Saturday 30 July 2016

Interview: RAINTOWN, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire (1/2)

The fantastic Glaswegian country duo Raintown were kind enough to chat to me after their show at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on July 21st 2016. Read on to find out their thoughts on playing sell out venues, their latest album, and the truth behind their lyrics!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m here with Paul & Claire from Raintown after their show with Runrig at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. And what a show! The Scottish duo have been performing together for around 7 years now, including headlining tours, top spots on festivals like Buckle and Boots, and multiple performances at the UKs biggest country music festival, C2C, and it was great to see them play live again tonight. So to start off, Paul and Claire, how’s your year been going so far?

Paul Bain (PB): Well, firstly thanks for having us, we really appreciate it, it’s been fantastic, and still really on a high after coming off stage with just an amazing crowd with Runrig tonight, we’re so grateful to the guys for giving us the opportunity, but for the crowd to really come with us and get involved. And as years go, it’s been a pretty good one, we’ve got a lot going on, and obviously at the back end of last year we released our latest album and a couple of singles off of that – Nineteen Again’s done really well.

Claire McArthur-Bain (CMB): And also we’re expecting a new baby as well so life’s already got a whole lot busier for us, and it’s already busy, so it’s time to get even more organised!

CC: Fantastic! So I know you play a number of festivals as well as some more intimate gigs – which of the two do you tend to prefer?

CMB: We absolutely love playing, honestly if it’s to any crowd. We just love to get out there, play our songs and just connect with the audience, so it doesn’t really matter if we’re playing Shepherd’s Bush O2 or we’re playing a nice 60 seat theatre somewhere.

PB: Yeah, for us it’s about performing live, and we feel really comfortable there, because we feel great up on stage with our musicians, our band’s really incredible, and it allows us to just go on and do what we love. And there’s nothing that we can really say to put it in perspective how grateful we are to get to do that every single day. I wish we could perform live every single day, but we get to be Raintown, we get to write songs, we get to explore new ideas, and at the end of the day we get to do it together which is great. But you know, playing live for us is where it’s at, we absolutely love it.

CC: Do you have a favourite gig that you’ve ever played?

PB: You know what, right now it’s that one! We saw Lady Antebellum here the very first time they came to the UK, and we stood  at the front barrier and said we’d love to play this venue and in truth, it’s been a few years now, but when the opportunity arose tonight, when Runrig gave us the opportunity, we really jumped at it. So that’s been fantastic.

CMB: You always have a bit of pre-show nerves when you’re playing in front of someone else’s audience – they don’t really have to like you, they’re not here to see you, so when they were responding to our songs and singing back melodies, that’s just an amazing feeling.

PB: Yeah, obviously they’re here to enjoy themselves, and hopefully we gave them that warmup that was good, and people maybe go away now and look us up on Facebook, but like Claire said to say we’ve a favourite – there’s aspects of all gigs that we’ve done that we’ve truly loved. We’ve literally played to the fabled one man and his dog – but whether it’s one person or thousands of people that we’ve played to, like our gig at Wet Wet Wet, Runrig, or in Canada, or C2C, you know, we’re so grateful for the opportunity, we love it all.

CC: Well it certainly seemed like people were enjoying themselves tonight.

PB: Ah, it was good – it’s great when you go on stage and there’s that wee couple of minutes, maybe thirty seconds, where they’re going ‘Am I going to enjoy this or not?’ and by the time we got to the second song – Claire hits that note in Nineteen Again – and people started whooping and hollering, and you think ‘These guys are up for a good time’ and we hopefully gave them that.

CC: So let’s talk about your latest album, Writing on the Wall, which was released last October. I know I just asked you about your favourite gig, but now I want to know do you have a favourite track on that album?

CMB: Haha, that’s just like asking you if you’ve got a favourite child! Because when you write them, you love them in all different ways, and you love them for different reasons as well because they’ve come from different places of your experience. But if I had to, I’d probably say Forever Isn’t Long Enough which we sang tonight. Myself and Paul wrote that song probably a couple of years before recording the album, and it was pitched to us by a movie director who’s shooting a film in Scotland – it’s a Hollywood movie being shot in Scotland – so he pitched to us an idea about a song and it’s a very different way of writing for us because we usually write from proper personal experience and this was ‘I’m going to give you a scene and emotions and everything in it’, and we went away and sat down and were writing all these emotions and picturing ourselves in this scene in this movie which is being shot in Shetland, so isolation and loneliness, and we wrote a song and were really proud of it, proud that we could put ourselves into that position that doesn’t have to be about us. Although we did take the song and relate it to someone we knew, so yeah, probably Forever Isn’t Long Enough.

PB: And for me, you know I love Forever, and on a really personal note, See You Again was written after the death of my gran, literally the actual song comes from a diary entry, like the days after she passed away, so those days are in the first two verses of the song. And we worked with Brian Hughes on that and he brought something different – his experience to it, and that was something really interesting for me, which was that’s three different people’s perception of grief, and believe you can see them again, that person who’s passed. So that was amazing. And of course, we love playing the upbeat ones as well, especially live!

CC: Seems like the album was a long time in the coming then.

PB: It was, I mean for us it was probably too long. We had a real catalogue of tracks that we’d been working on, because we never stopped, Ciara, we never stopped writing, so already, we’re down the road on a new project as well. It was a long time but it had to be right, there were a few false starts over the course of the three years where there was a couple of things on the table and they didn’t quite work for various reasons, and then, if I’m being honest, Claire decided after a week with her management down here in London to try and do the Pledge Music, and that was a huge risk at the end of the day, but thankfully, and very gratefully we hit the target.

CC: So one of things that I really love about country is that it’s songs are often used to tell stories, and you just mentioned how you wrote See You Again, and I know that you guys are from Glasgow – have you used your background in Glasgow to help you write any of your songs?

PB: I suppose it’s inherent in everything you do, whether that’s deliberate or not I’m not sure, I think there’s an attitude in Glasgow that’s in equal measure very much about hard-working, hard-loving people but they like to have a good time, and I think that’s quite true in terms of country, you know from Nashville, and from the South, but very specifically the song Missing You on the album was written in the aftermath – I must underline this, it wasn’t written about the Clifford tragedy when the helicopter unfortunately crashed and killed a number of people – it was written about an interview we saw with one of the relatives, and they were saying that they’d had a message on their phone from their dad, and it got us thinking about the whole situation and how after any of these really terrible tragedies there are people that have messages, and what do you do with these messages after that, you know, do you keep it? So that, Missing You was about that, and it was about somebody having to deal with loss.

CMB: We wanted to leave it up to the listener to decide if it was a burden or a blessing to have that message in the aftermath of somebody passing away.

Don’t worry – that’s not all! Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of my interview with Raintown on @CiarasCountry soon, and read my review of their concert at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire here.

Saturday 23 July 2016

Concert Review: RAINTOWN, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Can you fall in love with a band after just 7 songs? Judging by Raintown’s performance at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on July 21st, I’d answer that with a resounding yes.

Raintown were blessed with a good crowd on Thursday night, with the Empire completely packed out with Raintown and Runrig fans alike, leading to an already electric atmosphere before the band even walked on stage. It was therefore no surprise to me when a big cheer went up as Paul and Claire took to the stage, starting the show with the title track of their latest album, Writing on the Wall. This was the perfect song to kick off the show, with the audience clapping along in no time, partly due to the catchy tune, and probably partly due to our delight that Claire, due a baby in just 10 weeks time (congratulations Raintown!), was still able to move around the stage so well, and in heels nonetheless! It was great to see the duo play with a full band with whom they interacted really well, Paul taking regular breaks to strum some air guitar or bass with the other band members and show that they were having a good time.

Their second song was one of my favourites, Nineteen Again, which had a really country vibe, and made me proud to see the duo playing the same stage that Rascal Flatts, Eric Church, and Lady Antebellum had once played. It was easy to forget that Raintown were tonight’s opener, as they could easily have been the headliners, as I certainly could have watched them play for another hour. Nineteen Again was a great song to highlight Paul and Claire’s voices, with my favourite parts being when the band went quiet and the venue was filled solely with their voices. This was highlighted particularly well when Claire hit the high note in the middle of the song, leaving the crowd hanging onto every word.

They continued the country vibe with If This Was a Love Song, and by this point in the set it was clear that the audience were glad they’d got there early enough to see Raintown play. The duo continued interacting well with the audience as they moved into Light the Fuse Up, with Paul clapping along to the beat as Claire sang, both getting the whole audience to join in. Even though I’d enjoyed listening to their record, somehow it sounded even better live, so I wouldn’t be shocked if the duo gained a lot of new fans that night!

Things then slowed down for the soulful ballad Forever Isn’t Long Enough, but not for long, and a huge smile broke out across my face as one of the members of the band pulled out a banjo, knowing we were in for something special. They picked the pace back up to jump into Love’s Got a Hold On You which they mashed up with the Johnny Cash and June Carter classic Jackson, highlighting a nice mixture of ‘old’ and ‘new’. This was exactly the kind of song that would allow the duo to fit right in at any of Nashville’s honky-tonk bars, but worked just as well in a venue like the Empire.

Raintown ended the show on a high note, with the poppy Feel Much Better Now, followed with the perfect song for all the ‘haters’ and internet trolls, Shut the Front Door, saying what I’m sure a lot of artists would like to say to some unsavoury characters online – “Shut the front door, take the trash out when you go, we ain’t gonna listen anymore” – thankfully I don’t think they’ll need to say that to anyone who was at the gig as everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I tell no lie – the woman seated next to me said “Did you catch their name? Raintown? Hands down the best support act Runrig have had for years” – high praise indeed! As Paul and Claire left the stage with their band, they commented again about how much they’d always wanted to play this venue – I’m already looking forward to when they take to the O2 Empire stage again, only this time as the headliners.  


Thanks again to Raintown for a great show! Keep up to date with all the latest country music news and reviews at @CiarasCountry, and find out more about Raintown at @raintownmusic
 


Sunday 10 July 2016

Top Albums of 2016 (So Far!): Part 1


Follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to keep up to date with the latest on all things country!

2016 has already shown itself to be a great year for country music, and we’re only halfway through! I’ve been astounded by the top quality albums that have been released this year from country Kings and Queens, as well as some new faces who I’m sure will become big names in no time. In no particular order, here’s my rundown of the top country albums of 2016 so far, why they made the list, and the tracks from each you simply have to listen to.

Jon Pardi – California Sunrise
Why it made the list: You might think Jon Pardi may well be just a one hit wonder after his catchy Head Over Boots, but you’d be wrong. Rather than the other tracks on California Sunrise paling in comparison to the aforementioned single, each one has the ability to hold its own, and I can see potential for a few more singles from the likes of my top tracks listed below. Pardi brings the country twang that a lot of hardcore country fans miss in this day and age of crossover country, complete with fiddles and steel guitars, and with references to Cowboy Hats and Dirt on My Boots, this album would stick out like sore thumb in any other genre, but fits in perfectly to country.
Top Tracks: Heartache on the Dancefloor, Night Shift, California Sunrise

David Nail – Fighter
Why it made the list: Unlike some genres where cookie-cutter same-sounding artists hog the charts, country has some immediately recognisable voices you know as soon as they hit the airwaves. One such voice is that of David Nail, who returns with a number of promising songs on Fighter – no surprise, really, when you consider that some of the tracks were written with help from the likes of Brothers Osborne, Chris Stapleton, and Lori McKenna. Not only do songs like Night’s On Fire automatically make you want to get up and dance, but some of the songs on Fighter perfectly highlight the storytelling aspect that makes country stand out from any other genre. Take Babies for instance, in which Nail sings about how his life was changed by the arrival of his twins born last December, or title track Fighter written about his wife – now that’s what I call country music.
Top Tracks: Fighter, Night’s On Fire, Champagne Promise

Frankie Ballard – El Rio
Why it made the list: Aside from holding a passing resemblance to Back to the Future’s Marty McFly, Frankie Ballard has more than enough reason to be a star given the quality of his latest album El Rio. Less country-pop and more country-rock, songs like Wasting Time and Sweet Time fit Frankie’s gritty vocals like a glove, and wouldn’t sound half as good had they been recorded by anyone else. I hold particular respect for this album after receiving a text from one of my non country-loving friends saying how much she loved It All Started With A Beer, my favourite track from the album., let alone one of my favourite tracks from the year. Frankie has come a long way from Sunshine & Whiskey – if that was his first foray into the country mainstream, El Rio may be the album that catapults him straight to the top tier.
Top Tracks: It All Started With A Beer, Little Bit of Both, Good As Gold

Maren Morris - Hero
Why it made the list: As much as I love country music, one thing it doesn’t always do well is welcome female singers into its fold, with the majority of big name country artists out there being male. However, recent years have seen an influx of spectacular female artists such as Kelsea Ballerini, Maddie & Tae and Cam – with Maren surely next to join this list. Hero is a truly admirable debut album which highlights Maren’s extensive vocal range in the best way possible. There are certainly some tracks which fit right into the radio-ready country pop box like 80s Mercedes and Rich, but juxtaposed with some beautiful ballads such as Once and you’ve got a really well rounded first album that I don’t think I can fault.
Top Tracks: How It’s Done, Sugar, I Could Use A Love Song

There's so many great albums of 2016 already, I had to split this post into two - stay tuned for Part 2 of my Top Albums of 2016 (So Far!) coming soon to Ciara’s Country!

Think I’ve missed any fantastic albums from 2016 so far? Tweet me your thoughts @CiarasCountry