A Country Way of Life

View the Festive Fifty from 2023 in three parts: Bubbling Under, 50-21 and the Top 20

Since its inception, ‘Nashville comes to Greenwich’ has brought ears and eyeballs of British folk to some major-label country music talent. At the same time, the organisers of Country2Country once again invited acts from Britain to showcase their own sounds, giving them invaluable exposure on two free stages in the O2 complex, the Icon and the Big Entrance.

With that in mind, and with festival bills filling up by the day, I spent a few year putting out a chart at the start of every season bigging up UK country. The richness of the scene and the many active bands in it mean filling 40 places is a cinch; I could easily have done a top 100 but this show would run for hours.

I broadcast the Top 40 in March, June, September and December with a Festive Fifty, using a variety of sources to count down the biggest songs by country acts who live and work in the UK. Particular emphasis was placed on radio play on key outlets such as the BBC, Absolute Country or Chris Country, as well as mentions on go-to websites like Belles & Gals, Lyric Magazine and Your Life in a Song. Acts who were on tour to promote their material also had their songs move up the chart in any given season.

To ensure that many voices were heard, all artists were limited to one song as a lead artist in one chart. Cover songs were permitted, as acts often push cover versions on their social media feeds and Youtube channels. I always tried to list the most recent release, one which was referred to by an act as their ‘current single’. In the case of an EP, it was the track they have chosen as the lead track. In exceptional circumstances, ie if the act’s music had been played by a notable DJ or has had a life of its own through a viral video or recording, that track was the act’s ‘single’.

The chart aimed to reflect the diversity and munificence of country talent in the UK. Country has many definitions, but if the acts themselves called themselves ‘country’ or were booked to play country club nights or festivals, or are profiled in country-leaning publications, or were played on a BBC local radio country show, they were eligible for the countdown.

Whether the act used steel guitars and fiddles, or they created a palate of sound using programmed drums, if they classified themselves as a country act, they could have a song in this countdown. There is no ‘one’ kind of country music just as there is no ‘one’ kind of rock music these days.

For chart purposes, I am indebted to the likes of Casey Kasem and Bob Kingsley, and their production team, for giving me a template for a Top 40 countdown, while Pick of the Pops selects a set number of songs from that fortnight’s chart of a previous year and cannot fit in every song. The American countdowns last four hours – with commercials. Because I do not have advertisers or, indeed, the bandwidth, this show will come in at a modest length.

In any case, and with any luck, the show converted listeners to fans of any act and they would tell three people about the act, one of whom would become a fan and repeat the process. These acts flourish in the live sphere and put out their music digitally to promote it; consider the UK live country scene as a mobile version of the radio stations which presented acts singing live in the studio booth, like in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Over the last six years, I have heard some astonishing songs made by acts in the UK who have been influenced by sounds made in Nashville or Texas, but no charts existed to try to find out which is best. iTunes has its chart, where UK acts rub shoulders with Dolly and Johnny, and over on Blastocyst.org.uk I started listing 20 tunes every week that seemed to be gaining popularity.

The UK Country Top 40 Chart Countdown can be found on Mixcloud. The UK Country Top 10 aired during 2023 fortnightly on Tuesdays at The Bridge Country Youtube channel.