Good Years The Shires

• 1Lightning Strikes02:54
• 2On the Day I Die03:30
• 3Good Years02:49
• 4No Secrets03:20
• 5About Last Night03:36
• 6New Year03:47
• 7Only Always03:21
• 8Independence Day03:13
• 9Thank You Whiskey03:03
• 10People Like Us03:24
• 11Better Place03:11
• 12Crazy Days04:21
• Total Runtime40:29

Info for Good Years

The Shires, the UK’s best-selling country act of all time – comprised of Crissie Rhodes and Ben Earle – will release their new album, Good Years, in the U.S. on March 13, 2020 via BMG. As the follow-up to Accidentally on Purpose and GOLD-certified albums Brave and My Universe, Good Years was recorded in Nashville and includes 12 new tracks, 10 of which are co-written by the duo. Produced by Lindsay Rimes (Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini, LOCASH), Good Years, also features some of Nashville’s top songwriters, including Cam, Bob DiPiero and Canaan Smith.

Fans can get a taste of the new music by checking out already released acoustic heart-tugging “New Year,” electric tempo-driven “Lightning Strikes,” and inspiring rhythmic “Independence Day.” New track and vocal masterpiece “About Last Night” releases today in advance of the full album on March 13.

“The way we approach the songwriting is that we always start with a lyric,” Earle explains. “We’ve both got loads of titles on our phones. You sit down in a room and say, ‘What can we say today?’ All of the best songs are ones we’ve written that are personal. Like ‘Crazy Days’ — which for me is about the balance of being a dad and doing what we do – and it’s amazing what people share with us about that,” he says of the heartfelt piano ballad. “That’s what country is for us.”

“For me, growing up so inspired by country music through my grams and knowing Nashville was the home of that music, I always wanted to find a way to get over there,” adds Rhodes. “When Ben and I met and we had the opportunity to go to Nashville, it was everything I imagined that it could be and more. To be surrounded by so much talent, it was quite overwhelming. Then getting in there with people who’d been writing songs for years …that was quite daunting to try to do that and to try to put our Brit spin on it at the same time. It’s been an amazing place for us. We just love landing on that runway and feeling like, ‘Ah. Here we are. We’re back.’ It feels great every single time.”

As the first British act to win the CMA’s Jeff Walker Global Artist Award and the first UK country act to have performed in the historic circle at the Grand Ole Opry, The Shires have opened for Little Big Town, Sam Hunt and Shania Twain, and most recently joined Carrie Underwood’s 2019 Cry Pretty 360 Tour in their native country. The duo will embark on their UK headlining tour in May including shows at such legendary venues as London Palladium, Bristol Academy and more.

The Shires

The Shires
formed after Ben (from Hertfordshire) appealed on Facebook for a female country singer to work with him. Crissie (from Bedfordshire), a friend of a friend, replied, came round the very next day and they discovered an instant chemistry. “We can build our own Nashville underneath these grey skies,” they sing on ‘Nashville Grey Skies’, the infectious radio hit that introduced them last summer and hoisted a flag for home-grown country music.

Both are inspired by the old-school workmanship of country music’s professional songwriters – people they would later work with on their first trip to Nashville last summer. Learning at first hand the storytelling style of classic country songs, and how to craft a catchy chorus, the duo then injected elements that could only have come from our side of the pond.

Powered by Crissie’s powerful but subtle and supple vocals and Ben’s perfectly complementary tones and acoustic guitar, The Shires have literally found a piece of country to call their own. They love American music, but they’re proudly British and intensely keen to add some real indigenous flavour to the pot with their debut album 'Brave'

This album contains no booklet.