Southern belles

Kaylee Bell embraces Nashville, while Amiria Grenell heads to Americana.

- GRAHAM REID

NIGHTS LIKE THIS
by Kaylee Bell

At 18, Waimate's Kaylee Bell won the Golden Guitar award. She moved to Australia at 21, and through hard work and tenacity, picked up more awards and increasing mainstream attention on both sides of the Tasman, notably appearing on The Voice Australia. She toured here last year, opened for Ed Sheeran and is touring again now.

Bell has relocated permanently to Nashville, the nexus of successful and aspiring country artists and songwriters. It's her natural home and where she needs to be as a proven, collaborative songwriter.

This new album recorded with topflight session players and producers is quintessential Nashville country. Song titles include Take It To the Highway, When Summer Rolls Around and Boots'n All. Bell covers key bases: country myth and nostalgia (Small Town Friday Nights), highway drivin' (Good Things) and a potential standard in fine ballad Where Were You.