Twins Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas are the toast of the country world at the age of 20. CHARLES HUTCHINSON reports.

AFTER winning the UK Album Of The Year at the British Country Music Awards with their debut release, From Where We Stand, Ward Thomas are touring Britain and Ireland on an 18-date tour.

"It's our first headline tour, with the band in the van," says Catherine Ward Thomas, the older of the 20-year-old twin sisters who grew up on a livestock farm in Hampshire.

"Our support act, Jessica Ridley, from Nashville, will be in there too: another female to stick up for me and Lizzy when we're with the boys in the van. It's great to be exposing both British country and Nashville country too."

Catherine and Lizzy recorded the album in America's home of country music.

"It started when we were still at school, going back and forth to Nashville while we were doing our A-levels, and we completed it after we finished them," says Catherine, recalling their days at Hurtwood House, a "little boarding school" in Dorking, Surrey.

Consult the school website and it reveals Hurtwood House is "a centre of excellence for the Performing and Creative Arts, providing outstanding opportunities for the aspiring actor, singer, artist, fashion designer, composer and film maker both in the A-level courses and, more importantly, in specially arranged and professionally organised activities".

"We were writing and singing our own stuff at school and we played a song called Footnote to our vocal coach, Ann Bailey, who was a session singer in Nashville, where she emailed the song to a friend and then to another Nashville session musician, and the next thing we were over there," says Catherine.

"One minute we were writing songs in the music room at school, the next we were in Nashville. Hurtwood was known as the 'school in the woods' and the music room was like a cabin in the wood; and to go from there to a big recording studio was such a contrast. It was like swimming through the air as it's so hot in Nashville in August."

A steep learning curve took in such experiences as playing on small radio stations in and around Nashville and performing in a sandwich shop in Clarksville, Tennessee, for half an hour "when the only people in there were the sandwich shop owners".

Nevertheless, Ward Thomas's reward came with their British Country Music Award.

"It's taken a lot of time and blood, sweat and tears, late nights and touring, so it's an amazing feeling when you've found out you've won," says Catherine. "But we couldn't be there, as we were on the road, so we recorded a video thank-you with us in our pyjamas, while everyone else was in ball gowns at the awards."

So, what drew you to country music, Catherine?

"Country music is about honesty; it's such an authentic form of music," she says. "We discovered it through The Dixie Chicks; we learned harmony singing from their songs, and while some country songs are sad, they're also fun."

Take Ward Thomas's tongue-in-cheek new single, Town Called Ugley, for example, released this month in a re-packaged version off From Where We Stand with Vince Gill on guest guitar, accompanied by a humorous animated video.

"It's a real place in a very pretty part of Essex, where we got horribly lost on a car journey when we were booked to play at a wedding," reveals Catherine. "It's a tiny village with a lovely, beautiful Ugley church and the Ugley Women's Institute.

"With our TomTom, we kept finding ourselves back where we started, back in Ugley, and when we got home, Lizzy was saying how we 'got lost in a town called Ugley'." A perfect song title was born.

No such travel problems should afflict Ward Thomas on Tuesday when their van sets out for York. "It's the first time we've played in York but we've stayed there before," says Catherine. "It's such a beautiful city and it's great to be coming back."

Ward Thomas play Fibbers, York, on Sunday and the Adelphi Club, Hull, on Tuesday, both at 8pm. Box office: York, 0844 477 1000; Hull, 01482 348216.


Did you know?

A strong seam of creativity runs through both sides of the Ward Thomas family. "Our grandmother wrote over 40 novels and our great-grandfather was an inventor. Our parents were in a band together and Mum has become a well-recognised painter. Our brother Tom is an actor and a playwright," say the sisters.