Your Voice, Your Choice #2 – Liv Austen
Delighted to continue a great new feature on Belles and Gals today – “Your Voice, Your Choice”. We introduce one of our favourite songs from a great female country artist and then the artist tells us in turn about a song that has inspired them and has a special place in their heart. Today’s artist is the fantastic Liv Austen.
Liv Austen is one of the true stars of the UK country music scene. Norwegian born, Liv now resides in London and has been one of our favourite artists at Belles and Gals since the very start. With great songs under her belt such as “The Guts You Always Had” and “I Don’t Regret a Single One”, there is little doubt that the lady has an immense talent. See Liv play live and you realise she has it all.
Now Liv Austen is back with her great new single “The Next Time”. This song was played live at a recent Belles and Gals in the round gig in London, and it was fantastic when the song was announced as the new single. It’s catchy, it has attitude, great production and that brilliant voice to top it all off. Check out the video too – Liv does a great job of showing the guy exactly what he is missing!
Liv has chosen “Halfway Home” from the amazing Logan Brill.
‘My choice is Halfway Home, from the incredible album Shuteye by Logan Brill. I am so thrilled that I am no longer (what used to feel like) the only Logan fan in the UK! It’s fantastic that she was over here for Country Music Week as well as C2C, and it’s been such a pleasure seeing other people appreciate her music as much as I do.
Halfway Home is true country music at its best. Vulnerable, heartbreaking, and the lyrics are so clever due to their simple and honest nature. “He’d be driving you home, if he was worth half a s***, and his daddy had raised him up right” – what a line! This song hit me hard the first time I heard it. It is pretty much a woman having a talk with herself about constantly coming back to destructive relationships, reminding herself that true love does exist and that’s what she deserves.
It’s the incredibly emotional chord progression, alongside Logan’s gorgeous vocals that makes this song so wonderful, and at the same time hard, to listen to. I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to find out that this song was written by two of country music’s finest writers, Lori McKenna and Barry Dean. Lori even did a version of it herself on her album The Bird and The Rifle, and I love both versions so much.’
