Carolann B is known affectionately as ‘Yorkshire’s Very Own 1st Lady Of Country Music’. She was born in Denaby Main a small mining village near Rotherham in South Yorkshire. She has been entertaining people since she was three years old initially as a dancer which she continued to do all through school. She learned to play guitar, violin and mandolin at school and this held her in good stead when she later took up singing. She was brought up with country music listening to artists like Marty Robbins and Patsy Cline. Her mum idolised Slim Whitman and her own idols from an early age were George Hamilton 4 and later George Strait and Garth Brooks Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all influenced her love of Country music.
After leaving school, she went into amateur dramatics but behind the scenes rather than on stage. Her day job in a newsagent didn’t leave time to be an entertainer so having an art degree she did things like painting the scenery.
Although Carolann has loved Country music from her early years she started singing as a volunteer for the Normandy Veterans Association, entertaining the veterans when she accompanied them to France. She would sing all the popular war time songs and quickly realised how much she enjoyed entertaining people. “Everyone always made a beeline for the buses we were on as they knew they would get entertained all the way there and back” she told me.
When she was performing with the veterans she realised how much she wanted to perform on stage singing to people. Carolann’s unique voice and love of Country Music soon had crowds at a local restaurant where she had started singing as a favour for a friend, asking for more. A request from a local charity for Carolann to sing on stage for the climax to their fund raising weekend launched her to local stardom and gave her the confidence to start a semi-professional career in 1990
Starting with only ‘word of mouth’ bookings, Carolann went from strength to strength wherever she appeared she was given a return booking, this became one of her main stays in creating a firm circle of fans who she counts as friends who follow her from venue to venue. Two local agencies soon took Carolann on and her booking calendar quickly started filling up.
Carolann recorded her first CD album in 1998, it was called Singing For My Supper, a reference to her humble beginnings. Later that year she toured in the USA singing at venues in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee including the Ryman Auditorium. In 1999 she was back in the US touring several US States including North Carolina and Branson Missouri. In May 2001 Carolann, who by now had her recordings played on several radio stations, started work on her second album which was called By Request, This was finished and released in August 2001. During this time Carolann teamed up with top lead guitarist Andy Spivey to form the duo Dixie Diamonds. They recorded an album, A touch Of Fever, so called as the CD contained two songs written by the award winning Rod MacLane from the band Fever. This was released in August 2002 and received enthusiastic reviews in magazines and various radio shows and was requested by DJ’s as far afield as Australia, Malta, Holland and the USA. Fever’s Ken Dunning said of her recently “She’s a lovely lady and a very good friend of the Fever.”
At the beginning of 2004, due to work commitments the duo had to split to allow Andy to concentrate on his band work and to allow Carolann to concentrate on her solo career with a view to starting a band of her own. This came to fruition in 2005 when she launched her own band Highway 4 that featured a young lady drummer (Nikki). However in Nov 2005 when the lead guitarist injured his wrist and withdrew from the band, Carolann decided that it was unfair to the rest of the group to have to work round her busy schedule and she folded the band. Carolann was already committed to over 130 gigs and studio time for a new CD album Easy On The Eyes which was released in November 2006.
2007 saw one of Carolann’s Dreams come true when she opened for one of her childhood idols in September, Mr. Ambassador of Country Music himself, The late George Hamilton IV at the Brigg Pavilion in North Lincolnshire, plus a tour to the USA during November / December that year.
In July 2008 Carolann was nominated for UK Female Country Artiste of the Year. This together with a new Radio Show called Ladies Night the third Friday and Saturday each month on UK Country Radio and a new CD between Heaven & Hell kept her busy. Carolann’s radio show gave an added boost to bookings and her entries into UK Country Radio listeners’ club award were boosted by her airtime exposure leading to the entries being nominated as a finalist in four consecutive years from 2009 – 2012. Another CD album, A Little More Country was released in 2011. The 2012 song entered into the Listeners club award was Don’t tell Me Your Not In Love, a song originally recorded by one of her Country idols George Strait. The song was also featured on her 7th album A Little More Country. An award is for a song by a British or Irish artist that was promoted by that artist on UKCountryRadio. Each artist was allowed to select one of their promoted songs to go forward for the award.
2012 saw a change in direction for Carolann as she started arranging Country themed holiday breaks which proved very successful and very popular with one a year until 2014 when she took a break from holidays. In February 2015, a new acoustic CD with Allan Watkiss as the Carolann B Duo had already been recorded and was released later in the year with the title Acoustic Experience. The holiday breaks returned in 2016 although not all were Country themed. In 2016 Charity work for the Rotherham Young Dementia Group grossed £1500 with a further £2,000 being raised for Sheffield Kidney Unit Research Centre at the Northern General Hospital.
All live performing and holiday bookings ceased in 2020 during the Covid pandemic but now that we are learning to live with Covid the holiday business is once again picking up as are gigs. Although Carolann has now given up her radio show she is still busy working as a solo artist but can also be booked as a duo if required. She currently has two duo partners. She works with long time friend and solo artist in his own right Ben Thompson as the B & C Country Duo. Her other duo partner is another long time friend and solo Country artist Arizona Wes. Together they work as White Rose Duo.
Research by Nick Catford.