There aren’t many musicians in the East Midlands who can say they’ve had as much success as Kezia Gill. She’s reported to be one of country music’s brightest stars: last year she was voted live act of the year at the UK Americana Awards and her latest album entered the official UK Country Music Chart at number one.
Not only that but the album All On Red was recorded at the world’s major centre for country music: Nashville in Tennessee.
It’s a long way from the days when she was a child watching her father singing in working men’s clubs. The man who used the stage name Eddie McGill was a “huge influence” on her and she learned so much from him.
“He was a singer and used to gig sometimes seven nights a week. He did summer seasons in Skegness, Corfu, Majorca and we we’d all go as a family. I’d just watch the master at work and spent my life wanting to do what he did.”
He died in 2020, just as Kezia was beginning to make people take notice of her music. The previous year she’d been nominated in five categories at the British Country Music Association awards and captured the accolade of best female artist.
Her sound is said to be unique as it has bits of folk, Irish, rock and blues as well as country.
“My real love is country music,” Kezia says, “because of the storytelling aspects of the songs. But all the influences come not only from my dad but also from the music he sang that we listened to in the family home.
“I’ve always been a fan of rockier-sounding music. My mum is a big Status Quo fan and she listens to a lot of Rod Stewart.
“I love the idea of taking heartfelt, meaningful song lyrics and putting some great guitar riffs to them. I like to blur the lines of genre a little bit because in my opinion there are only two kinds of music: good and bad.”
Kezia Gill was born on 13 October 1987. She spent her first 11 years living with her mum, dad, two sisters and her elder brother in Long Eaton. She moved as a teenager to Derby and has stayed there ever since.
It took her a long time to break through as an artist: “I was doing basically what my dad did, playing pubs, clubs and hotels from the age of 16.
“I worked in a hotel in Lanzarote for seven years. It was only really in my early thirties when I’d been doing it for a good 15 years that I started to hear about original festivals where I could play my own music instead of singing cover versions.”
How did her first record come about?
“I’ve been writing music since I was a child. In my mid-twenties I had a friend who had a studio and I just started recording my own songs. The first album I put out there was no big official launch – no radio play. There weren’t things like Apple Music or Spotify back then.
“Probably no one heard the album but for me it was important to be able to put my own music out there.
“Now releasing music is so different. It’s all about streaming. For me it’s always been about putting my own songs out into the world.”
In 2018 she secured several slots at festivals and bagged the People’s Choice award for soloist of the year at the British Country Music Association awards.
The following year she undertook a three-week tour of Australia and performed all over Nashville as her popularity continued to grow.
“It’s a place that every country songwriter wants to go to and I was no different,” says Kezia about Nashville.
“Over the years of going there and watching people at the top of their game, it’s so inspiring. I always leave Nashville with a notebook full of song ideas.
“Once people heard who I was, what I had to say and heard me sing, word spread and I’ve been getting steadily bigger ever since. I’ve had some incredible opportunities. I’ve done some great festivals and shows which took me all over the world. I’m so grateful.
“The beauty of this job is you never know what’s around the corner. I don’t know where I’m going to be this time next year or the year after that. We know we’re working towards something but what it is we don’t know. I’m here for the journey!”
Kezia admits she’s living the dream: “It took me a long time to be able to say I’m doing what I always dreamt I would. But I certainly am.”
Kezia appears down-to-earth and level-headed despite her success. And she never takes awards for granted.
“It’s something that tells me my hard work is paying off. It means the world, especially awards that are voted for by the public.
“Even the most recent award, getting the number one spot with my latest album, that’s an award I’ll cherish because I know the blood, sweat and tears that went into making the record. It means a great deal. I keep joking to my husband that he needs to build me a trophy room.”
Kezia says she’s incredibly proud of her latest album All On Red: “It was two years in the making, lots of personal songs and it was made completely in Nashville. It was my biggest album project yet and it led to me getting signed by a major record label, Snakefarm, and it’s opened many doors for me. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
She explains how she came to record the album in Nashville: “I spoke to Alyssa Bonagura who’s a producer and an artist in her own right. I asked if she would be interested in producing the record. She said yes and added ‘you need to make this album in Nashville’. I booked a plane ticket and we made hit happen.”
Kezia has had a stellar year so far: she had a two-week UK tour which culminated in a gig at Nottingham’s Rock City – “it was a real dream to get to headline on that stage”; she’s supported legendary American artist Rodney Crowell at concerts in Sweden and Norway; and she’ll be appearing at a number of festivals over the summer.
She loves touring: “Waking up every day in a different city and jumping on a plane to play a show is an adrenaline rush and I love it.”
The work never stops for Kezia: she’s already writing songs for her next album although she’s not sure when she’ll be back in a studio.
What does her husband Lloyd make of her career? “He loves it. It’s not a life for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure. Luckily he’s a self-employed electrician so he’s able to drop work and come to all my shows.
“I’m very lucky because he loves it as much as I do. It’s great to have someone who not only knows the show and the songs but knows me so well too. He knows when I need five minutes, he knows when I’m hungry, he knows when I’m cranky, he knows when I’m okay.
“It’s really important, I think, when you’re so busy to have people in your team who can keep an eye on you. And that’s what my husband does for me every day.”
Kezia, who plays guitar, piano and Irish whistle, has no doubt about the best part of her job: “It’s got to be performing because everything else I do is so that I can perform. All the different moving parts allow me to be Kezia Gill on stage singing my songs. From the minute when I walk out to going off to – fingers crossed – applause, that’s what I do it all for.”
She has one burning ambition: “To be the first British artist inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, maybe.”
That’s recognised as one of the highest achievements within the country music community. The Grand Ole Opry is a radio and live music show which has become a cornerstone of American country music.
“You’ve got to think big, haven’t you?” says Kezia. “I just think if I can keep doing what I love for a living, then I’ve already made it.”
Maverick magazine, “the leading voice in country music”, describes Kezia as “no doubt one of Britain’s finest, soon to be one of the world’s finest!” With a compliment like that, it’s fairly obvious that the name Kezia Gill is going to be even more well-known over the coming years.
