Bolton may not seem the most likely location to find a multi-award winning country musician but a 36-year-old dad has just added a second gong to his mantle piece.
MJ Smallman, of Westhoughton, was crowned International Male Vocalist of the Year at last year's International Singer-Songwriters Association (ISSA) awards.
He has now followed up with a Male Singer of the Year award at this year's ceremony for his track 'Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain'.
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It is a song that has a very special personal meaning for him and one that he was confident would help him scoop the top prize.
"I had been having a turbulent time with my partner over the past 12 months," he said.
"It was an apology for things I've done and things I haven't been doing. The title is a bit of a metaphor because we were at each other's throats but we still really loved each other.
"I don't want to sound big headed but I was fairly confident [I was going to win] because it's probably my strongest track to date, both in quality of writing and the production.
"A lot of the work that the producer did with it such as the harmonies sounded really good.
"An A&R executive in Nashville, in America, said he could hear the pain in my voice so it wasn't just the lyrics, but I do think that inspiration is a big part of why it's my strongest track."
ISSA is an American association, founded by Tamanie Dove, a singer songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. Every year, an awards ceremony is held to celebrate and recognise independent musicians from all over the world.
After being nominated and making it through a public vote, MJ made it to the final 16 of his category , where a panel of judges then decided to award him the top prize.
It's been a whirlwind two-and-a-half years for the Westhoughton artist, who only started singing properly in April 2019, when his partner bought him a 'signing experience' for his 34th birthday.
Although frustrated that he has not been able to capitalise on his initial award win, MJ is hopeful for the future, having used the lockdowns to hone his craft.
He added: "I had dates booked in America that haven't come to fruition because of the pandemic and I haven't really been able to capitalise on the success of last year's award.
"However I have had more time to write and I've written some of my best stuff in the past 12 months.
"I've also been able to work more on the production side of things so I'm not so dependent on other people to produce the tracks.
"In some ways, I've grown as an artist but in other ways it's affected progressing my career."
Although Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain is a country track, MJ also records electronic dance music and is working with some legends of that scene.
The 36-year-old said: "I recently got a new management company for that side of things, called Evolved Artists, and I've been building a back catalogue.
"I've also written a song for Paul Van Dyk which will hopefully be on his forthcoming album.
"Then with the country stuff I've been having conversations with an A&R in Nashville and the track has been picked up for rotation on a radio station over there.
"So we're just waiting to see what the reaction is because the country stuff is massive over there but I've got my finger in a couple of pies."
