Belles and Gals – The 1st Year

• By Nick Cantwell
• January 25, 2017
• No Comments

Today is the first birthday of Belles and Gals, so I thought I’d give you a few insights into how the site came about and the hugely enjoyable first year we’ve had. I’ve been into country music for around 12 years but for a large part of that most of the artists I listened to were male – it was Ryan Adams who first grabbed my attention and much of my listening was in and around alt-country, including Whiskeytown, Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks. However, in the last four or five years my listening became more and more female orientated. Acts such as Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Ashley Monroe started dominating my listening and I think I realised that I just really like the female voice singing country.

My favourite country artist is Canadian Lindi Ortega and in January of last year I saw her play live in Cambridge. I’m from London, but I couldn’t make the London gig, so I drove up to Cambridge to see her. I’d had a really tough time of it before the gig as my dad had suddenly passed away just 8 or 9 weeks before and I really didn’t know if I felt like going. I did go with a couple of friends in the end and it was a really nice night. I think that night made me realise just how important country music is to me. Driving home, I knew I had to get more involved somehow.

At this point I literally didn’t know a single person who liked country music, so one of the reasons for starting the site was to meet like-minded people. After mulling over the name in a pub on a Sunday afternoon (Countrymusicwomen.com? CountryBelles.com? FemalesofCountryMusic.com? – my god, those names were bad..) the name BellesandGals  eventually came to me and I knew it was right. My original idea was to just feature my favourite country videos and for the first 3 or 4 weeks that was literally it. It was at this point that I started to realise just how good the UK country scene is and I started featuring more and more UK artists. The site was starting to take off too, as the following on social media began to grow. It was then that I thought that maybe I could extend it to reviews and interviews as well – and soon after I interviewed the fantastic Emma Moore, the first ever interview on the site. We’ve now conducted over 40 more interviews and as well as many brilliant UK artists, we’ve also crossed the pond and interviewed artists such as Brandy Clark and Sarah Darling.

Belles and Gals has grown and grown in the first year and I have to pay credit to some amazing people – the team! The first person to join was Astrid. I’d met her on Twitter when she was continuously telling me to feature Larkin Poe on the site and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with as much enthusiasm for country music. She has become a real valuable asset to the site, with some amazing help behind the scenes and her brilliant daily video shouts. The next member of the team to join was Becky Lawrence. Becky is a fabulous artist in her own right (who has featured many times), but I first came across her when I read her excellent music blog, which featured some brilliant vlogs. I asked her if she’d be interested in joining us, and I was delighted when she said yes! Becky provides the vlogs and is a great help in making decisions about the site. Lesley Hastings was next. I’d read a few of her reviews online and they were all excellent, so I asked her if she’s like to do some stuff for us – and she said yes. Lesley also writes for the brilliant ‘Think Country’, so if you like Belles and Gals check out that wonderful team too. Singer Emma Moore also joined the team and provides us with some excellent ‘Moore and More’ pieces, where she collaborates with other artists in the UK. In recent months we’ve had four new additions to the team. Mike Ross is our US based member giving us a stateside perspective and we’ve got three great new writers too – with Jodie Price, Nathalie Larsen and Laura Klonowski all joining recently. I simply put out a Twitter ad for new writers and in these three I got extremely lucky, each one absolutely brilliant! I’ll freely admit that when it comes to country music knowledge, each and every team member knows more than I do, so I bow to their knowledge. I couldn’t have asked for a better team!

So what can we expect from Belles and Gals in year two? Well we’ll continue with the reviews, interviews, the shouts and the vlogs – the team we have in place will ensure more coverage than ever. Tonight to celebrate our birthday we’ll be announcing the first ever winners of the Belles and Gals awards (BGA’s) too – 15 categories covering all of female country music (and there is something in there for the blokes too).  In just three days’ time we’ll be hosting our first ever live gig. I’ve probably been boring you to death on social media shouting about it, but I genuinely can’t wait. The plan is to bring the best female UK country artists to various parts of the country. This Saturday we start in Liverpool with Emma Moore, Hannah Rose Platt and Samantha Lloyd and then in February we move to London to feature Hannah Rose Platt and Kaity Rae. Plans are forming for more gigs in the early part of the year too.

It’s been an amazing first year and I have to admit that I have loved every single minute. I’d like to extend a thank you to everybody who has ever interacted on social media and to everybody who has been on hand with some brilliant advice in the first year. I’ve made some amazing friends this year too and that has been the real bonus – the country music scene is just full of amazing and friendly people.

I’d also like to give a big thank you to my wife and two daughters. They’ve had to put up with me heading out to far too many gigs in the last year and having my mobile as a permanent extension of my arm. Without their patience, Belles and Gals just wouldn’t have happened.

My final thank you goes to the brilliant artists who feature on the site. The amount of work these guys put into their music is just tremendous and they do it with an amazing passion. We only hear or see the finished product, but I’ve seen first-hand this year exactly what goes on behind the scenes. Each and every featured artist is just fantastically talented and yes, when it comes to music, they sing in the greatest genre of all.

Nick