ICMC 2026 - Under Nashville Grey Skies: The Transnational Trajectory of Country Music in Britain

Ben Atkinson. University of Leuven. Leuven, Belgium. “Under Nashville Grey Skies: The Transnational Trajectory of Country Music in the United Kingdom.” This paper is based on a chapter of the same name, written for an edited collection with ICMC friend Dr Toby Martin (University of Sydney), on country music as a transnational and transcultural phenomenon that has outgrown its American roots. I will trace the history of the UK’s fascination with the country genre from the 1960s, when artists such as George Hamilton IV, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell regularly toured the UK, through the Wembley festivals of the 1990s and toward today’s modern resurgence. Country music is now the UK’s fastest-growing genre, and to mark the centenary of the Grand Ole Opry, London was recently selected as the location for the Opry’s only show ever to be performed outside the US.