HOME Counties country music duo The Shires will make their third appearance at Pocklington Arts Centre within ten months, this time to promote their debut album Brave, on April 22, their tour's closing night .

Not from Texas or Tennessee but Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes met through Ben's Facebook appeal in 2013 for a female country singer to join him. Crissie, a friend of a friend, replied, came round the very next day and they discovered an instant chemistry, built around Ben's ten years of paying his dues as a solo singer-songwriter and Crissie’s experience on the live circuit.

Decca Records subsequently won the hot contest for their signatures just before they made their official live London debut at the second annual Country 2 Country Festival at the 02 Arena. In addition, they secured a contract with the American record company Universal Music Group Nashville, becoming the first ever British country act to be signed to a major Nashville label as they joined the home of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.

Twenty-four hours later, The Shires were performing at a prestigious London reception held jointly by BBC Radio 2, enthusiastic early supporters of the duo, and the Country Music Association.

Come the next morning, Ben and Crissie were on a plane heading for their first song-writing sessions in Music City USA itself, Nashville. Two days further on, they were featured in the Radio 2 documentary Nashville UK, celebrating the rise of new country on these shores.

During last year, The Shires played Pocklington twice, first a low-key gig in the smaller, downstairs performance and gallery space in July then a sold-out double bill upstairs with fellow country young hopefuls Ward Thomas in November.

Debut single Nashville Grey Skies set the scene for the February 23 release of Brave, whose accompanying tour was announced on Chris Evans's BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show last Friday, when they played four songs, including a slow-burning cover of Young Hearts Run Free. Expectations are high that new single Friday Night, also out on February 23, will be become an instant end-of-the-week anthem for office workers.

On the surface, The Shires have raced from stationary to 100mph in seconds flat, but behind that first impression lies the story of two musicians who have been working steadily towards this moment with their combination of the pop-rock drive of Fleetwood Mac with the uplifting anthems of The Lumineers. “We don’t want to be known as just springing out of nowhere, because behind the scenes, we’d worked really hard,” says Crissie. “We’ve done our legwork, and the two of us finding each other has just worked.”

Ben agrees with that sentiment. "I hate this word, but it was just serendipity,” he says, going on to reveal how he and Crissie were both inspired by the old-school workmanship of the best modern country songwriters. “When I was growing up, I loved big songs. Generally ballads, but quite structured, really well-written songs with that big pay-off line at the end of the chorus. I never really realised that was country.”

Crissie chimes in: “I love the simplicity of the lyrics, the stories that they tell, and the fact you get that progression throughout the song.” Now the Home Counties duo are ready to bring country home fromNashville. “At the end of the day, all we want to do is write songs and sing them,” says Ben.

• The Shires play Leeds Brudenell Social Club on April 8 and Pocklington Arts Centre on April 22 at 8pm. Box office: Leeds, gigsandtours.com; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk