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The best country acts touring in 2025
This ain't Texas... but there's plenty of great country music coming the UK this year
It feels as though country music has never been as big in the UK as it is now. In 2024, Beyoncé achieved her first No.1 single in 14 years with the banjo plucking ‘Texas Hold Em’ and it stayed there for five week; that same year, legions of giddy Glastonbury goers line danced along to Shania Twain’s Sunday afternoon legends slot. We didn’t get Lana Del Rey’s rumoured country album, but Post Malone’s rockin’ tribute to Nashville F-1 Million also landed the top spot in the UK album charts alongside Queen B’s Cowboy Carter. Much like pretty much everywhere else on the planet, Shaboozey’s ‘A Bar Song (Tipsy)’ was an unrelenting hit, making your high street local feel like a Tennessee dive bar.
All of this, as long-standing country acts such as Darius Rocker and Morgan Wallen are filling out the nation’s biggest arenas, while homegrown acts such The Shires and Ward Thomas continue to put British country on the world map.
With the UK’s country music calendar filling up to an almost overwhelming extent, we’ve put together our highlights of the must-see acts worth dusting off the cowboy boots for.
Kane Brown
Kane Brown emerged in the mid 2010s with a self-titled debut that explored his difficult upbringing while giving his country music some of the smoothness of R&B and the full-band anthems of stadium rock. Since then he has continued to soar on a global scale, as a night at London’s OVO Arena Wembley later this year attests.
The Shires
Country music is of course an inherently American tradition, and so for outsiders it’s surely a fine balance between authenticity and caricature. The Shires have shown UK artists how to walk this line for a decade now, and were the first ever English country act to sign to a major Nashville label, to reach the Top 10 UK Albums Chart and to be awarded by the American Country Music Association.
The Shires take their The Two Of Us tour around the UK from March – June 2025 – find tickets here
Brett Young
This Californian sportsman turned musician heard Nashville calling after an injury put a stop to his baseball career. Twenty years on, the ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ singer leaves fans all over the world swooning for his romantic country pop that earnt him a headline slot at last year’s Highways Festival.
Ward Thomas
Siblings Catherine and Lizzy Ward began Ward Thomas around a similar time to their peers The Shires, joining them as pioneers of English country and even surpassing one of their records to be the first in their genre to top the UK Albums Chart with 2016’s Cartwheels.
Ward Thomas are touring the UK in September 2025 – find tickets here
Darius Rucker
Once known as the guitarist of alternative rock band Hootie & The Blowfish, Darius Rucker kicked off his country career in 2008 when he signed to Capitol Nashville with Learn To Live, which featured his landmark single ‘Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It’ and helped him become the first Black American to win the Country Music Association’s New Music Award. These days Rucker is one of the biggest contemporary country stars on the planet, with his cover of Old Crow Medicine Show’s ‘Wagon Wheel’ rambling up to the billion stream mark.
Country 2 Country
With country pop surging in the 2010s, C2C: Country To Country formed in 2013 in Europe to match the demand and become a meeting place for fans on the continent. With several editions taking place in Amsterdam, Oslo and Berlin, since 2016 its UK arm has run across three nights with a rotating line-up performing in London, Glasgow and Belfast. This year sees Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley and Cody Johnson top the poster.
Jackson Dean
There’s a rough and rockin’ edge to Jackson Dean’s sound, though 2024’s On The Back Of My Dreams proved there’s far more to the Big Machine signee than the gravelly, full-throated vocals and wailing guitars of his most popular hits ‘Don’t Come Looking’ and ‘Still Ragin”.
Jackson Dean is touring the UK in April 2025 – find tickets here
Beyoncé
Cowboy Carter was Queen Bey’s fully-fledged response to those who dared mock her first foray into the country genre when she performed ‘Daddy Lessons’ at with the Dixie Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards. The conceptual album sees the pop titan relish in roots music, while shining a new light on it by reminding listeners of the centrality of Black culture and artistry in its history.
Morgan Wade
If it’s emotionally wrought country pop songs with catchy, cathartic choruses you’re after, then Morgan Wade’s your gal. Last year the Virginia-born singer joined Alanis Morisette on tour and released her gorgeously rounded fourth album, Obsessed.
Post Malone
2024 saw another pop giant trying his hand at country music – in fact, he appeared on Cowboy Carter too. Post Malone had been expressing a desire to write a country album for several years, and when he finally did with F-1 Trillion, dear lord did he come packing with some big names. Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs… the list goes on.
Midland
With the cowboy hats, strong moustaches and vibrant Nudie suits – Vogue once called them “Equal parts heartthrobs and fashion risk-takers” – Midland muster a nostalgic vision of country and cover the classic topics, but drive forward with contemporary accessibility and appeal.
