Ricky Skaggs

The band are comprised out of one core trio. Hilary Scott and Charles Kelley both share lead vocals on their songs, with Kelley also playing the rhythm guitar, whilst multi-instrumentalist Dave Haywood sings backup vocals while playing lead guitar, piano and mandolin.

Scott is the only one of the trio actually born in Tennessee, with both Kelley and Haywood being born in Georgia, the former was raised there while the latter was raised in North Carolina for the first ten years of his life. Haywood’s family moved back to Georgia and the two natives became friends in middle school, and by 2005 they were meeting up to write songs together every other weekend.

Like many other before and many others who will go on to do so, creating music became their passion and they came to Nashville seeking to make Kelley’s dreams of country stardom a reality. In comes Hilary Scott, who recognised Kelley from his MySpace page (that’s right, we’re going way, way back here!) when they met in a bar.

The three of them started writing songs together and country history was made. They signed to Capitol Records in 2007 and released their self-titled debut the year after; it was an instant hit, hitting the top spot on the Billboard country album charts in the first week of release.

Their music is a seamless mix of the accessible yet artistic, and their reign on top of the country world is only just beginning. If you join them for the ride now, there will be sights and sounds that you’ll never forget.

For those who don’t live in the US of A, it can be quite difficult to comprehend how big of a deal country music can get over there. Since the advent of Mumford and Sons and Taylor Swift’s absolute domination of the pop world in general it might be a little easier to understand, but for anyone else in the world, an artist like Dave Barnes sits strangely on the charts. Not because he’s not talented, it’s very obvious that he is, but to see him sit alongside the likes of Big Sean and Ariana Grande on the album charts takes some getting used to. However, it is nothing if not heartening to see such a talent get recognised on that level, and to be clear, Barnes truly deserves every moment of it.

Rewind back to Barnes’ adolescence however, and that Big Sean comparison becomes a lot more fitting. His first musical love that didn’t extend from his parents’ record collection of classic soul, blues and R&B was straight up hip-hop. After playing the drums for most of his teenage years he only turned his hand to country and rock once he began writing songs on the guitar in college, and at first he had no interest in performing them himself. His first attempts at songwriting were intended for others but he was just so damn good at it that his friends encouraged him to record, release and perform them under his own name.

After graduating from university, Barnes moved to Nashville, Tennessee from Knoxville in the same state to make his name as a singer songwriter. 2002 saw the release of his first E.P “Three, Then Four”, and following the release of that record, he toured solidly for the following year, building a solid fan base through his live show and his internet presence. During this period of time, Barnes met a man called Ed Cash, a producer who recommended that Barnes head into the studio to record a full length album, despite the fact that he didn’t yet have a record deal. Barnes was eventually talked into it and in 2004 his debut album “Brother, Bring The Sun” was released on Aware Records.

Since then, Barnes has had his songs covered by the likes of Amy Grant and Blake Shelton and has written for Tim McGraw among many, many others. He’s been effusively praised by John Mayer and Vince Gill and has generally been one of the most acclaimed artists in the country music scene. It’s very easy to be cynical about the likes of Barnes, but when you have a talent of this magnitude, who’s very much in his prime and as prolific as he is in both his concerts and his albums, he should be treasured by every fan of folk, rock and everything in between.