While county music artists are a dab hand at writing about love and loss, and earthy in-the-saddle anthems, very few are actually pragmatists about their life and music.

Libby Koch is passionate about creating music but also grounded enough to explore all avenues.

"I just want to make a living making music, it's about trying to cobble together enough income streams for it to work,'' she said. "I'd love if someone wanted to record a song off my record.''

Being a female country music singer is no easy path to stardom. Libby says that many doors are still closed to her, and in no-nonsense style, purely because she's a woman.

But the feisty Texan singer/songwriter does not let the tumbleweed of obstacles hold her back and she is currently touring the UK to promote her new album.

She will be stopping off in Swindon at the Beehive pub on Prospect Hill on Friday, August 19 from 8.30pm.

Her first album, Tennessee Colony released in 2014, was a handful of songs based on the stories that she heard as a child about her family history. The tales covered an era from as early as the 1830s and the experiences of the first settlers in Texas.

Libby's latest album, Just Movin' On out on Berkalin Records, is more personal to her life now, with songs such as Back To Houston, written about the day she graduated from Vanderbilt University law school, and Out of My Misery written from a conversation with her sister about putting the contents of her house in storage.

"My sister said: I think you got a country song there, I know what I'm gonna do with my printer but what am I gonna do with my broken heart.''

Since that time Libby is pretty much on the road touring and gigging around America and Europe. She has played some well known venues such as the Texan Theatre, east of Dallas, which is a restored 1890s opera house. She said that the theatre is a truly special place having had performers such as Houdini, the Marx Brothers and Souza as well as today's up and coming artists perform there.

She will be singing a mix of songs from both albums when she comes to Swindon to play at a free gig in the Beehive. For more details call 01793 523187.