Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Catherine McGrath, Warner Music 2018.
Catherine McGrath is a rarity in that she is a country music star from the UK.
She started as a cross-over artist rather than pure country singer although if you only listened to this album, her debut, you’d think she is country through and through.
Catherine was raised in Rostrevor, a small rural village in County Down, Northern Ireland, by musical parents who run the annual folk festival there.
She started off by posting videos of herself performing covers of pop songs on YouTube, but it was upon hearing Taylor Swift’s Love Song that her love of country began.
And it is completely understandable that it would be an Irish girl that would be the leading light in the new UK country music scene.
Ireland’s greatest export has been its people and American country music has many of its roots in Irish folk music styles.
I have singled out American because in reality virtually all modern country stems from its American source.
Catherine worked up her ideas for Talk of This Town with producer Steve Robson, a Geordie, before moving on to collaborate with a number of powerhouse Nashville co-writers and producers such as Jimmy Robbins (Keith Urban) and Liz Rose (Taylor Swift).
The album was recorded at various studios from Nashville to London
Catherine McGrath has been embraced as a rising star by the Nashville country music scene however she has also been hailed as a major new talent by mainstream pop icons such as Sir Elton John.
The album has already produced three singles that have achieved more than a million streams on Spotify; Cinderella, Thought It Was Gonna Be Me, and Just In Case, and three other songs, Don’t Let Me Forget (a duet with American country sensation Hunter Hayes), Lost In The Middle, and She’ll Never Love You, are trending in the country charts.
Catherine writes a good song and she has a very good voice.
If the plaudits of the music press, and aging superstars, are to be believed, she is going to be huge.