Country Monthly

26/04/2023

If visual is more your bag, why not watch our podcast this morning? You'll be perfectly set up with lots of recommendations of new music to see you through this humpday!

We're covering Jenna Paulette and Drayton Farley's new albums, Tyler Braden's 'Neon Grave' EP (spoiler alert, Beth is obsessed), singles from Stephen Wilson Jr featuring Hailey Whitters and Lukas Nelson featuring Lainey Wilson and the last of our gigs from whilst we were away for a bit, including Sykamore and Tenille Arts supported by Alyssa Bonagura. All that crammed into one episode for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgo45sDmPwY&t=3241s to watch it now (bonus appearance from one of the podcast mascots 🐈️)

25/04/2023

If you've not had a chance to listen yet, episode 8 covering things that came out in March is out on all podcast platforms now!

We're talking Luke Combs and Meg McRee's albums, Alana Springsteen's album and singles from Jason Isbell and Abby Anderson, as well as THAT incredible night hearing Leave Me Again live for the first time ever at Kelsea's brilliant gig, wonderfully supported by Georgia Webster. Link below to listen now on the podcast platform of your choice!

http://linktr.ee/countrymonthly

24/04/2023

After a little holiday for last week, we're back again this week with 6 new recommendations for you. ⁠
⁠
Laura's choices for this week start with Catie Offerman and the beautiful "I Just Killed A Man", then it's Ella Langley's fiery track featuring Koe Wetzel "That's Why We Fight", which we can't wait to hear when she's over here supporting Jon Pardi in the autumn, and finally ' "Built for Heartbreak". ⁠
⁠
Beth's gone with the new Drew Parker single "King of Country Music", the smooth, silky sounds of 's "It's Still January" take on a more poignant sound today after the news that writer Keith Gattis passed away yesterday and finally Beth chose, slightly pop-leaning sound of with "Different Definitions"⁠.

Our thoughts are with the loved ones of Keith Gattis and all those in the industry who worked with the talented singer, writer, producer and guitar player who will be sorely missed.

11/04/2023

In some parts of the world it’s still Monday so we’re rolling with it, here is our round up for this week!

Laura’s kicking things off with Ashley McBryde’s excellent new single “The Devil I Know” which we adore, hurry up new album! Her next choice is from the incredibly talented Avery Anna who always makes such vulnerable songwriting sounds so beautiful, none more so than on her latest release, “Self Love”, and finally coming in hot with a brand new single ahead of her new album that’s due in June, veteran of the scene Tanya Tucker is back with the beautiful “Kindness”.

Beth’s choices are starting off with the barn stormer that is “Barn Burner” off the Ian Munsick album that dropped on Friday and has been on pretty much solid repeat. It’s a fun and upbeat take on classic heartbreak with excellent fiddle! Next we’re stripping it back a bit for a beautiful acoustic new single “Black Train” by UK artist James Dunne, which is making us excited to see more of what’s to come and we’re finishing up with the return of Brothers Osborne. Penned with our fave guy Kendell Marvel, this beautiful track “Nobody’s Nobody” is a beautiful ode to acceptance and supporting each other, topics that can often feel trivialised in songs, but have been captured so beautifully here.

08/04/2023

We’ll be live this morning if your Saturday morning’s looking chill and ya fancy joining us! See you on our YouTube Channel at 11am BST

http://youtube.com/ to subscribe and get notified when we go live

Share your videos with friends, family and the world

05/04/2023

So many incredible artists took to the daytime stages at C2C and we were lucky to catch a good number of their sets.⁠
⁠
Episode 7 covers all of the daytime artists we got to see as well as those in the main arena, including Madeline Edwards, Kezia Gill, George Birge, Brian Collins, Jade Helliwell and Amanda Shires. ⁠
⁠
Listen or watch via the link in our bio to hear all about their performances, as well as all the other incredible artists we got to see over the weekend. ⁠
⁠
📸: 1, 3,4: Beth Knight, 2,6: Steve Instrello, 5: DC Brown

04/04/2023

Our C2C Special episode is now available on all platforms!

We discuss everyone from Lainey Wilson to Old Crow Medicine Show, First Time Flyers to George Birge and so, so many others.

You can watch back on our Youtube channel or listen wherever you get your podcasts, all the links are in our bio.

📸: 1 Steve Instrell, 2-4 Martin Rafferty

03/04/2023

It’s been a bit quiet around here this past week but we are back again for !

Beth’s been waiting WEEKS to hear the full version of the beautiful new single by Abby Anderson, “Heart On Fire In Mexico”, loves the honesty and guitar licks in “Red Flags” by Josh Ross who is a newcomer to us here at CM HQ and is so happy to hear yet another incredible song from Caitlyn Smith; having heard this a few months ago when she performed over here we’re happy “Mississippi” is out in the world.

Laura’s choices start with a great new song by Caylee Hammack, “History of Repeating” which promises good things to come from Caylee’s upcoming project, another new single ahead of a hotly anticipated second album, this time in the form of “Forgotten Man” by Elvie Shane and finally, friends of the podcast Arbor North are back with a great new single “Red Eye” complete with a fab trumpet section!

27/03/2023

It’s our final of the month and since March is Women’s History Month, all our new singles this week are from women. Women are well known to be severely underrepresented in music, especially Country music and it’s about damn time that changes, so here’s 6 excellent new singles for you to get stuck into today.

We’re starting off with Laura’s choices, the sassy and fun “Blonde” by Tigirlily Gold, the uplifting and romantic “Sweet Spot” by Lindsay Ell and Brandy Clark’s gorgeous, heartbreaking new single “Buried”.

Beth has gone for the return of Rissi Palmer with Miko Marks and their soulful new single “Still Here”, the powerful “Too Much of a Woman” by Roberta Lea and the thoughtful, nostalgia filled “Seasons Change” by Caitlin Mae.

23/03/2023

We did our first live stream this evening! It was a lot of fun reminiscing on C2C Festival and the replay video and audio podcasts will be available to watch/listen back to tomorrow!

23/03/2023

We ran a couple of polls on our Twitter and Instagram to see if people wanted a special C2C episode and the overwhelming answer was yes, so we will be LIVE on YouTube tonight at 8pm GMT.

We’ve fixed our tech issues and tested it all so we’re ready to go! American Pals, if you’re wondering just what a C2C is, come along and find out. UK pals, come join us as we round up the biggest weekend in the UK country calendar and reminisce on just how good it was!

Subscribe to our channel to get a lil’ notification when we’re live: https://youtube.com/

20/03/2023

We’ve reached the next milestone of followers on all our social platforms today so it’s celebrations all round!

To the 200 of you here on Facebook, some of which are very new to our page, thank you for supporting our podcast and engaging with our social content 🎉

20/03/2023

We love this!

20/03/2023

is back and even on the right day!

This week, Beth’s choices include the beautiful, acoustic sound of Donny Van Slee with “Until Then”, Erin Kinsey’s new heartbreak song “Always Never” and from Nashville’s 60th Anniversary tribute to The Rolling Stones, Stoned Cold Country, the Zac Brown Band’s version of “Paint It Black” which we were lucky enough to hear live last week at C2C and it was fantastic!

Laura’s gone for Luke Grimes’ song to his home state, “Oh Ohio”, the fantastic story of a woman scorned with Emily Ann Robert’s “He Set Her Off” (so good we both wanted to pick it!) and finally the classic, fiddle filled, h***y-tonk sounds of “Next New Thing” by Jake Worthington .

If you want to hear all 6 songs in one place, head to our Spotify or Apple Music playlists our bio and you’ll find them added there.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Cu8VzlLZhBtQCmGJEda0V?si=1uqcTFgLSLuOJxWb3T01Ug

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/country-monthly-playlist/pl.u-yZyVEyZtZ11WYK

17/03/2023

At about this time a week ago, one man and his 4 piece band bounded out onto the BBC Radio 2 stage in the Indigo. To a few he was a name they knew, to many he wasn't. He proceeded to put on one of the best daytime stages shows anyone had seen at C2C, ever. His half an hour set was full of a gusto no one expected and brought the upstairs balcony entirely to it's feet which rarely, if ever happens for the Indigo stage, especially not at 3 in the afternoon on the first day of the festival! ⁠
⁠
Within minutes, the big Country Music facebook group many of the attendees are on was awash with posts about this set and for the rest of the festival, when asking those around you what their highlight was so far, he was the name on everyone's lips.⁠
⁠
After another late-night performance in All Bar One on the Friday evening, followed by the man, his guitar player and fiddle player taking to the stage for one of the most well-received Spotlight stage performances in the main arena in C2C history on the Saturday, this man was cemented as one of the very best things about C2C 2023. ⁠
⁠
That man is Drake Milligan. ⁠
⁠
📸: 1-3 Chris Cooper, 4 Roni Tillman
📽️: Beth Knight

16/03/2023

A week ago today we were sat in the Indigo, watching Lainey Wilson, alongside Nate Smith, Dalton Dover and Ashley Gorley, as part of the CMA Songwriters Series. Where has that week gone?!

15/03/2023

Proof that, for at least a little bit of this weekend, we got to sit down together in the Barrlehouse and enjoy the festival ❤️

14/03/2023

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that Beth only had two choices in the post earlier and that’s because we were lucky enough to see the final choice for this week performed live on Saturday at C2C. Here is Brian Collins performing his new song “The Finer Things”

14/03/2023

Keeping you on your toes this week with a as we catch up after the weekend

Laura’s gone for the sparky “Lucky” by Megan Moroney, the beautiful ode to family with Logan Mize’s “Bloodline” and A Thousand Horses’ “Don’t Move To Tennessee” from their new acoustic EP Wood & Wire

Beth’s chosen a slightly different ode to family in the form of Zandi Holup’s “Runs In The Family” and the beautiful, vulnerable “Colors” by Lathan Bryant

14/03/2023

Our C2C Sunday highlights are here! From George Birge via Kezia Gill, Amanda Shires, Kameron Marlowe, Jade Helliwell, Lindsay Ell, Mitchell Tenpenny, Old Crow Medicine Show to an incredible closing set from Zac Brown Band. What a way to round off the weekend!

We’ll be sharing more about different artists we loved this weekend in the coming days and weeks and will be talking about it all on our next podcast episode in early April.

Some of these photos are by kind permission of Jan Thulborn and Chris Cooper.

13/03/2023

And all that’s left are the memories and the wristbands. C2C 2023 has been utterly wonderful. Our final day round up post and will come soon and will for this week become , as we’ve been a bit busy this weekend! I’ll hope you’ll forgive us for the delays as we pack up to head home, and that you’ll stick around over the next few weeks as we reminisce on our favourite moments from the weekend!

12/03/2023

Saturday highlights from C2C Festival including First Time Flyers, Brian Collins, Madeline Edwards, Pillbox Patti, Matt Stell, Randall King, Morgan Evans, Sam Williams, Midland and Lady A.

The final day of the festival is about to kick off, let’s do this one more time!

Some of these images are by kind permission of Jan Thulborn, Chris Cooper and Daniel Fitch.

11/03/2023

C2C Friday highlights included Ashley Cooke, Drake Milligan, Leah Blevins, Alana Springsteen, Tyler Braden, Lainey Wilson, Jordan Davis, Thomas RhettWhat a truly brilliant day to start the main festival. So many highlights but I don’t think much this weekend will top Drake Milligan & his band’s mind blowing Radio 2stage at the Indigo performance!!

Some of these photos are by kind permission of Jan Thulborn and Chris Cooper.

10/03/2023

If you've not had chance to listen yet, ahead of our C2C special coming out soon, you can catch up with Episode 6 of the podcast, including on Youtube!

We feature new music from HARDY, Kelsea Ballerini and Megan Moroney as well as a whole host of gig reviews!

http://linktr.ee/countrymonthly to listen on your preferred platform.

10/03/2023

Is this your first C2C? Been before but only for a day? If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by just how much goes on over the weekend, join us for a tour of the O2 as we take you to all the stages, let you know what tickets you need to access what and show you how to make the most of your C2C weekend!

Thank you to our wonderful camerawoman Sian for helping us put this together!

10/03/2023

What a great time we had kicking off the C2C weekend at CMA Songwriters Series last night. Always an excellent way to start the weekend, we were treated to multiple performances by Lainey Wilson, Dalton Dover, Nate Smith and Ashley Gorley (unfortunately not pictured here), with special appearances from Alana Springsteen, Tyler Braden and Caylee Hammack.

We’re up and ready to face a drizzly day 2!

📸: Jan Thulborn

09/03/2023

WE'VE MADE IT! C2C Festival kicks off with CMA Songwriters Series tonight and we're so excited. Remember gang, this weekend is a marathon not a sprint 😂

We hope you've enjoyed our 10 day countdown, sharing some of our favourites with you. We hope you find some ace new artists this weekend and thoroughly enjoy all the main stage acts. If you see us around, please say hi, we'd love to chat and hear who you're most excited to see too.

We'll share as much of our weekend with you as we can over on our Instagram stories, but we'll all catch up on Monday evening whilst flaked out on the sofa, yeah?

08/03/2023

24 hours is all we've got left to wait! C2C is in touching distance!

Pillbox Patti, the stage name of long-time songwriter Nicolette Hayford who's written many a hit, including plenty with Ashley McBryde, will be coming to C2C and Beth is very excited to see Nicolette's performance side after loving her song writing for so long. Not one to shy away from some of the less polished sides of life, "Young and Stupid" is one of the highlights from her album Florida we're looking forward to seeing (oh and hopefully the incredible zebra striped boots from her Lindeville outfit too, they were top notch 🦓, iykyk)

08/03/2023

Only 1 more day to wait! C2C Festival is practically upon us! ⁠
⁠
One of the stalwarts of the Texas scene and firm favourite of the British fans, Randall King has been the talk of the UK Country Music social media of late and we cannot wait for him to bring West Texas to London. "You In A H***y Tonk" with it's western swing feel will have us dreaming of h***y tonk nights long after C2C is over.

07/03/2023

In only 2 days, the doors to CMA Songwriters Series will be opening and C2C 2023 will be underway!

Over the weekend Laura will be hoping to catch the set of Mackenzie Porter. Her blend of pop and country is infectious and catching and you'll be finding us bopping along to "Pickup" and possibly humming it for the rest of the weekend! 💖