Jeannine Barry appeared at The British Country Music Festival last week. She got delayed in traffic and had to cancel her interview slot so we sent it to her via email. This is what she had to say.....
Q - How long have you been writing and performing?
I have been doing this for quite a few years now. I released my first EP in 2012 ‘Give Me Something’ but I did lots of stuff before that too, but that was my first release.
Q - If you could invite the people who have influenced you in your music career to a dinner party, who would you invite?
I always dreamed of meeting Michael Jackson and Prince also would have been incredible. Now I would invite Lady Antebellum, P!nk, Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton, Birdy and many more.
Q - If you were to take one well known song and put your own country twist on it, which song would you choose?
Oh there are just too many haha. Erm maybe Dancing On My Own by Callum Scott.
Q - If you had the chance of performing anywhere in the world, Where would your dream venue be?
I don’t really have one specific dream venue really my dream is to tour the US really. But it would be incredible to play the O2 arena during Country2Country though. And I’d love to play The Ryman Auditorium and Grand Old Orpy in Nashville obviously haha.
Q - What is your favourite thing to do when you are not performing?
I really enjoy cooking at the moment. I find it quite fun to experiment and to be creative with it. Other than that drinking wine is pretty high up on the list too haha.
Q - What excites you about the British country scene?
I love that question as I find it extremely exciting to be part of this amazing up and coming scene. I find it very exciting that it is still such a small but also fast growing genre and I love how everyone contributes to it with so much passion artists, bloggers, fans etc. I love that Country Music here is establishing its own integrity rather than just trying to copy Americans at least for the most part. And I love how UK and US are coming together to build this scene up. It is something very unique and it is very special. I’m grateful to be along for this ride.
Q - Tell us the most unusual gig you've played, be it the venue or the situation you found yourselves in.
I’ve played so many gigs over the years including many odd ones. One odd one was playing a show in a big venue to one person. It was just so awkward haha.
Q - The British country music scene is growing fast. Each artist having their own take on what country music is to them. How do feel that our music stands up against the music coming out of America at the moment?
Well, as mentioned I think that many artists are creating their own sound here and I like the variety. I suppose it’s hard to compare it to Americans as most UK artist are unsigned and budgets are tight so usually what you hear out of the US from all the big signed acts is obviously of a much higher quality in terms of production etc. but also in terms of writing and performing I think that due to many UK acts still having to work a day job and don’t spend every day writing with hit Nashville songwriters the quality coming from the US often is stronger in my opinion but I feel there’s some extremely amazing music coming out of the UK and I think in a few years’ time we will catch up with them.
Q - Where do you see British country music in 5 years’ time?
That’s hard to tell. I hope it will have flourished more and I would love to see it being played on the radio more. It would be great to see more acts getting signed by major or indie labels and just in general for more people to see the potential in the British acts not just getting US acts over here and giving them big exposure. At the moment it feels a bit like it’s leaning towards that and I’m hoping it’ll tip a little towards supporting UK acts more. That is what I appreciated very much about TBCMF. There are many UK acts working so hard and I would like to see them being supported more.
Q - What do you feel is the greatest achievement of your musical career to date?
I would say I can’t narrow it down to just one. For me every time I write a new song that feels a little better than the previous that’s an achievement to me. Every time I play with my band and we sound a little better than the day before I see it as an achievement. But I can say headlining the C2C launch party in 2017 at The Brooklyn Bowl in London was special to me. I remember handing out flyers outside the arena many years ago and so wishing I could play the festival one day. So being asked to headline that event was a huge deal for me. Another one was playing shows in Nashville with Blake Shelton’s guitar player. I remember sitting at work at a horrible call centre dreaming of one day making it to Nashville and being over there playing those shows was absolutely amazing for me. It wasn’t so much about the size of the shows or how ‘important’ they are but it was more about realising dreams bit by bit.
Q - Where can we find you on social media?
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