The Shires, the UK’s most celebrated country duo, are back with another barnstorming album, ‘My Universe’, as Helen Jerome reports. The Shires’ back story feels like a classic tale of meteoric rise and astounding success out of nowhere, conquering the UK charts and Nashville. But their real history is one of years of toiling individually as wedding and pub circuit singers, studying, selling mobile phones, almost quitting altogether, and then magically hooking up on Facebook to form the perfect country music duo. Crissie Rhodes lives in Bedfordshire and Ben Earle was based in Hertfordshire when they met – hence the name The Shires – and they were only about half an hour’s drive from each other. Ben’s moved even closer to Crissie now, so when they need to rehearse they’re just around the corner from each other. Although they went straight into the UK Top 10 with their debut album, Brave, Crissie says they actually get recognised more in Nashville, four thousand miles away, than they do back home. Big Step Forward Meeting them one month before the release of My Universe, their second album, the most striking thing is how well they get on, finishing each other’s sentences, complimenting and complementing each other, and both still giddy with their success. They know they’ve made a big step forward from their debut, which was “very much Lady Antebellum, Civil Wars”, towards a newer country sound. They’ve pushed on. Even on the first album’s cover, Ben feels they look like kids. “Confidence is the biggest difference now, especially going into the studio.” 2016 has been remarkable in other ways too, as Ben became a father on the same day The Shires headlined Glastonbury’s acoustic stage. “It was the most surreal day anyway,” he says. “And it took a long time, 36 hours from the first contractions. Then, when [my son] River came out… I mean, we’ve had some pretty euphoric moments, played some huge stages, but this is completely different. It’s impossible to put into words. He was a week late, and it had to be at 1.30 in the morning of the day we were headlining at Glastonbury! I had to drive down myself and I was knackered. I will never ever forget that day, ever.” But still neither of them really feels they’ve ‘made it’. “I don’t think we’ll ever feel like we have,” says Ben. “Brave did better than we’d hoped, but I want us to be in the charts in US Country, in Germany, Australia. We want to keep making better and better music.” Crissie’s just pleased that they no longer get laughed at for being into country music. “People understand it more,” she says. “The perception has changed and now we don’t have to be ashamed, and that’s been a big stepping stone. A lot of people have taken to us; it’s opened their world to country, the sound of the music, so many genres are crossing in with country. And there’s lyrical content people can relate to; not so much rhinestones and cowboys!” Choosing the new album’s title saw them almost opt for another track, Common Language. But, as Ben says: “My Universe seemed to sum up everything. For us it’s about, ‘What is your universe?’, ‘What is my universe to you?’. And that changes over time. I definitely thought that with River being born. And country music was our universe as well. So that title felt right.” For the cover of the album, Crissie, “the visual one”, was thrilled that their new creative director achieved her vision of being on railroad tracks, and a deserty kind of look. “I absolutely loved that.” Nashville Writing and recording this second album in Nashville, was, says Ben, like walking into a memory. They used the exact same band, same producers minus one, same engineers, same studio, same everything, as on Brave. There’s just one different player, Dave LaBruyere, on bass, with whom Crissie connected straight away. “We were all yoga and holistic things, and went off in our own little world!” Writing meant a three-week trip to Nashville in March, working pretty much every day. Ben loves sitting in a room with fellow writers, evolving a song from a title or lyric. “That’s what I find really inspirational,” he says, “that’s where we enjoy ourselves most. You get into this zone. It’s amazing what they do out there. The way they keep coming up with new stuff.” Auditioning co-writers is sort of like speed dating, according to Crissie. “We set up a lot of the writes with a Nashville songwriter called Jeff Cohen. You go into the room and bring what you’ve got, feelings wise, to the table and start writing on that. They’re there to enhance and work with you.” Drinking Fireballs Inspiration can appear at the strangest times and, for Ben, it came after a heavily-delayed flight and a heavy night of drinking fireballs – whiskey with cinnamon: “Literally the most drunk I’ve ever been. But I do believe there’s something about when you’re hungover, you’re a bit more honed in creatively.” Ben’s other major strength is working out how the album will flow. Everyone, including producers and A&R folk, emailed their opinions on contenders and also-rans for the album. Meanwhile, out of 35 tracks, Ben came up with the entire running order straight away. He realises that with streaming and downloads the order isn’t as important to people now, but it is for him. And with the album being released on vinyl, he’s going to have to go out and buy a record player! The Shires – Their Fave Country Artists Ben “Lady Antebellum, and Eric Paslay – I love his songwriting, which is that next level.” Crissie “Leann Rimes – growing up through the 90s and early 00s, I turned to her for every vocal I was learning. Plus Faith Hill, Martina McBride and Alison Krauss… Those were my leading ladies.” Personal and Heartfelt Right at the heart of the new album is a
