It’s the Nashville effect: the American TV drama, set in country music’s capital city, has persuaded Brits that country is cool, or at least cooler than previously thought. The most immediate beneficiaries have been Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas, 22-year-old twins from Empshott, Hampshire, whose second album, Cartwheels, reached No 1 last month – the first by a UK country act to do so. It hasn’t hurt their cause that Radio 1 has played their new single, Guilty Flowers – “I never thought I’d hear a country song on Radio 1,” marvels Catherine, the dark-haired twin – while their girl-squad glossiness reels in teens who perhaps perceive a resemblance to former country singer Taylor Swift.
It would be surprising if the sisters don’t execute a Swiftian crossover to pop somewhere down the road; the way is already being prepared by having ex-Saturdays singer Una Healy as support act on part of this tour. But can pop handle a duo whose harmonies are so pristine that, when they start tonight’s set with the fragile ballad Good on You, an onlooker gasps? Like fellow country siblings the Pierces and the Dixie Chicks, Ward Thomas are an exercise in genetic advantage – even in this small, hot room, they have perfect pitch, and their silvery voices are gorgeously entwined.
The harmonies, supplemented by occasional lead vocals by Lizzy and guitar-playing by both, are the crux of their live offering – there are no distracting visuals, and the job of the four-man backing band is to be as unobtrusive as possible. On this showing, neither sister is much of a schmoozer, either; when they do speak, their chiselled vowels contrast bracingly with the twang in their singing voices. Sporadically stunning as the music is, the fascination of hearing unadorned vocal perfection is not unlimited, and might pall if their set were longer than 75 minutes. Tonight, though, it’s fine, and the sparseness does demand that their genuinely compelling lyrics be listened to.
While older songs, such as the uproariously received Push for the Stride, incline toward the yee-haw end of the spectrum, new ones address topics that don’t often figure in country-pop. Guilty Flowers, which prompts Lizzy to dance as if she’s downed a snakebite at the indie disco, regrets the lack of judgment that afflicts people who cheat in relationships; Almost Easy notes that being ditched means losing not just a partner but their whole family. Delicately wrought, it’s a highlight, but is eclipsed by Safe, a song that assures a victim of rape that “you don’t have to be ashamed – you are not what happened to you”. Their voices and Catherine’s acoustic guitar are the only sounds in the room, and for those three minutes, even a senior fan who has ringingly stomped his feet to every song is still.
Ward Thomas finish the evening by signing records at the merchandise table, a touch that emphasises the polarity of their current position: the homespun Hampshire girls are aiming at much bigger things, so fans should enjoy getting this close while they can.
- At the Bullingdon, Oxford, on 6 October. Box office: 01865 434 998. Then touring.
