We’re have a new recording and video for you all. “The Brassneck E.P.” features our versions of songs by The Wedding Present, The Cure and Suede, and is released on 22nd November 2019. Full track listing below:
1: Brassneck
2: Friday I’m In Love
3: Trash
..and in between beavering away on this EP we managed to put together a video for Brassneck.
You can stream the EP from all the usual digital services, or buy direct from our Bandcamp page. Along with the digital version there is also a very limited CD release featuring an additional track, a new mix of our version of The House of Love’s ‘The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes’.
To wave goodbye to 2018 we’re releasing the third and final single from our ‘True Adventures of Independent Country’ album today, and it comes wrapped up in a 4-track EP of additional goodies.
The Further Adventures of Independent Country kicks off with our version of Arctic Monkeys’ ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, which we recorded with the rest of the ‘True Adventures…’ LP with the lovely Gavin Monaghan earlier this year. We then have three re-worked tracks from our debut LP, ‘Trailerparklife’
Our pal Pete Prescription takes Happy Mondays’ ‘Wrote For Luck’ to the bleedin’ cleaners with his Ghost Ryders remix, before The Swede and Doc from the band present new mixes of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Star Sign’ and New Order’s ‘True Faith’
The cover star is our Bobby P, caught in action at a line dancing event. Independent Country, bab: we walk it like we talk it.
Thanks to everyone who bought our records, came to our shows, or said nice things about us on ‘the socials’ this year. We really do appreciate it. We have an absolute blast doing this thing.
2018 highlights for us – apart from being in the rootinest, tootinest country rock and roll band in town – were the acoustic show in April at the fancy Hexagon theatre, the absolutely raucous outdoor show at Kings Heath street festival in September, and making an actual pop video in our pyjamas. Here’s to more adventures like this in 2019.
As for 2019, we’re currently working on an EP of new songs. This will be out in the spring. Beyond that we’re currently sifting through a growing pile of demos for our third record. All being well that’ll be with you in the autumn. Other than that we are in the process of booking some summer shows and – as ever – we continue to scour the 2nd hand shops of Birmingham for top quality cowboy shirtwear.
The next single from our new record is out now. Originally by The Boo Radleys and a massive UK hit back in 1995, we’ve taken Wake Up Boo! to Nashville and back, and we’ve even made ourselves an action-packed video.
If you pre-order a copy of our new record, The True Adventures of Independent Country, you get Wake Up Boo! as an immediate download, along with our version of Spritualized‘s Come Together. You can pre-order vinyl, CD, or digital download, and it will be delivered in time for album release on 17th August. Head over to https://independentcountry.bandcamp.com and get yours.
You can also buy/stream the Wake Up Boo! single from all your major digital music retailers, and it comes backed with a remix of our version of New Fast Automatic Daffodils‘ 1990 tune, Big. Here they both are on Spotify.
That there remix is by our friend Andy Porteous, a musician and producer from Birmingham, UK. After singing in the band Destroy Cowboy for most of the 2000s, Andy formed Free School with Steve State in 2009. They signed to the Tirk label in 2011 and released their critically acclaimed LP ‘Tender Administration’. This followed two 12” EP releases and a string of remixes for the likes of Roots Manuva, Phil Oakey and Maps (Mute). Their second album, Dancing On The Dark, was released in 2015, on Static Caravan Recordings. Their cosmic delights won the support of Lauren Laverne, Gilles Peterson & Jacques Renault, and Andy brings all of this and more to his remix of Big – set the controls for the middle of the sun, bab.
Our next show will be a special ‘Farewell To The Flapper’ event in Birmingham on Wednesday 6th June – it will one of the last shows taking place in this much-loved Brum venue before the march of progress turns it into flats. Hey ho.
Support on the night comes James Summerfield, Ben Calvert and The Swifts, and Chris Tye, who together are worth the entry fee alone. Then we tread the boards, and may even dust off some songs from our former lives as 1990s/2000s indie kids. It’s be emotional.
The show is being put on by Birmingham Promoters, and full info below is taken from their event page.
In the meantime, you can broadcast your intention/hope of attending to friends and family by clicking the relevant buttons over on the Facebook event page
See you there, kids.
Full details…
Independent Country are a 6-piece band from Birmingham, UK, who play Country versions of classic Indie tunes.
Our debut LP, “TrailerParkLife”, was released in December 2016 and features new versions of songs by Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, New Order, Teenage Fanclub, and others. Jim Reid from The Jesus and Mary Chain recently described our version of ‘Blues From A Gun’ as ‘the best thing I have EVER heard’.
Our 2nd album, “The True Adventures of Independent Country” will be released in summer 2018. It will feature songs by Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, The Smiths, Inspiral Carpets, Spiritualized, and more.
Since our debut live show in the summer of 2016 we’ve played festivals all over the UK and have supported artists such as Karl Blau, Cale Tyson, and The Surfing Magazines. With a repertoire of over 40 songs – and counting – we can play either full-band sets that’ll tear the house down on a drunken Friday night, or else a laid-back acoustic show that will provide the ideal soundtrack to a regretful, hungover Sunday.
Chris Tye is a singer-songwriter who makes beautiful harmonic pop music with roots in a folk and jazz tradition. He is a sublime guitar player with a complex sense of rhythm, and a talented and ambitious composer and arranger of his music. But perhaps what strikes the listener first is his hugely distinctive voice, expressive and versatile, veering from melancholy to ecstasy, which at times recalls such important musical influences as Nick Drake, John Martyn, Grizzly Bear, The Beatles and Paul Simon.
After early releases Somewhere Down the Line(Headwrecker Records) and Matchbox Stand he released his ambitious debut album The Paper Grenade in November 2014: urban folk music on a huge canvas, intimate, anthemic and built for the big stage.
Chris is well-known on the Birmingham’s revitalised music scene, where he collaborates with diverse artists including Sam Redmore and Michael Clarke, and he has played to full venues across the country as a headline act as well as supported artists including Amy Winehouse, Fionn Regan and Ben Howard.
While making experimental theatre at Dartington College of Arts, Ben picked up a guitar and started writing his own songs immediately. Influenced by British folk, early 90’s Indie and US Psychedelia, audiences and reviewers alike have been charmed by his understated lo-fi post-folk sound that has melodic, narrative, songwriting at the core.
Having played a show at Union Chapel in November 2013, Ben took a year-long hiatus to write. The single The Sea, The Sea marked his return. The single was self-recorded and self-produced by Ben in his home studio and was mastered by Pete Maher. (Paul Weller, Damien Rice, Beady Eye) Within five minutes of the track being uploaded to BBC Introducing, it was playlisted for the following Friday.
‘This ghostly single makes a beautiful introduction. If you like Bon Iver, Midlake or Fleet Foxes then this was made for you.’ Brum Notes
Ben’s spent the last four years writing, recording and occasionally playing his songs at poetry nights in London houses. As well as returning to stage acting. There are new songs aplenty, including an EP that’s been recorded and mastered and all ready for release on vinyl in 2018.
The Birmingham-born alt-country singer-songwriter James Summerfield played with John Peel favourites Buick 6 (later The Toques) throughout the mid- 2000’s which saw them collaborate with Julian Wilson (Grand Drive), Simon Alpin(the late Willard Grant Conspiracy) and Neil Coddling(Suede). Since going solo James has released 6 studio albums, toured twice with pal Scott Matthews, collaborated with Rankin Roger (The Beat) and the late Paul Murphy(The Destroyers).
“Paced like Gillian Welch at her Bible-black best” – Uncut “One of the finest exponents of moss-hung backwoods Americana you’ll find in the UK” – The Scotsman
Our next show will be something a little bit special. We’re currently putting together a stripped-down, acoustic performance for the Hexagon Theatre at MAC Birmingham. It will take place on Friday 27th April, tickets are £11 (£10 concessions) and are available here. The show is open to all ages.
The Hexagon theatre is an intimate space, with 80 seats that loom in a steep semi-circle above and around the stage. It’s a great place to see a show. Here’s what it looks like…
For this gig we’ll temporarily become a 7-piece as we’re being joined by Nigel Darville, the keyboard wizard who played so beautifully on our 2016 debut LP, “TrailerParkLife“, and who has recently added some equally great parts to our new record, “The True Adventures of Independent Country“, out this summer. Here’s Nigel leading us in on our version of New FADS’ ‘Big’
Support on the night comes from our good friend, the fantastically talented James Summerfield. He’ll be old playing songs from his tremendous back catalogue, and also tunes from his latest record, “Doubt”.
For those who have never seen us play a more ‘sedate’ show, here’s how we lined up at London’s legendary Union Chapel for a similar show a year or so back:
Our next show is likely to be a belter. We’re playing this Saturday, 17th March, as part of a doozy of a bill down at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath.
Top of the pops will be Bob Log III, with support from Black Mekon, Independent Country, and others. The £11 early bird tickets are now sold out, but £13.75 tickets are still available via this here Skiddle link.
In the meantime, here’s Bob Log III doing his thing.
Our next show will be with the marvellous Cale Tyson on Thursday 1st June at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath. Tickets are £12 and available from Skiddle.
Here’s a video of Cale in action. You can also hear his new single, Compromised Land, over on Spotify. We’re looking forward to playing with him and his band.
Our debut record, ‘TrailerParkLife‘ is now available. You can now buy/stream the record in services such as Spotify, iTunes and elsewhere. You can also stream the album in full on our Bandcamp page, where the record is also available in CD and limited-edition, lathe-cut vinyl formats.
The album features 10 brand new, country arrangements of classic Indie and Britpop tunes from the likes of Happy Mondays, Blur, Oasis, New Order, Teenage Fanclub and others. The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s Jim Reid recently described the Independent Country version of his ‘Blues From A Gun‘ as ‘the best thing I have EVER heard’.
We hope you enjoy the album. It’s been a lot of fun to make. Here is a video for one of the tracks, our version of The Stone Roses’ Made of Stone.
Our debut record, TrailerParkLife, went on pre-sale today ahead of it’s release on 2nd December. It’s available in Digital, CD and super-limited vinyl. Two tracks are available immediately when you place your order.
The album has ten tracks, each a Country version of a classic Indie tune from the likes of Blur, Oasis, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Teenage Fanclub, and more.
We’ve had a hell of a lot of fun making this record. We hope you enjoy it!
We’re really pleased to have been asked to support the marvellous Karl Blau when he visits Birmingham next year. You can get tickets and other info here. See you there.
Chris Tye is a singer-songwriter who makes beautiful harmonic pop music with roots in a folk and jazz tradition. He is a sublime guitar player with a complex sense of rhythm, and a talented and ambitious composer and arranger of his music. But perhaps what strikes the listener first is his hugely distinctive voice, expressive and versatile, veering from melancholy to ecstasy, which at times recalls such important musical influences as Nick Drake, John Martyn, Grizzly Bear, The Beatles and Paul Simon.
Ben Calvert & The Swifts 
The Birmingham-born alt-country singer-songwriter James Summerfield played with John Peel favourites Buick 6 (later The Toques) throughout the mid- 2000’s which saw them collaborate with Julian Wilson (Grand Drive), Simon Alpin(the late Willard Grant Conspiracy) and Neil Coddling(Suede). Since going solo James has released 6 studio albums, toured twice with pal Scott Matthews, collaborated with Rankin Roger (The Beat) and the late Paul Murphy(The Destroyers).
