The Shires on The Long Road to Lutterworth festival

But for Crissie Rhodes of the much acclaimed The Shires, 2018 will be the year when she gets to meet two of them.

For she will be on the same bill as Carrie Underwood for The Long Road festival coming to Stanford Hall in Lutterworth at the beginning of next month.

And after that festival, they will be out supporting Shania Twain on her UK tour.

But in the mean time, Crissie, one half of The Shires alongside Ben Earle, is looking forward to The Long Road.

She said: “It is one of the best bills in country music. We are headlining on the Sunday night but I want to go along on the Saturday night to soak up the atmosphere and just be a punter.

“Carrie Underwood is one of my musical heroes and if you really like country music then this is definitely the festival for you. There is everything from country rock, country blues and country pop.”

She is also full of praise for the festival experience.

Crissie said: “It definitely won’t be Reading or Leeds, it won’t be a drunken festival, it will be very chilled out and suitable for the family.

“It is a lovely environment for the whole family.

“But it is great for a festival as not only we will be bringing our fans along and they may well discover something new, and it will be the same for us. We might get some new fans.”

The duo will perform tracks from their new album Accidentally on Purpose released in April and after working on the album in solitude, they will be pleased to see people’s reaction to it.

Crissie said: “You do work hard and solidly writing the material for the album and then seeing people’s reaction to it is wonderful.

“I also can’t believe that it is the third album that we have released and it got to number three in the charts, but we were kept off getting any higher than that by The Greatest Showman.”

She also says that Shania Twain has had a huge impact on country music and them.

Chrissie said: “She gave that pop twist to country music and made people discover it again.

“We want to make country music accessible.”

The Long Road runs from, Friday to Sunday, September 7 to 9. Visit www.thelongroad.com