Hailing from Wisconsin, US Singer/Songwriter Kirstie Kraus has been cooking up a storm in the country music industry with her quick witted, fun-lovin’ and incredibly catchy tunes such as Beaches Be Crazy and Dab a Dolly (with Christie Huff).

Kraus moved to Nashville in 2017 to hone her craft as a solo artist after being part of many bands including Thirsty Jones. Since moving to Nashville, she has opened up for artists such as Thomas Rhett, Kip Moore, LANCO, Eric Paslay, Brandy Clark, Walker Hayes, The Cadillac Three, Pam Tills, Brothers Osborne, and Randy Houser.

Kirstie first came to our attention when she featured as Thomas Kavanagh’s duet partner on his song Who Am I Gonna Love. Since then (Over the last year) Kirstie Kraus has become quite the honorary brit. Having made her UK debut in the UK for Country 2 Country Festival in 2023 as UK artist Thomas Kavanagh’s guest, Kirstie made such an impact on the UK country music scene and vice versa that she returned to the UK this March to stay for just over a month!

Kirstie not only played C2C Festival but many other shows including Country on the Coast. Kraus was also invited to appear on BBC Breakfast to discuss the rise of country music and how Beyoncé’s album Cowboy Carter fits into all of it!

We caught up with Kirstie to discuss her music, playing in the UK and more!

Enjoy!

Hi- how are you?

I am doing good, today is sunny for the time being, so I went for a walk. I am in Tunbridge Wells. It’s a beautiful area and there’s a nice park near so I went to “I popped to the shop” haha!

Ooh tip top – So you are here for a whole month?

Yeah! It’s been four weeks and then I have one more week and fly out after Country On The Coast!

Wow, is this trip all surrounding shows or for a holiday too?

I booked shows around the fact that I knew that I wanted to come over for five weeks. I knew that was going to be kind of out of my comfort zone, just a little bit and just enough where I could handle it! I built myself up to playing the guitar that much, I built myself up to travelling 21 days at a time. One time I was in Florida for 9 weeks – granted I was in the same spot at my Aunts house – so I have had enough experience where I knew this would be possible but I knew it would be a little out of my comfort zone. I wanted to do something that was challenging to me and also experience the world through music. I planned to be here from C2C to Country on the Coast.

Well we, the UK aren’t challenging I hope? Haha. You must be an honorary Brit by now?

Oh my god everyone has been so helpful and I couldn’t literally have done this without the help of friends, people putting me up to stay, people helping to co-ordinate shows and even doing shows with me so it wouldn’t have been possible without all the support, help and love from you Brits, it’s been wonderful!

How did your relationship with the UK start?

Yeah that’s a good question! So, 2020 when shows were being cancelled I wasn’t able to do shows anymore. I started emailing and reaching out to brands in the UK just to introduce myself because I knew that I had this album done, my debut album and I knew that I was going to be starting to release stuff so I thought that I may as well use my time to reach out and make an introduction. From there I started doing interviews and instagram take overs, live streams with other artists all over the world. Some were from Ireland, some were from the UK. Just collaborating in a different way because that’s what it looked like. That is kind of when it all started and I really like started focusing on what the market was like over here (UK) and I really look up to Sarah Darling and Cam who are both female country artists that come over to the UK and tour. I have always said that I wanted music to help me travel, to be able to travel and do music so it was really just this whole dream that I started cultivating in 2020.

On the topic of the UK, you have worked with singer/songwriter Thomas Kavanagh a fair bit, how did that friendship come to be?

Thomas and I now are such great friends – I talk to him probably more than some of my state friends. We work closely together, we are constantly pushing each other and supporting each other on our music. He is constantly releasing new music. We met on Twitter. I was doing a live stream for a brand called Live Country Sessions. It was three of us women and one of his recent co-writers was on that round. So he was tuned in watching and I think he reached out to me on twitter (now X) haha. Then we just got to talking and fast forward time, we wrote a song virtually and now fast forward time, he has probably been over to Nashville ten times and I have only come over here (UK) twice. So he was the reason why I got to come over for the first time last year for C2C Festival and then he is also the reason that I got to play C2C again (this year) and be a part of his set because he was asked back this year. It has just been wonderful.

Tell us about C2C and the difference between your first experience and then your second experience this year!

It’s wild because I remember coming and I was so nervous to fly over and we had no idea where we needed to be for our stage last year so it was little better this year having more peace of mind – knowing where to go and catching up with friends because last year was the first time that I met a whole lot of people. I love going to C2C because it’s literally anybody who’s in the country scene over here are a part of it and a part of helping it grow and they are all at C2C. It’s really magical and this year, I definitely noticed that there was just more attendees. It grows every year. It was exciting to be a part of countryline this year and I was working with them to do interviews.

Yes I saw that! Who did you interview?

Hannah Ellis and then Fancy Haagood. I got to interview Dom Ellis. Getting to know all the team on one spot was super helpful. I definitely am very excited to be part of the team and I can’t wait for more of this to come. I am going back to Nashville next week and get to support and be part of the team in Nashville.

Tell us about being on BBC Breakfast because that’s exciting!

Oh my gosh, it was wild! First of all, right before I went to sit on the couch and right before they started the segment, they did my hair and make up, they were touching it up, there was somebody touching my hair and doing my make up at the same time and then right before I went out there they grabbed me and were like “40 seconds before we start”. They were so sweet and welcoming and just very professional.

Tell us what you were there to talk about, It was quite a big topic in the country world.

Yeah, they vetted me and I was on a long phone call before they even planned out logistics for me to be a part of the segment. It was celebrating Beyoncé’s country album so we were talking about just the growth of country music and how country music has shifted and of course Beyoncé coming in to the country music market and then they had mentioned that I was touring and that I had new music out. It was a wild thing. I was trying to explain it to people over in the states. I was saying it’s kind of an equivalent to ‘Good Morning America’. They kept asking me if I was nervous. I wasn’t nervous. Obviously it’s a lot of viewers, I think I am used to doing those kind of things at this point. I wasn’t nervous but I was more excited, it was so fun! What’s really funny is that when they were introducing me and starting the segment, I waved like an American haha. I was smiling and waving like “hey, good morning” and Naga was like “we have never had anyone wave” haha.

Ha yes because it’s a common thing on US talk shows isn’t it? To be fair, I would have waved too!

It was really funny! She kind of had to point it out and laugh because she was like “people just don’t do that” haha!

That is so funny! How did they find you to invite you on?

I got an email out of nowhere! I think it’s because I’m an artist that was affiliated and tagging of C2C Festival and also because I was continuing on tour.

There’s been so much controversy over Beyoncé’s country album which is silly because it’s highlighting country in a good way!

I am with you 100 per cent on that statement. It is highlighting country music as being a popular genre. She is going to bring in more people that don’t regularly listen to country to maybe give it a try.

Tell us about ‘Dab a Dolly’ with Christie Huff.

Yeah, I am so proud of that song and so proud that it got on an editorial playlist on Spotify. There is so much love around that song so far. ‘Dab a Dolly’ came around about because I would be on stage singing and I would do a Dolly Parton cover. After the cover I would be like “and there’s a dab of Dolly for you guys” and Christie turned to me on stage when we were on tour and said “wait, we should write that song, write that down right now and let’s write that song”. This was probably like our fifth write together? We met through the ‘Women of Country’ brand in Nashville and we just knew it was fun, it was special and it was positive. It was a great celebration of our Queen of Country Dolly Parton and so we got really excited about it.

And there’s a tiny bit of a ‘9 to 5’ riff in there right?

There was and right after that we sing “don’t get too busy in a 9 to 5”. That’s the first part of the second verse so a little bit of that essence there.

Do you have to get permission for a riff as little as that?

If it’s over a certain amount of bars then you have to. Dolly was actually in the studio two days before we cut that song so all the players would have been working with Dolly two days before.

So who is playing on that song?

It was at Sound Stage Studios so it was the session musicians. So it was February 16th to do the band session. We had my producer Jeff Huskins at BMG Studio A. We had Wes Little on Drums, Jimmy Carter on Bass, Nathan Keetrle lead, Joel Key on Rhythm Guitar, Scotty Sanders awesome, he is such an amazing band leader and steel guitar. Jeff Roach on keys and then Nick Autry and Zach Wills as the engineer and then also Joel Key on Banjo. It was a jammed packed line up of people who had been on a ton of records and so to see these guys get excited about what they are doing was amazing! The song makes me dance.

Speaking of songs that make you dance let’s talk about ‘Beaches Be Crazy!’

Yes! Beaches Be Crazy, I will never stop celebrating since I go to beaches all the time. The last two weeks in April I will be at festivals on the beach so looking forward to those and wearing my onsesie (see Beaches Be Crazy artwork for reference). I wrote it with as Scott Southworth and he is just so fun to write with. He actually had the title for a while and then was like “I think you’re the perfect person for this” and then we started listing out various beaches around the states and the fun things that people do when they want to go on vacation and get drunk and have a good time. It was really fun to write and I have definitely had a lot of musicians come back and say “oh those chords and that chorus are so cool”. It has had some really good feedback and I have noticed that a lot of people in the UK have been to Florida, they have been to beaches in the states so they are really relating to the songs as well.

Well I hope that you’re also getting a lot of feedback about the onesie?

Haha some people ask me in person if I have brought it with me. I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase haha!

That’s a shame! When you first moved to Nashville as an artist – What was the very first week like for you as a working artist?

I remember being overwhelmed and thinking “oh my gosh, I can’t believe I made it here”. So a little bit of crazy feelings because I had just moved away from home and my family which I am really close to and then also it was magical. I would go out at night and see my friends performing and they would let me go up with them and play songs with their band and stuff and so that was fun. Then there was one night I remember getting up with my friend somewhere on Broadway and might have been The Stage and I got up and sang a couple of songs, maybe ‘Redneck Woman’ by Gretchen Wilson and then I got off (stage) and people were like “we’re from Wisconsin too” and then they said “we have an extra ticket to Chris Stapleton, do you want to come?” And I was like “YES!” So then the next day I am going to see Chris Stapleton live at The Bridgestone Arena and I was like “pinch me right now, I am definitely in the right place”.

That’s amazing! Tell us about the band Thirsty Jones.

Yeah, that was my band in the midwest. It was my first project. I was in other bands but this was my first thing that I was running and deciding on songs and booking shows. I really enjoyed that time to one, hone my craft of what songs I liked to cover and how I was going to use my voice and just write. I wrote a lot of songs for the band so we started doing a decent amount of original songs. I love to think of that time very fondly and I am still really good friends with the lead guitar player in that band Jacob Vance. He is back in my home state doing his own band and we talk often.

Enter The ATMOSphere – what is that?

Oooh yeah! I actually just did some footage the other day. It’s a podcast that is on YouTube where we talk about all things Dolby Atmos. The whole big moment of mixing music where its coming at you from all different angles and it’s such an exciting time and a new thing that is coming in and is here to stay, so it’s fun to be on the nerdy side of the production and know and learn about Dolby Atmos. I was just in Manchester at Neve which makes all these production boards and plug-ins for production and I got a tour of their facility. We will be seeing some of that footage on a future show.

Exciting! What are you working on at the moment?

Now I am working on the final plans for our music video (Dab a Dolly). We are going to be taping a music video in the last couple of weeks of April. We are also hosting a party to celebrate the atmosphere mix that is going to be coming out.

Now that you’re an honorary Brit, what food etc have you come to love?

Oooh. I mean I am definitely loving all the Cadburys Hot Chocolate over here. There’s even decaf lattes that are normal to have. I have been eating a lot Lamb. I had lamb liver the other day and I was so there for it!

Oh that sounds gross no offence haha

Haha! I also love the fry ups!

Yes!!

I love this, what is it called, Nomadic yogurt. I like the nak’d bars for when on the train a lot. I will be sad not to have all of that when I get back to the states.

You didn’t have black pudding with your fry up did you?

I did, I tried it for the first time at Weatherspoons.

What did you think?

It was not great haha.

Haha no I can’t stand it myself!

It was kind of pointless! I like liver and stuff like that so it wasn’t awful but it didn’t have the quality taste that I was thinking.

We usually also get “what the heck are baked beans?”

Yeah, I loved them! I might buy beans over in the states and just try to recreate these fry ups because having that much protein in the morning really does set you up for a good day! I want to try to just have that back at home.

Well if you like baked beans then you have to put them in a baked potato with cheese. You won’t regret it!

Oooh! That sounds amazing!

Yep, big baked potato, open it up put in butter, grated cheddar cheese and then beans. I need to know what you think so please try it haha!

Thanks so much for talking today its been lovely

Oh my gosh, I appreciate you Hannah, thank you!