Rodeo queen and cookie monster SaraBeth returns to the UK

Her heart may belong in her native Texas, but for self-confessed Anglophile SaraBeth, the UK is a long-running love affair.
SaraBethSaraBeth
SaraBeth

A couple of months back she came over to play dates in Cardiff and at Stockport’s Buckle and Boot Festival, but now she’s back for a full 13-date tour.

This is the country singer’s third tour of the UK in as many years – she first came here to study as a university student, and has taken every opportunity since to return.

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‘It’s been really great,’ she tells WOW247. ‘Last year we had 12 dates, and this year’s total is 15 shows.

‘And we’ll be bringing the full band back this time so it won’t just be an acoustic show. There will be a lot more energy, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.’

And one song that’s been going down well is a saucy little number called You Rock My Rodeo.

‘It’s really funny,’ she laughs, ‘I don’t think my mum has caught on to the innuendo - she’s so conservative. It’s one of those things that can go over people’s heads. I didn’t mean it to be too racy – but it’s fun.

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Even though we don’t really have rodeos on this side of the Atlantic, the general message still travels.

‘I think most people know what a rodeo is, because of all the American TV over here. But when it’s a good song, even if you don’t fully understand all the references, it’s okay.

‘There are so many songs, I have no idea what this song even means, but it has a great groove and you find yourself singing along. But then later when you check the lyrics you realise what you were singing, it’s like: “Oh...!”

‘We now have official T-shirts saying ‘‘rock my rodeo’’ after a few fans turned up with home-made shirts saying it on the last tour.

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SaraBeth has a new EP out, Full Speed Ahead, which hit number one in the UK iTunes chart on release last month. And she’s looking to release more EPs rather than an album for now.

‘It will probably be EPs for the moment because I can get more music out to my fans faster. The time and more importantly, money, for a full album is huge.

‘Being an independent artist, if I can get an EP out every six to nine months, that’s my goal.

People are always asking for new music so I want to get it to them as quickly as I can.’

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However, it’s a song that was recorded in a radio station challenge that’s been causing an even bigger stir – a track called Girl Scout Cookie Monster.

‘That song was never meant to be recorded,’ she giggles. ‘It was a fun thing I wrote in an hour at a radio station, but people loved it.

‘I think it had close to 400,000 views on the Facebook Live video. They spun a wheel live on air, and that gave us the subject, Girl Scout cookies. We had no idea what we were writing about until we walked in.

‘By the time we got home, it’s about an hour’s drive back from the station in Bowling Green, Kentucky to Nashville, it had maybe 20,000 views and people were sending messages saying when is it going to be released?

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‘I’ve realised after talking to my British friends that you don’t have Girl Scout cookies here, but it’s so funny that people still love the song, even if they’ve got no idea what I’m singing about in the chorus.

‘Like I say, you don’t have to know what you’re singing about to enjoy a song!’

Such was the demand, the song has now been released on iTunes, and they do play it live too.

‘We played it last night – we were going to play a completely different song, but someone in the audience shouted it out, so we thought, you know what, let’s do it.’

The Railway, Winchester

Saturday, August 6

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