Country
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In 2020, Jessie Murph began regularly posting covers to YouTube and TikTok. They quickly gained a following, and ever since she’s been scoring one win after the next. She parlayed her early success with covers of Ariana Grande, Fleetwood Mac, Post Malone and others into a label deal with Columbia Records the following year. By the end of 2021, “Always Been You” — the lead single from her debut mixtape — became her first hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Since then, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter has tallied three more entries on the chart: “Pray”; her Diplo and Polo G collaboration, “Heartbroken”; and most recently “Wild Ones” with Jelly Roll. The latest has already become her biggest hit to date, reaching a No. 42 high in six weeks on the ranking.
Over an inescapable country-driven groove, Murph and Jelly Roll romanticize risk-taking, rule-breaking daredevils with an affinity for fast cars and lifting their middle fingers high in the air. “Say you wanna get dangerous/ Now you’re speaking my language,” Murph sings.
The two musicians share a connection in more ways than one. Both are Nashville-area natives — though Murph’s family moved to Alabama when she was a child, she recently moved back to the Music City — and have continued to explore different genres throughout their careers, including country, hip-hop, pop and rock. For Jelly Roll (real name: Jason DeFord), “Need a Favor” and “Son of a Sinner” have been genre-fluid mainstays over the past year and have helped fuel a best new artist Grammy nomination and a win as new artist of the year at the recent CMA Awards.
“I think something that’s so special about him is he’s so always just so grateful,” Murph says of Jelly Roll. “You can tell he’s such a gratitude-based person and it’s beautiful. Jelly Roll has just been so positive and every time I’m around him I leave feeling so happy.”
How did this song come together?
It was such a long process. I feel like I made it months before it came out, and I never planned on having a feature on it. I was just going to put it out. But [at the] last minute, Jelly heard it and he was like, “I have a verse for this,” and I’m a huge fan of him. I went to one of his shows and sang a cover of “Simple Man” with him. Then I guess he heard “Wild Ones” and I was like, “Oh my God, please be on this.”
What inspired the song?
I’ve always been attracted to crazy things or chaos. That’s where the song came from. I don’t normally write fun songs, so it’s one of my first songs like that — really cool and different. I had been in a session all day and we had gotten nothing. In the last 30 minutes, I remember Gitty [producer/co-writer Jeff Gitelman] played this guitar lick and we ended up writing it super fast.
Once you were in the studio, were there any big changes made to the song?
We might’ve sped it up during the process to make it a little bit more groovy. But I really wanted country elements for this song — that was the palette I wanted to stay with. Stylistically, especially lately, I’ve been a little bit country leaning. I’m really inspired by country music, and I feel like it has found its way into my sound.
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How did you first hear Jelly Roll’s music?
My older brother is really into country [music], so he listens to a lot of that kind of stuff. I feel like we were just in the car and he had it on. I was like, “Whoa, this is insane.” But the craziest thing was seeing Jelly live. I was just blown away.
It feels like country music is everywhere this year, in different variations. Genres keep melding together in different ways. What is your take on that?
I think it’s beautiful. That has always been my thing as an artist: I don’t ever want to have a genre because I feel that boxes you in. As you get older and grow as a person, you listen to different types of music, and I think it’s beautiful when those things mix and intertwine. It creates a whole new vibe that people haven’t even heard. But I agree, country is exploding right now.
Who else would you want to collaborate with?
My dream collaboration is Lil Baby. I’ve always wanted to [make a song with him], and it’s going to happen at some point. I’m manifesting it. I’ve been obsessed with his music since I can remember. He’s just such a real person. I feel like he sings about real sh-t. I love his melodies, his flows.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Nov. 18, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Just as he did in 2021 and 2022, 30-year-old singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen is Billboard’s Top Country Artist. Concurrently, the Sneedville, Tenn.-born star is Billboard’s Top Country Artist – Male. He also wraps the year with No. 1 placings on the year-end recaps for Hot Country Songs, Hot Country Songs Artists, Country Airplay Artists, Country Airplay Songs, Country Digital Song Sales Artists, Country Streaming Songs, Country Streaming Songs Artists, Top Country Albums Artists and Top Country Albums.
Wallen won the day in plenty of categories in 2023, and if there’s one area where he added to his portfolio, it’s pop radio, where the country star is officially a crossover artist now on the strength of “Last Night,” which reached No. 5 on both Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2023 Year-End Charts
“Last Night,” which is the leading song of the year on the streaming-, airplay and sales based Hot Country Songs chart as well as the top Country Airplay track of the year, also became Wallen’s first song to top the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. It’s also the year-end No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs recap.
In March, “Last Night” — which was authored by John Byron, Ashley Gorley, Jacob Kasher Hindlin and Ryan Vojtesak — blasted from 5-1 on the Hot 100, marking the artist’s first leader on the all-format list. “Last Night” is from his 36-track album, One Thing at a Time, released March 3.
When “Last Night” led the Hot 100 for its first week on the March 18 dated tally, it was also stationed atop Hot Country Songs.
It marked the first track to lead both tallies since Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” on the charts dated Nov. 27, 2021 – and the first by a solo male unaccompanied by any other acts in more than 42 years, since Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” ruled Hot Country Songs for a week in January 1981 and the Hot 100 for two weeks that February-March.
“Last Night” dominated Hot Country Songs for 25 frames commencing in February, becoming the fourth-longest-ruling title since the chart was launched in 1958. The longest is Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line’s crossover smash, “Meant to Be,” which spent a whopping 50 weeks in the penthouse beginning in December 2017.
“Last Night” is also the year-end No. 1 on Country Airplay Songs. It dominated the weekly chart for eight weeks starting in May, giving the artist his ninth of 10 No. 1s. He added his 10th in October with “Thinkin’ Bout Me.”
Wallen’s One Thing at a Time album, which houses 36 songs, opened atop Top Country Albums as well as the all-genre Billboard 200 with the largest streaming week ever for a country album, as well as the biggest week by equivalent album units (501,000 in the tracking week of March 3-9, according to Luminate) for any album, among all genres.
The artist made history that week by taking over Hot Country Songs with an unprecedented nine tracks in that week’s top 10.
One Thing at a Time is both No. 1 on the year-end Top Country Albums recap and the all-genre Billboard 200 Albums roundup.
Swift Leads Women: On the strength of her release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift is country music’s top woman of 2023. Speak Now is the No. 4 LP on the Top Country Albums list of the year.
Released July 7, the set — the third of Swift’s planned six re-recorded albums — arrived with 716,000 equivalent album units earned, with 507,000 in traditional album sales.
With Speak Now, Swift earned her eighth No. 1 on Top Country Albums. Also that week, Swift lobbed seven songs into the Hot Country Songs top 10.
Megan Moroney Shines: Singer-songwriter Megan Moroney, who hails from Savannah, Ga., scored her first top 10 on the weekly Top Country Albums chart in May when her first entry, Lucky, arrived at its No. 10 peak with 18,000 equivalent album units.
The set marked the first top 10 debut for a woman’s first title on the chart since Gabby Barrett’s debut LP Goldmine arrived at No. 4 in July 2020.
Moroney, a graduate of the University of Georgia, also claimed her first top 10 on Country Airplay as well as Hot Country Songs with rookie appearance “Tennessee Orange,” which hit No. 4 on Country Airplay and No. 10 on Hot Country Songs.
There’s no doubt that 2023 was a huge year for country music.
In July, country songs filled the top three rankings on the Hot 100: Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” topped the list, followed by Wallen’s “Last Night,” with Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” at No. 3.
It marked the first time that country hits occupied the Hot 100’s top three spots in a single week, dating to the chart’s inception in August 1958.
A little controversy also hovered over one of country music’s top stars. Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” created a stir when its video was pulled from rotation by CMT after just three days on the air, creating a firestorm of media coverage.
Aldean addressed the polarized response to the video during his Highway Desperado Tour stop July 21 at Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center. “It’s been a long week and I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting I’m this, suggesting I’m that,” he told the crowd. “I feel like everybody’s entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to; it doesn’t mean it’s true. What I am is a proud American. I’m proud to be from here … I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that, I can tell you that right now.”
The contention didn’t hurt sales. “Try That in a Small Town” is the No. 1 title for 2023 on Country Digital Song Sales. On the July 29 dated tally, “Small Town” hit No. 1 with 228,000 sold. It became Aldean’s first Hot 100 leader while also reigning on Hot Country Songs for two weeks, becoming the artist’s 10th No. 1 on the latter list.
Meanwhile, the No. 2 Hot Country Songs title of 2023 is Luke Combs’ version of Chapman’s Hot 100 top 10 from 1987, “Fast Car.”
Combs’ update of “Fast Car” led Hot Country Songs for its first of four weeks on the Sept. 30 dated survey giving the artist his sixth No. 1. Here’s what Combs told Billboard when he heard the news: “What an awesome way to end the ride for ‘Fast Car’,” said the artist. “It has been so cool to see everyone enjoying this song over the past few months, whether it was people who were hearing the song for the first time or people [for whom] it brought back memories of Tracy’s timeless recording. I’m just glad this song got another life because it deserves to be around forever; it will always be one of my favorites. I’m glad we got to park Tracy’s song at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart, where it should be.”
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Nov. 19, 2022, through Oct. 21, 2023. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the November-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
It’s taken a decade, but for the first time, a country artist is No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Streaming Songs Artists chart.
… and a country song is No. 1 on the year-end Streaming Songs chart.
… and the top 10s of both rankings are chock full of both country artists and songs.
Point is, 2023 was a banner year for country on the streaming charts. And that’s after 2022’s year-end Streaming Songs Artists tally featured a country artist in the top 10 for the very first time in Morgan Wallen.
Oh, right, the No. 1 artist and song of 2023. It’s Wallen.
Explore All of Billboard’s 2023 Year-End Charts
After breaking through as the first act releasing music primarily in the country genre to appear in the Streaming Songs Artists survey’s top 10 at No. 4 in 2022, Wallen leads it in 2023, while his “Last Night” crowns the songs-based list, also marking the first time a country tune ranks atop that chart; both year-end recaps began in 2013, the same year Streaming Songs became a weekly Billboard chart.
“Last Night” was the only song of Wallen’s to reach No. 1 on the weekly Streaming Songs list. But it was far and away the year’s biggest song there, reigning for 19 weeks beginning in March. Barring a return to No. 1, the song concludes its run one week short of the record for most frames atop Streaming Songs, held by Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus.
It was so comparatively massive, in fact, that the next-closest songs released in 2023 in terms of overall weeks at No. 1 were Zach Bryan’s “I Remember Everything” featuring Kacey Musgraves, and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers.” Currently, both boast four weeks apiece atop the survey.
Streaming was, as a result, a critical component of “Last Night” and its sizable run at No. 1 on the weekly multimetric Billboard Hot 100, reigning for 16 weeks.
But though “Last Night” was Wallen’s only No. 1 of the year, the weekly Streaming Songs tally was dotted with the 30-year-old’s tracks in 2023, both via his monster 2023 LP One Thing at a Time and from previous releases. In all, Wallen appears six times on the 75-song-deep year-end Streaming Songs ranking, with “Last Night” followed by “You Proof” at No. 6.
Country’s hold on Streaming Songs wasn’t limited to Wallen, either. Four of the top 10 on Streaming Songs Artists in 2023 largely released music in the country genre, while a fifth, Taylor Swift, appeared on the weekly survey with country songs a few times via her Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) re-recording. Compare that number to 2022, when six country acts made the entire 25-position Streaming Songs Artists year-end list, Wallen the only one of the group in the top 10.
Joining Wallen in the top 10 are three acts who were part of that group of six last year. Zach Bryan ranks at No. 5, followed by Luke Combs at No. 6 and Bailey Zimmerman rounding out the club at No. 9.
Bryan’s “Something in the Orange,” originally released in 2022 as part of the album American Heartbreak, soared to new heights in 2023 (it was No. 12 on the year-end 2022 Streaming Songs tally), rising to No. 3 the year-end survey. Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” also reaches the top 10 at No. 7, giving country four of the top 10.
Give a shoutout to other genres, too. R&B was well presented by SZA, who ranks at No. 2 on the year-end artists ranking while her “Kill Bill” is the No. 2 song. It became her first No. 1 on the weekly chart (four weeks beginning in December 2022) and helps SZA to her best-ever ranks on either year-end list. Her previous best on Streaming Songs as a lead artist had been “Good Days” in 2021 (No. 29), the same year she appeared at a then-career-best No. 22 on the artists rundown.
And while Bad Bunny didn’t quite retain the dominance he enjoyed in 2022 as the No. 1 on Streaming Songs Artists (chalk that up in part to his latest album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, only having come out in October, eligible for the 2024 year-end rankings), not only did he still appear at a respectable No. 15 – Latin music was also represented in the top 10 thanks to Peso Pluma, whose meteoric rise caps off with a No. 7 placement. Concurrently, his collaboration with Eslabon Armado, “Ella Baila Sola,” ranks at No. 9 on the year-end Streaming Songs ranking.
Billboard’s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts from Nov. 19, 2022, through Oct. 21, 2023. Rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings. That methodology detail, and the November-October time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
This week’s new country round-up features Ashley Monroe’s ethereal, dreamy new song, while Midland offers up a rendition of one of Glen Campbell’s signature songs and Bill Anderson is part of an all-star Country Music Hall of Fame lineup.
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Ashley Monroe, “Over Everything”
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Three-time Grammy nominee Monroe returns with her first new music since her 2021 project Rosegold and with it, further refines her place as one of the most engaging vocalists in the country music firmament. Written with Al Anderson and Scott Stepakoff, “Over Everything” offers her distinct, fluttering soprano over molten, muted percussion as she envisions escaping a town that brings days of monotony and continual emotional baggage for a life similar to the freedom she finds in her dreams. Airy, understated and clear-eyed, the song is lifted by the quiet assuredness in Monroe’s vocal.
Wyatt Flores, “Life Lessons”
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Over the past few years, the runaway success of artists like Zach Bryan has also bolstered success for other genre-melding, country/Americana-influenced artists such as Oklahoma native Flores, who has seen such songs of his as “Please Don’t Go” and “Losing Sleep” gain major traction on streaming. On the rollicking, banjo-led title track to his new seven-track EP Life Lessons, Flores delves deep into his country and bluegrass influences. With a vocal both wide-eyed and wisened, Flores reflects that while neither of his grandparents graduated from high school, it’s in his blood that his lessons are learned best on the road rather than from a blackboard. Life Lessons also features his previous releases “West of Tulsa” and “Holes.”
Midland, “Wichita Lineman”
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From their debut single “Drinkin’ Problem,” through more recent releases Let It Roll and “Cheatin’ Songs,” this harmony-based trio’s Mark Wystrach, Cameron Duddy and Jess Carson have long demonstrated the deep influence of over four decades of country music on their projects, which are spilling with vintage country references. Now, the band offers up an adept rendering of a country classic, this 1968 signature hit from the late Glen Campbell, a song they’ve regularly featured in their live shows, Sinewy guitar lines bring a languid pace to the song, accented by Wystrach’s silken lead vocal, before the song spaces out with a bluesy, rock-leaning guitar line.
Meg McRee, “History of Heartbreak”
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“In the history of heartbreak/ This one’s in the hall of fame,” McRee sings pointedly over rippling, melancholy acoustic guitar. This Vanderbilt grad has steadily constructed a reputation as a potent songcrafter, writing songs for Grace Potter, Caylee Hammack and Elle King. She expands on that position with this raw and woeful track, written alongside Ashley Monroe and Bryan Simpson. The song also serves as the title track to McRee’s upcoming Dec. 8 full-length project.
Priscilla Block, “Hey, Jack”
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She’s gussying up with cutoff jeans, press-on nails and boxed haircolor, looking to soothe a heartbreak with a night out on the town. Block is known for her witty feminist anthems and uproarious fare like “Off the Deep End” and “Thick Thighs.” On her latest, she notes, “I’m sorry, champagne, maybe some other day/ There ain’t nothin’ to celebrate.” Maybe so, but here, she proves even her songs about busted love have a swagger and verve. Block wrote the track with Randy Montana, Dave Cohen and Jeremy Stover.
Tanner Usrey and Ella Langley, “Beautiful Lies”
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For his debut project Crossing Lines, Usrey refreshes his breakthrough song, “Beautiful Lies,” by teaming with “Excuse the Mess” singer-songwriter and Alabama native Ella Langley. Usrey trades in resignation rather than angst here, layered with Langley’s impassioned drawl, as they sing about a self-destructive relationship. “My first mistake was believing that you would stay/ When I know every good damn thing, it fades,” they sing. Their harmonies are pristine, soaring over understated guitar and softened percussion. A superb pairing of two earnest vocalists.
Bill Anderson, Vince Gill, Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare & Jimmy Fortune, “The Country I Grew Up With”
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Five members of the Country Music Hall of Fame join forces here, spearheaded by Bill Anderson. The song begins with Gill’s warm tenor, building with the addition of Anderson, Bare, Nelson and Fortune as they trade off memories of a bygone era, meeting and spending time with their fellow country artists, including Loretta Lynn and Porter Wagoner, and discussing the warmth and generosity they felt from their close friends and artists.
As the song progresses, they mourn the loss of such friendships, and the term “country” shifts from country music to America, as they mourn a country tattered by anger and division. “There’s not enough love and too much hate,” they sing.
Anderson wrote the song with Lance Miller and Bobby Tomberlin, with production from Anderson and Thomas Jutz. An all-star cast of musicians aid the song, including drummer John Gardner, guitarist Jutz, bassist James Gordon Freeze, pianist Dirk Johnson, fiddler Tammy Rogers and pedal steel guitarist Scotty Sanders.
Renee Blair, “Hillbillies and Betties”
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Renee Blair has found greater acclaim over the past year as a writer on the rock-tinged Lainey Wilson/HARDY collaboration “Wait in the Truck.” But in her own latest unabashedly country release, tender banjo and steel guitar are laced around the song’s notion of enduring small-town love stories that blossom around a shared cola, nights spent in a Chevy truck and saving up money in pursuit of two lovers’ shared dream. Blair wrote the song with Blake Pendergrass, Nick Bailey and Lenny Pey.
If you thought Dolly Parton was done rocking, you were sorely mistaken. Just days after the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer dropped her first rock album, Rockstar, the country icon dropped an expanded exclusive download version with two bonus tracks. In addition to her take on Eddie Money’s 1977 burner “Two Tickets to Paradise,” […]
Nashville songwriter and musician Abe Stoklasa, known for writing songs for Tim McGraw, Charlie Worsham, Chris Lane and trio Lady A, has died at age 38, Billboard has confirmed. He passed away on Nov. 17 of undisclosed causes.
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The Princeton, Missouri, native found his passion for music early, playing in his father’s band by the age of six.
“I have always been a musician,” Stoklasa previously told The Shotgun Seat of his musically formative years. “My dad had a little ransom style show in the midwest — we did like 70 shows a year — so from two years old I was singing on the stage. At like six years old my dad threw me in the band as the keyboard player, sink or swim. So that’s how I learned to play music.”
He grew up immersed in the music his father loved — music from 1950s through 1970s — soaking in the influence of Elvis, Merle Haggard, The Beatles and James Taylor.
Stoklasa’s family moved to Tennessee when he was a teen, and he soon enrolled at Nashville’s Belmont University. After graduation, he joined David Nail’s road band as a steel guitar player. He briefly spent time pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Coral Gables, Florida — though soon, his passion for doing music, not just studying it, drew him back on the road. He joined Billy Currington’s band for three years, including a stint opening for Kenny Chesney’s 2011 Goin’ Coastal stadium tour.
In 2013, Stoklasa decided to leave the road to focus on songwriting. His writing talents would catch the ears of Nashville mainstays such as Mike Reid (a writer on Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in My House”) and Mark D. Sanders (Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance,” Reba McEntire’s “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”).
Stoklasa was a writer on Chris Lane’s 2016 No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Fix” and crafted songs recorded by Tim McGraw (“Portland, Maine”), David Nail (“Lie With Me”), Billy Currington (“Give It To Me Straight”), Charlie Worsham (“Call You Up,” “The Beginning of Things”), Scotty McCreery (“Here and Ready”), Blake Shelton (“A Girl”) and Lady A (“Ocean”).
Stoklasa told Music Row in 2016, “For a long time, ‘Beginning of Things’ was my favorite song that I was very proud of. I wrote it with Donovan Woods and Charlie Worsham just cut it. It’s so songwriter-y, in that there are two or three levels and meanings to the lyrics that you will not get on one or two listens, which is a fun puzzle to put together. The whole story is made up with some influences in real life, but it was just an exercise in a certain way to be Shakespearean in a way. But I would feel confident handing that to Paul Simon, and I wouldn’t do that with any of my other songs.”
At the time, Stoklasa also expressed his gratitude for artists including Currington, Nail and Kelley working with him, saying, “Billy Currington, he was the first person to care about my songwriting. David Nail is a good friend, we don’t even have to talk about music. We both experienced a lot of firsts together on a tour bus. Charles Kelley has always been like a brother to me. He’s an amazing writer. We’ve written songs other people have cut… and he likes to cut my songs!”
Stoklasa contributed heavily to Lady A member Charles Kelley’s 2016 solo album, The Driver, including “Leaving Nashville,” “Your Love,” “Dancing Around It” and the Grammy-nominated title track, which also featured vocals from Dierks Bentley and Eric Paslay.
“Abe was otherworldly,” Kelley said in a tribute posted on his Instagram page. “I always knew his mind moved at a pace I could never comprehend. He was confidence and self doubt all wrapped in one. He frustrated me and inspired me all at the same time. He was a true enigma in every sense of the word, but aren’t the most talented musicians and artists that way? He was a musician’s musician and carried one of the most authentic voices in this town. I’ll never listen to the songs we shared together the same or forget the moments we had onstage and on the late night bus rides. Nashville will never see another Abe Stoklasa. I’ll miss you my soft spoken friend.”
Nail said of Stoklasa in an Instagram post, “He was beyond unique, and beyond talented. He was a true genius. That word gets tossed around a lot these days, but he was the definition! In the early years of me touring, many of you will remember we had a steel guitar player. That was Abe. He could make it sound like anything you needed. He was brilliant. We weren’t meant to be on the road together, and once he left The Well Ravens, we got closer than ever before. I was so proud when he got off the road for good, to focus on songwriting, something that he was a natural at. He immediately became a hit in the songwriting community. His voice? Oh, he sang like a 50 year old. Soulful, and weathered beyond anything I’d ever heard from a 25 year old young man.”
Worsham also offered up heartfelt memories of his friendship with Stoklasa, saying in a social media video, “I first met Abe Stoklasa through Derek Wells, when I was putting a band together to play the Ernest Tubb Record Shop Midnight Jamboree. He was wickedly hilarious and wickedly talented. I’d never met anyone who could play steel guitar and saxohone really well, and who loved Vince Gill and Aretha Franklin with equal depth … he was so principled and so kind and caring.” Worsham recalled that the last time they wrote together, they penned a song inspired by the television series The Golden Girls, called “Dorothy and Rose.” “It was probably the best song I wrote in six months,” Worsham said, “’cause that’s just how good Abe was … I loved him dearly, as we all did, who knew him.”
For artists who choose not to sign with a record label, some may be independent and others will be do-it-yourself independent.
What’s the difference? Take Laufey, the Icelandic jazz artist whose latest album, Bewitched, reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in September. Laufey is signed to AWAL, the Sony Music-owned company that provides marketing and distribution services for independent artists. She hasn’t signed away the rights to her music, but AWAL helps promote her recordings at digital service providers and retail.
Oliver Anthony Music, on the other hand, is DIY independent. By all appearances, the “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, has left his recordings on autopilot without any kind of marketing behind them since he broke into the national consciousness in August and topped the Hot 100 for two straight weeks. Following the success of “Rich Men,” Lunsford has released more songs without the usual promotional muscle required to get new music noticed. As he told Billboard earlier this week, he manages himself and is avoiding record labels as he prepares to record an album.
He’s clearly getting some help. Lunsford has a basic but professional website and an e-commerce store that sells a handful of variations on Oliver Anthony Music hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers and beer koozies. For concerts, Anthony signed with UTA for representation and has a year of touring ahead of him, starting in February with dates in Europe and the Eastern half of the United States. He has an informal publicist who helps with media requests. And he told Billboard he has encountered “many artists,” such as country star Jamey Johnson, who have lent support and guidance.
Comparing “Rich Men” to other tracks to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 this year, though, suggests being DIY creates some missed opportunities. Combined sales and streams of Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and SZA’s “Kill Bill” dropped between 17% and 55% over the 10-week period after the last date those tracks were No. 1. “Rich Men,” in contrast, dropped 83.4%. It makes sense: A major label marketing machine is better than an independent artist’s system in helping a track get hot and maintain momentum over months and years.
With a little help, “Rich Men” could arguably have far more sales and streams. As a DIY artist, Lunsford uses social media activity to keep listeners engaged and depends on the continued interest of journalists to keep him in the public eye. As he told Billboard this week, becoming a full-time musician means “you’re essentially a business owner and an entrepreneur and a lot of other things, too. And those are things I’m not quite used to yet.”
But Lunsford has done extremely well taking the DIY route. Billboard estimates that “Rich Men” has grossed $2 million from recorded music and publishing royalties from U.S. sales and streams since its release in August. While his weekly download sales are down sharply from their peak in August, our estimates still put the track’s royalties at an impressive $60,000 per week. And because Oliver Anthony Music is a DIY independent artist who retains the rights to his master recording and publishing, he should be pocketing nearly all that money (less any fees for distribution and publishing administration).
Besides, Lunsford seems content being a DIY artist — even if that means leaving money and celebrity on the table. There’s something to be said about saying “no” to the usual impulses to staff up and scale a business as fast as possible. Lunsford can ease into stardom at a comfortable pace rather than jump headfirst into the music business’ shark-filled waters. Read through the YouTube comments to his videos and you sense that listeners put value in Lunsford not being an industry insider — it adds to his authenticity. At the end of the day, not being too much of a business is probably good for Lunsford’s business.
Surprisingly, “Rich Men” has held up better than a couple of other No. 1s in 2023: Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” and Jimin’s “Like Crazy.” Track sales and streams for “Try That” dropped 91.1% in the 10 weeks after it was No. 1. For “Like Crazy,” the first No. 1 for a solo member of superstar K-pop group BTS, track sales and streams dropped 92.9% over the same period. Although “Rich Men” has fallen far from its peak, its 83.4% drop in track sales and streams is considerably better than those other two hits.
There are obvious parallels between “Try That” and “Rich Men.” Both reached No. 1 because of widespread media attention. Both started conversations about social issues: race for Aldean, class for Lunsford. Both were celebrated as conservative anthems, although Anthony has distanced himself from political partisanship. Both are country tracks — Aldean’s a mainstream song built for maximum radio play, Lunsford’s a more old-fashioned slice of Appalachian roots music.
What’s more, both “Try That” and “Rich Men” did brisk business in track sales. As Billboard noted when “Rich Men” ascended the chart, artists popular with conservatives often have strong download numbers. In a typical week, the No. 1 track on the Hot 100 might sell 15,000 downloads, but when the culture wars stoke demand, the No. 1 will sell ten times that many. “Try That” sold 175,000 downloads in the week it was No. 1, while “Rich Men” averaged 132,000 weekly downloads in its two weeks atop the Hot 100.
Download buyers don’t offer the same consistency as streamers, though, and both “Rich Men” and “Try That” lost 99% of their track sales in the 10 weeks after they topped the chart. And because download sales were a big reason why those tracks reached No. 1, their total consumption (measured in both download sales and streams) dropped more than No. 1s that relied more on streaming. But heavy download sales were instrumental in getting each track to No. 1, and “Rich Men” still sells well, too: Last week, the track was the No. 41 most purchased track in the United States., according to Luminate.
Lunsford could easily ditch the DIY approach and assemble a team, but he’s in the rare position of not necessarily needing one. “Rich Men” succeeded without help from a marketing expert, social media guru or even a manager. Instead, Lunsford benefitted from an unprecedented groundswell of interest that gifted him an immense online following. His 1.15 million YouTube followers give him a similar audience as more established country musicians Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band, and twice as many as Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves. He has about as many Spotify followers as Bailey Zimmerman, a rising country star signed to Warner Music Nashville and Elektra Records.
When Lunsford eventually releases a new album, he won’t need many resources to instantly reach millions of fans — and he prefers it that way. “I think the most special thing about it being on the chart at all,” he told Billboard, “is that it made it to the chart without some big, corporate schmucky schmuck somewhere pumping a bunch of money into making it get there.”
Dan + Shay, the duo of Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney, bank their 11th top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Save Me the Trouble” lifts to No. 8 on the list dated Nov. 25. During the Nov. 10-16 tracking week, the single increased by 6% to 19.2 million impressions, according to Luminate. With […]
Though Lauren Watkins was born and raised in Nashville, it took leaving Music City for her to come into her own. She honed her acumen as a writer, and poured her talents into her new, six-song project Introducing: The Heartbreak, out today on Songs & Daughters/Big Loud Records.
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“I want people to feel like they know me better,” Watkins tells Billboard while seated at an eatery in Nashville’s Green Hills area. “I want to be a vessel for the songs to get heard. I thought the best way to do that was first introduce ‘the girl,’ and then introduce the things I’ve been through, which is the heartbreak.”
Introducing: The Heartbreak balances husky vocals, razor-sharp lyrics and sonic touches that range from tender to tough, positioning Watkins as far beyond a heart-on-her-sleeve singer-songwriter. “Stuck in My Ways” details the myriad habits she doesn’t plan to change post-heartbreak, while “The Table” conveys a relationship arc from flirtatious desire to heartbroken freedom.
Growing up, it was Watkins’s older sister Caroline who showed an early bent toward music. Their father worked in health insurance and their mother was a painter; meanwhile, the sisters began performing together at the restaurant Corner Pub in the Woods just outside of Nashville.
“We brought our little speaker and invited all of our family and friends, and played on their little outdoor patio,” Watkins recalls. Her sister was already writing songs, so Lauren chimed in on harmonies. “There were moments where I was like, ‘Oh, I kind of wish I was singing lead,’ but honestly, I was too scared to do it by myself. She was like my security blanket.”
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While her sister signed a publishing deal right out of high school and enrolled at Nashville’s Belmont University, Watkins began carving her own persona and creative vision by taking a different path. Watkins followed in her parents’ footsteps by attending the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, Mississippi.
“I knew I wanted to go to Ole Miss and I knew if I wanted to have a career in music, it would have to be something I did on my own,” Watkins says. “At the time, I thought if I left Nashville, that meant I had to choose between school and music.”
Watkins largely put her musical ambitions behind her, and didn’t perform for the bulk of her university years. But still, “There was this hole in my heart, this tugging,” she says.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, upending everyone’s plans. On-campus college classes quickly pivoted to remote courses, leaving Watkins with ample time to reflect on her goals, write songs — and eventually, make frequent trips back home to Nashville. When her sister traveled to Oxford to visit and perform a show, Watkins sang a few songs with her, a moment that fully reignited her passion for singing.
With still just over a year to go before college graduation, Watkins threw herself into writing songs, drawing inspiration from everyone from Kacey Musgraves to George Jones, and joined a local cover band in order to gain performance experience. Like most Gen Z artists, it was second nature for Watkins to share both some originals and some of her cover song performances on social media.
One of those videos caught the ear of songwriter Rodney Clawson, husband of singer-songwriter and Songs & Daughters label head Nicolle Galyon, setting off a chain reaction that led Watkins to her current publishing and label deals.
Watkins is a co-writer on all six songs on the Joey Moi-produced Introducing: The Heartbreak, alongside her sister Caroline, as well as Galyon, Rodney Clawson, The Warren Brothers, Will Bundy, Emily Landis and David Garcia. She recently wrapped her three-night Nashville residency, dubbed the Heartbreak Supper Club, and is on the road with Austin Snell and upcoming concerts opening for Conner Smith.
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Watkins, November’s Rookie of the Month, spoke with Billboard about signing with Songs & Daughters/Big Loud, and shared the stories behind her new project.
What was the process like of preparing to sign a publishing deal and then a label deal?
After I met Nicolle, she let me do my own thing. She let me just write for a while and kind of hustle on my own. She watched me grow as a writer and then signed me to a publishing deal, maybe a year after we met. I still had a lot of developing to do as an artist. All I did for the past few years was write and write. She let me develop on my own before I signed with Songs & Daughters and Big Loud. You hear horror stories about labels where they want you to fit this certain mold, and I never felt that with them. It felt like this is where I needed to be signed.
“Fly on the Wall” features your Big Loud label mate Jake Worthington. How did he come to be part of this?
The first time I heard of Jake is when he opened for Ernest last year; they took me on the road for a weekend on that tour, so I got to open shows for Jake and Ernest. Jake’s music is so good and he’s just so real country—and he’s not putting it on; he’s really like that. I didn’t write the song as a duet, but the more I listened to it, it needed a male voice on there. It was perfect to highlight the contrast of the couple arguing in the song. The song is so old-school and I wanted it to come across that way.
“The Table” has a great “non-ending,” where the melody carries the lyric itself. How did you arrive at that moment?
Originally, we had “on the table” as the final lyric, and Joey [Moi] and I went back and forth about whether to take the line out. The songwriter in me was like, “Take it out — people know what it means and the music does it for you.” Then I talked to other people and some were like, “Leave it in there; people aren’t going to get it,” but I just didn’t listen to them. I’m so proud of this song. I wrote it with Nicolle and the Warren Brothers on a writing a year ago.
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Carter Faith joins you on “Cowboys on Music Row.” When did you write that song?
She’s one of my good friends and as another female artist, she just understands all these niche things that only other artists really understand. We were on a writing retreat earlier this year in Pigeon Forge, and we were there with my sister Caroline, Lauren Hungate, Ashley Monroe, and Jessie Jo Dillon. We love Tales From the Tour Bus and some of the girls hadn’t seen it so were were showing them all the George Jones and Tammy Wynette episode, the Waylon Jennings episode and that sent us down a rabbit hole of documentaries on those guys. We were inspired because they were just singing about their real lives. It came together quickly, and by the time we were almost done with the chorus, Carter sang part of it and she just has this great sound to her voice that was perfect.
What has the response been like?
Sometimes it can ruffle feathers, that type of song. But we’ve just been saying, “If it ruffles your feathers, then maybe you should look inward,” right? There are real cowboys on Music Row. This song is a hyperbole. There are definitely some real cowboys — Jake Worthington is a great example — and they’re not getting offended. They’re going, “Yeah, tell it to the world. We know we’re here.”
Do you feel like it is easier to write on retreats, versus the day-to-day Nashville writes?
There is definitely something to be said for showing up everyday, writing Monday through Friday. That’s a huge part of it, but as an artist and writer, there’s also something to be said for getting away from Nashville and disconnecting. And there’s this respect that you go and do your thing and they know you’ll come back with something great if you’re just relaxed and focused on writing. And you forge such great friendships—we all got so close on that trip and we still go to dinner when we’re all in town. We hope to do the same retreat again and make it an annual thing. You just write better songs with people that know you and know what you want to say.
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Does having a sister who is also involved in music further strengthen your sibling bond?
We write together so much, and at the same time, I have my artist thing and she has her songwriter thing that’s separate. We have success together but we also have success outside of each other. It’s a lifestyle that so few people understand, and so to have your sister be in it with you is great.
What do you hope listeners take away from your music?
This is me at my most natural place. I love country and I want to be my own form of modern and old-school, and I also want to make all my heroes proud with these songs.
Having been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame last year, Parton is making good on her promise to create her first full-fledged rock album, with Rockstar releasing Friday (Nov. 17), via Butterfly Records/Big Machine Label Group. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The 30-track […]