancelling her tour) was definitely sad, but at the same time, I’ve never had this much time to myself to write and not have an end point or some sort of time lock on it. “With my second record, I feel like I had to write that so quickly. And I’m not trying to disparage it by any means — I just think now, I’m just so excited to have some space to write.” Maren Morris recently won Female Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year (The Bones) and Song of the Year (also The Bones) at the 2020 CMA Awards.

Garth Brooks has started his 2021 well after it was announced that he would be a recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor, along with a number of notable musicians. Alongside Brooks will be Debbie Allen, Joan Baez, Midori and Dick Van Dyke, as the Kennedy Center seek to award those most prominent in their musical genres over many years. Speaking about the induction, Kennedy Center Chairman, David M. Rubenstein, said that given Brooks’ achievements within the genre for three and a half decades is unprecedented and that in line with how the Kennedy Center Honors work, Brooks was a certainty. “The Kennedy Center Honors serves as a moment to celebrate the remarkable artists who have spent their lives elevating the cultural history of our nation and world,” said Rubenstein. “Garth Brooks heightened country music’s profile like no other singer before him; with an international presence for over 35 years.” Garth Brooks is one of country music’s biggest names and has been consistently at the top of his game for many decades. Throughout his career, Brooks has won 22 ACM Awards, 20 CMA Awards, two Grammy Awards and has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Last year, Brooks was also presented with the Billboard Icon Award, which was given to him by Cher.