It took former Tara’s Secret guitarist/songwriter Craig Chapman several attempts to bring together a band of like-minded players willing to bring to life his original songs, rather than just country covers.
In the aftermath of Covid, Craig linked up with singer/bass player Laura Holden in October 2021, both sharing their original songs and finding similar influences including Matchbox 20, Ashley McBryde, Lady A and Sheryl Crow.
Craig brought in ex-army mate Pat Wright on guitar, and Tara’s Secret band-mate Dave Deaville on keys, and they finalised the line-up with Craig Cope on drums.
The band quickly polished a set of original songs for local gigs, practicing at Dave’s farm near Stoke-on-Trent and booking gigs around Staffordshire and Cheshire. They recorded a five track EP in Summer 2022 titled You’re Melting Me which was well received, gaining airplay on local, national and international mainstream and country radio shows, and the single One Way Ticket was picked up by BBC Introducing.
The band are passionate about promoting the UK country music scene and hosted their own country and Americana songwriters night which attracted acts from near and far. In September 2023 they organised Cheshire’s first country music festival featuring performances from Adele And Andy, Chloe Chadwick, Lisa T and more.
2024 ended on a massive high with the band being nominated for UK Country Group of the Year and and performing at The UK Country Music Awards in September.
They also smashed performances at The British Country Music Association Festival in St Helen’s, Live in the Living Room Gives Back in London, and at Motorcycle Live at Birmingham NEC.
In March 2025, Chasing Twisters released the single Different Kind Of Country.
The track was written by Laura Holden – the band’s lead singer and bass player. She describes the song as an English version of Gretchen Wilson’s Redneck Woman. Laura grew up in the fens of Lincolnshire, which she thinks just might be the equivalent of Redneck here in the UK! So the song is all about growing up as an English country girl – a different kind of country!
Despite growing up in the East Midlands, when Laura went to university in Manchester everyone thought she was posh and called her “southern”, so this is where the second verse comes from!
Laura has been playing bass since she was 10 years old and was taught by her dad. She has also been singing since she was a child but this her first role as lead vocalist in a band.
The band’s debut album, Better In A Hat was released in April 2025. It consists of 12 original tracks written by Laura Holden and Craig Chapman and was celebrated with an album launch event in Stoke on Trent on Saturday 12 April with support from June Holland.
The album includes Summer of Love, written by Craig Chapman.
Craig said: “Originally written in 2001, I had been to see the film Almost Famous at a cinema in Hong Kong and came out singing this song, so I made some quick notes and went back in to watch the film all over again, to make sure I hadn’t subconsciously stolen it from the wonderful movie soundtrack. I was also a recent inductee to the world of Matchbox Twenty song writing, so their question/answer conversational style and a lumpy approach to which bits don’t need to rhyme, was also going on in my head.
My first original music band Floosie did work on it, as did the melodic rock band Tara’s Secret that Dave and I were members of, but it wasn’t until I heard how Laura was interpreting my lyrics in other songs, that I thought a re-write might be a good idea.
The lyric compares changes of emotion, to changes in the weather. We can quite easily have our summer of love for a couple of days in November, then a personal blizzard in June, followed by sunny interludes, all in the same day, just like the infamous English weather. I switched the verses to a minor key, re-adjusted the chorus in the original major key, so the dynamics of the music now change like the weather it refers to, and the rest is up to Laura, with Pat’s & my harmony vocals chirping away over the imaginary shoulder.
It don’t have to be the summer, to be the summer of love
You feel the seasons change inside of you
Sometimes they’re changing every day
The next single, This Atlantic City, was written by guitarist Craig Chapman just as Covid was about to shut down the world, and threatened to dash hopes of forming a new modern country band.
Seeing Laura Oakes and Honey Ryder on the Town Square stage at Country 2 Country had inspired Craig that it was possible to write and play original country music with an English twist here in the UK. This song is a thank you and follows a story of a Liverpool-based, female country singer-songwriter Penny Lane trying to make her way in the US. The loneliness and hard graft can make that person miss home and family life. She realises that, between Liverpool and where she has been based in New Jersey, she’s in the wrong Atlantic City, so makes her way back across the ocean to recharge and be with her family in familiar surroundings. Thankfully, she falls back in love with writing and singing her own songs, heads back Stateside and smashes it.
“Fly, Liver Bird, Fly Fly Away !!”
When Laura and Craig first got together after Covid to share songs and band ideas, Craig nearly strained his voice demo-ing this song as it is definitely pitched for the higher voice, but Laura took over those notes and Craig found more comfortable harmony lines. He said: “Ever since I first heard Lou Gramm singing for Foreigner, I’ve been writing song in keys that I should be arranging bollards around. Thankfully, that’s where Laura’s voice works so well.”
As the band came together, Dave established the piano base for the song and Pat found his soaring guitar counter melodies. When Craig Cope joined the band on drums, he gave the song a stronger rhythm with a bit of bounce. International violinist Kelly McCusker played through Craig’s scripted violin part perfectly first time, then jazzed up a few bits on her second take.
“You can’t beat a story set to music, as the sun is going down
And that soft strum is the heartbeat, of every music town”
