Ben Earle and Chrissie Rhodes, AKA The Shires, hail from the Home Counties, but have signed to a major US label, Universal Music Group Nashville

THEIR songs have been gaining major radio airplay and there's a tour to Sage Gateshead next month to prepare for. The band have come a long way in two short years.

"When we first started The Shires I think a lot of people thought we were slightly crazy for wanting to do country music." Now, they're the first UK act to be signed to such a prominent US label. "To be, as they say, 'the first', it's just great and then the fact that we got to make the album out there in Nashville as well – it's all been a bit of a dream, a pinch me moment if I'm honest." The duo flew out to Nashville, the homeland of country, to immerse themselves in their music.

"We signed our record deal in February and literally went out to Nashville two weeks later to do some writing which was just crazy and amazing. We were there for seven days and had six sessions, so pretty much a session a day, we got to hang out with a couple of the cast from the TV show –Nashville – as well, with Sam, who plays Gunner and is actually English, and Chaley Rose, who plays Zoe. We got to see Grand Ole Opry which is a great venue out there which features in the TV show quite a bit."

The Shires made the most of the Nashville experience, writing in the daytime and enjoying the social scene at night, including, "A place called the Whisky Kitchen. They've a really famous drink out there called the Fireball, which is whiskey and cinnamon. So doing that all night was great fun." Four weeks later, they were back on US soil again armed with musical material. "We went into the studio with some session musicians and our promotion team and recorded the album which is 15 songs in three days which is unbelievable." From there it was Sweden for a week – "our producer is Swedish" – and they put the vocals down in about ten days.

Today The Shires are enjoying a massive buzz, and Ben in particular, having spent ten years on the music scene, didn't see it coming. "The interesting thing is I only discovered country music about three years ago and, at that point, I'd really had enough of music. I wasn't getting anywhere with my songs – I wasn't writing great songs and was frustrated and discovering country just gave me a completely new lease of life as a songwriter and I met Crissie after that. Everything from that moment two years ago has just been really easy. I just stopped caring song-wise and just sort of wrote what I wanted to write.

"I remember the first time I heard Need You Now By Lady Antebellum and that was the song that just really changed it for me. Being with Crissie is really liberating. She's such a great singer and she really inspires me and in many ways she's a lot more 'country' than I am, she's been doing country for years. So it just feels great."

They might have spent time in the sunny American South, but Crissie and Ben are British Home Counties through and through. "I live in Bedfordshire and travelling is amazing obviously, but it's always nice to come home." With country music predominantly US led, even the band name references where they come from. "It was really important for us, we were trying to think of a word that sums up UK country and that was the countryside. When Chrissy was at university and she'd be going home she'd say, 'I'm going back to the Shires'. That's exactly why we chose the name."

In fact, a song on their new album is dedicated to the green grass of home. "It's called Made in England and is about all the things we love about being English and British. We talk about fish and chips and pints and grey skies and stuff and we're very proud to be from here. To be in America when you see how proud they are to be American, that's something we feel we don't do as much over here generally, we don't appear proud to be British all the time when we think we should be."

  • Thursday, April 9, Stage 2, Sage Gateshead. Box Office: 0191-443-4661 sagegateshead.com or theshiresmusic.com/tour