What I love about music festivals is discovering new artists (to me). As soon as a line up of a festival is announced, it’s fun to check out all the artists that I am personally not that familiar with. For me, at this year’s Country 2 Country Festival (C2C) 2024, one of those artists was Abbey Cone.

Now I know that Abbey has been making waves in the country music world for a while but I regrettably hadn’t sat down and taken the time until the C2C announcement. Let me tell you that I am so very glad that I made the effort.

It’s not often these days that I hear a song once and fall in love with it instantly, so when that does happen, it’s a beautiful thing! The song that I fell in love with listening to Abbey Cone was Coffee With You. A stunning and breathtakingly good piano ballad, Coffee With You is a peaceful love song that perfectly captures what true contentment in life would sound like in a song! Those feelings of happiness don’t always need to be an uplifting melody – contentment can just be chilled and that’s what makes this song so special, it’s dreamy, like floating through life.

Abbey Cone is an independent singer/songwriter who was named as one of CMT’s Next Women of Country back in 2020 and Pandora’s 10 Country Artists To Watch in 2022. She has toured with artists such as Brittney Spencer, Kassi Ashton, LeAnn Rimes, Abby Anderson, and the CMT Next Women Of Country Tour with Maddie & Tae.

We caught up with Abbey to discuss her time at Country 2 Country Festival, her music, her Grand Ole Opry Debut and more!

Abbey was a joy to talk with and I could have spoken with her for hours. A truly interesting and inspiring woman, Abbey may be an independent artist now, and that is by choice, but her music speaks volumes of just how gifted she is and she will undoubtedly have a heck of a career which we hope, brings her back to the UK on a regular basis.

How are you? How has C2C Festival been for you so far? I have been looking at your socials and have seen that you have been shopping around the outlet here at the O2. Have you found anything good?

I forgot a coat yesterday and it was so cold and windy and I needed a coat so bad. I love that everything is an outlet here, so everything is discounted. I went to Tommy Hilfiger and bought a coat. At one of the little shops I bought a pink beret and two pairs of sunglasses but I’m going to save my pink beret for touristy things as I am staying two more days in London after this. I am going to go see the palace and everything. I watch The Crown, it’s so good! I don’t know how historically accurate it is but it’s so well done! I will wear my pink beret and no one will judge me!

Are you fascinated by the Royals then?

Kind of yeah!

Well I haven’t seen The Crown but I do watch The Windsors which is the spoof version, very funny! How have your shows been so far?

So good! I just had a really great show on the BBC Radio 2 stage and it’s the first time a crowd has ever done the flashlight situation for me!

Oh wow!

Everyone here is really sweet and really attentive. Seeing people that know the songs, I didn’t expect that, I didn’t know what to expect coming over here. This is my first time in Europe ever! Looking out and seeing people knowing the songs feels really good.

What song has had the best reception this trip?

If You Were a Song! It’s been my biggest song that I’ve had, so I feel like that one is the one that people have been most receptive to. I have also been singing songs from my EP that I have put out in 2022, and probably because those songs have been out for a while, there’s two songs called Rhinestone Ring and Hate Me, people have known them.

I’m a Coffee With You fan

Oh really? That’s so interesting! It’s funny because I can’t play that on guitar, I just don’t know how. It’s a piano song and I haven’t figured it out yet. Sometimes I’m not sure that song will go over well with a bigger crowd. Honestly, if anywhere, here is the place to play it because everyone is so quiet and listening. That song goes over peoples heads back home!

That’s so bizarre! You haven’t played it this trip?

No!

Oh no! You know when I was preparing for this interview and listening to that song I actually wrote down “Coffee With You – Fan Party” which I think needs to happen next C2C Festival! A small fan party with an acoustic show and coffee and cake haha!

I want to do that really bad!

It’s a done deal then, come back next C2C and let’s do it haha! So you don’t play piano?

No, I can play a couple of chords but I dedicated so much time to the guitar as a kid. I quit piano lessons as a kid, it’s like my biggest regret. Guitar is easier to travel with. I do want to sharpen up my piano playing because when I am writing, the piano is such an emotional instrument that I feel that I hear more melodies.

How was that song (Coffee With You) born then?

I wrote it with two guys Chris August and Ben Roberts. Chris was playing the piano and we wrote it pretty fast actually.

Tell us about your Grand Ole Opry Debut because how on earth does one prepare for such an event?

Oh my gosh! I feel like in some ways that I have been preparing my whole life for that! I said this on the stage but I said that if you’re a girl who likes country music, it’s not a rare dream to have to want to play at The Grand Ole Opry, it’s what we all want to do. The percentage of us that actually get there is pretty small so it felt like such an honour. I also said this there “if I never make it anywhere else, I made it to the Opry stage”. That felt so good! When you’re making your Opry debut there’s a big camera crew and everything there. From the moment you drive in to the moment you leave. It’s wonderful because then you have all of it taped. They make these special videos and it’s on the Opry YouTube channel. It’s called My Opry Debut, so the whole thing is video’d and I get to go back and watch that video and I do, a lot!

That is such a great idea! How do you pick what to wear?

Oh my gosh! I knew what I originally wanted. Do you know what a Nudies suit is? It’s like the suits that traditional country artists used to wear like Porter Wagoner. The suits that have embroidery on them and rhinestones. There is another brand called Manuel Couture who I think is like a nephew of Nudies. I really wanted to have a Nudies suit made but then I found out how much they charge for them and I was like “that is not in my budget”. Mostly, I knew that I wanted Rhinestones. I found this dress, the brand is called Self Portrait and I found the perfect dress. I knew I wanted it to be very classic. I wanted to be able to look back in ten years from now and what I chose to wear still held up, so I went for classic and simple and I knew I wanted to have Rhinestones.

Nice! Do you keep a photo up on the wall at home of the moment?

Yeah! I just look at the dress. It’s like at this point, since I am not married I feel it’s like how you feel about your wedding dress in your closet. I want to wear it in a music video! I hate having really nice pieces like that that you only wear one time, so I’m gonna wear it again!

So when you’re in a co-write, is it always easy to be open about what you want to write about or are there times when it’s a challenge, it’s awkward because you’re not connecting and so on?

Yeah totally! I don’t usually do this anymore because I try to write with people that I have known a long time but a lot of times you get set up with a random person because someone thinks you’d make a good pairing and sometimes you don’t and it’s not a good combination. You could be able to hang out with that person but creatively it doesn’t work! It is awkward sometimes when it isn’t a creative match but that happens less often.

So you don’t come out with something at each write?

No! You don’t always come out with something even with my favourite writers. Sometimes it’s just not in the universe that day, or we’ll start something and I try not to force anything as it isn’t worth it to me.

Do you have any unfinished songs that you love and want to go back to some day?

A lot! So many! The trick is remembering that it exists!

What song of yours is a family favourite?

I have this new song that isn’t released yet and it’s called Beginning of the End. It’s very classic country and my mum dies over that song. Everyone in my family really likes Coffee with You too, they love a ballad, my family loves a ballad.

We love a ballad in the UK.

What else are you working on at the moment?

I am working on what will hopefully turn into a full length album, at some point. I hope to release that this year! I don’t have a date yet but I am hoping to get back and finish it in the next couple of months will be the goal.

Any plans to come back?

I hope so! I hope this will open up other opportunities to come back.

Well you’re welcome to, I say that like I run the whole thing haha! I mean we would love to have you here, we really would and have that Coffee With You party!

That would be amazing!