Country
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On Oct. 27, 1984, Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas” rose to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The classic was co-written by Murry Kellum and Dan Mitchell and produced by the band and Harold Shedd.
Formed near Fort Payne, Ala., in the early ‘70s, Alabama was initially billed as Wildcountry, consisting of cousins Jeff Cook, Teddy Gentry and Randy Owen. They recruited drummer Mark Herndon in 1979.
Starting with Alabama’s 1980 Hot Country Songs No. 1 “Tennessee River” and through its featured turn on Brad Paisley’s “Old Alabama” in 2011, the band banked 33 leaders, among 51 top 10s, both the most among duo/groups. Also beginning with “Tennessee River,” Alabama rattled off a record 21 No. 1s in a row (counting proper, nonseasonal singles) through 1987.
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“We were lookin’ for a song that would use a fiddle,” “Texas” co-producer Shedd shared in Tom Roland’s The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits. “After ‘Tennessee River’ and [Alabama’s ninth No. 1, 1983’s] ‘Dixieland Delight,’ it became a trademark, so we wanted to do some of those things. If it’s working, you don’t want to get too far away from that. You gotta touch your home base. [“Texas”] was something we could out a fiddle on that would not sound manufactured or contrived.”
“Texas” was released as the third of four singles – all of which topped Hot Country Songs – from Alabama’s eighth LP, and fourth Top Country Albums No. 1, Roll On. It followed “Roll On (Eighteen Wheeler)” and “When We Make Love” and preceded “(There’s A) Fire in the Night.”
In 2015, Southern Drawl, Alabama’s first set of new music since 2001, arrived at its No. 2 peak on Top Country Albums. It became the group’s 26th top 10 set, a sum that includes 11 No. 1s logged between 1981 and 2006.
Alabama was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Cook passed away on Nov. 8, 2022, at his home in Destin, Fla. He was 73. Currently touring, the band makes its next stop in St. Augustine, Fla., on Nov. 8.
Zach Bryan has announced his debut U.K. festival headline slot at London’s Hyde Park. The show will take place on June 28, 2025 as part of BST Hyde Park, which is held annually at the central London venue.
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The headline performance for 65,000 fans will be Bryan’s first live show in the U.K. since 2023, where he played intimate venues such as London’s 890-capacity Islington Assembly Hall. Tickets for Bryan’s show go on sale at 10 a.m. GMT on Oct. 30 at the festival’s official website. Bryan will be joined by an array of special guests on the day, which will be announced soon.
Bryan follows Jeff Lynne’s ELO as a confirmed performer at 2025’s edition of BST Hyde Park. The British rock band confirmed that their show at Hyde Park next summer would be their final ever live performance. 2024’s edition included sets by SZA, Lana Del Rey and Stevie Nicks, and announcements for 2025’s other headliners are expected in the coming months.
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The country musician has had a sensational run over the past couple of years following the release of 2023’s Zach Bryan, which landed at No.1 on the Billboard 200. Its follow-up, The Great American Bar Scene, released in July 2024 featured appearances from Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer, and was his first to break into the Top 20 on the U.K.’s Official Album Charts, landing at No.16.
Earlier this week, Bryan confirmed that he had split with his girlfriend, Barstool Sports personality Brianna LaPaglia, better known as Brianna Chickenfry. “Brianna and me [sic] have broken up with each other and I respect and love her with every ounce of my heart,” he wrote in a statement on his Instagram Stories.
“She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her. I have had an incredibly hard year personally and struggled through some pretty severe things. I thought it would be beneficial for both of us to go our different ways,” he added. “I am not perfect and I never will be.”
Elsewhere Snoop Dogg teased a collaboration with the singer-songwriter during an appearance on the Today show. “Zach sent me a song,” the hip-hop icon told the show’s hosts. “I gotta put a verse on it.”
Check out the Bryan announcement below.
Zach Bryan is headlining his first UK festival in London’s Hyde Park next summer! One of America’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters, #ZachBryan, is coming to American Express presents @BSTHydePark on Saturday 28 June 2025, with a full lineup to be announced 🎸🎟 American… pic.twitter.com/FuVxfSj9IH— BST Hyde Park (@BSTHydePark) October 25, 2024
Dolly Parton is the 2024 recipient of the PEACE Through Music Award, which honors an American music industry professional, artist or group who has played an invaluable role in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music works to advance peace and mutual understanding globally. The award is presented jointly by the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department.
Parton, a 10-time Grammy winner who also received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2011, will be celebrated on Friday (Oct. 25) at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. She will not be in attendance, but sent a video acceptance.
“To say that I was honored to accept the PEACE Through Music Award from the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department would be putting it mildly,” Parton said. “I was very touched and moved by that. If I have been an inspiration in any way through some act of kindness or through some music that I have written, well, that makes me feel like I have done my job properly. Thanks again for such a great honor.”
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Parton’s commitment to serving others is well-known. Parton’s Imagination Library, which provides underserved children the opportunity to learn through reading, stretches from the hills of Appalachia to the outback of Australia. In addition, she has been a champion of public health, most recently around the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Over the course of her career, Dolly Parton has been committed to enriching communities across the globe, and it’s a privilege to celebrate her dedication to service with the PEACE Through Music Award today,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “We are grateful to partner with the Department of State on the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which represents an important part of the Academy’s work to support music people across the globe.”
“Dolly Parton represents the best of America – her excellence in music, her servant’s heart in giving back to those in need, and her unique ability to always bring people together,” said Lee Satterfield, Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. “On behalf of the American people and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, we are honored to celebrate all of her contributions to people around the world with the PEACE Through Music Award in partnership with the Recording Academy.”
The PEACE Through Music Award is determined through a nomination process, with U.S. embassies around the globe submitting nominations to be considered by a selection committee created jointly by the State Department and Recording Academy. The committee includes Recording Academy members, U.S. Department of State leadership, music industry professionals, and academia. The recommended honorees are approved by the CEO of the Recording Academy, then presented to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, who makes the final selection.
The award is part of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which was announced by the Recording Academy and the State Department in 2023. The initiative is designed to elevate music as a global diplomatic platform that promotes peace, expands economic equity, elevates creative economies, ensures societal opportunity, and increases access to education worldwide. The initiative was developed pursuant to the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, which was championed by the Recording Academy and its members in 2022 at its annual Grammys on the Hill and Music Advocacy Day events, resulting in the legislation being passed into law in December 2022.
Tonight’s Grammy Museum event also recognizes the first-ever cohort of the American Music Mentorship Program, which took place in Los Angeles from Oct. 15-25.
Country music superstar and dedicated Dodgers fan Brad Paisley is set to perform the national anthem for Game 1 of the 2024 World Series this Friday night, Oct. 25, at Dodger Stadium.
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It will mark his fourth time singing at the World Series, a fitting match for a lifelong Dodgers fan. This year’s showdown between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees will start with two games in L.A., followed by the next leg of the series in New York at Yankee Stadium, with Game 1 coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX Deportes, and ESPN Radio.
With 18 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, Paisley has had a major presence on country radio with songs like “We Danced” and “Mud on the Tires.” A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001, Paisley has written 21 of his 25 No. 1 hits, and in 2008 became the first artist to achieve 10 consecutive Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 singles.
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His albums have similarly made a mark; Mud on the Tires and Time Well Wasted both claimed multiple weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, while his album Hits Alive stayed on the charts for over 135 weeks.
In addition to his chart success, Paisley has earned three Grammys, 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, and 14 Country Music Association Awards, including an Entertainer of the Year award. His longstanding partnership with Carrie Underwood as co-hosts of the CMA Awards for 11 years made them a fan-favorite duo, highlighting his wit and charm alongside his formidable musical talent.
Beyond his accomplishments, Paisley’s deep connection to his fans has driven his success, with hits like “Freedom Was a Highway” and his current single, “Truck Still Works,” which has been climbing the charts and offering a preview of his next album.
The new album, which will likely come out in early 2025, will be his first full-length album since 2017 and his first since moving from Sony Nashville’s Arista imprint to Universal Music Group Nashville’s EMI Records.
“The project has some deeper things on it but, like the song itself, is really about creativity and nostalgia and you know the themes that you want to hear right now,” he told Billboard. “Sometimes, like in these times, it’s great to give people something they just want to turn up and takes them to a place where they feel good.”
Kelsea Ballerini is sharing what it’s like navigating a post-divorce relationship in the public eye. The superstar, ahead of dropping her newest album, Patterns, dropped by Sunday Today With Willie Geist, and in a preview clip shared exclusively with Billboard, Ballerini says that dating actor Chase Stokes as a celebrity comes with a lot of […]
Mickey Guyton is more than a decade into her career, but she keeps forging new milestones. Just weeks ago, she launched her inaugural headlining tour, CMT on Tour Presents Mickey Guyton, which finds her performing in clubs and theaters spanning the country. She also just released her sophomore full-length album, House on Fire, on Capitol Records Nashville.
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In those performance rooms, as on House on Fire, Guyton is celebrating hard-earned joy, especially in a season that has been dotted with struggle, loss, heartbreak and change.
“I’ve worked so hard for it, and it’s been awesome getting to sing for my fans, not somebody else’s fans. Hearing them sing the words has been amazing,” she tells Billboard, noting that the first night of the tour, “I was a mess. It was just tears and love. All of the audiences have been so diverse and loving and it’s been a dream come true.”
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Over the past four years, Guyton has piled up accolades, including performing the national anthem at the Super Bowl in 2022 and earning four Grammy nominations, including nominations for best country album (Remember Her Name) and best country solo performance (“Black Like Me,” “Remember Her Name”). She co-hosted the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards alongside Keith Urban, becoming the first Black woman to co-host the ceremony.
Her 2021 debut full-length album, Remember Her Name, featured soaring ballads and country constructions, pulling from her Texas childhood and her decade spent determinedly pursuing a career in Nashville, and included songs aimed at her experiences with racism (“Black Like Me”) and sexism (“What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”).
From the first songs on House on Fire, it’s clear that Guyton is no less truthful this time around, but her blend of pop, country, soul and gospel is decidedly upbeat, on songs like “My Side of the Country” and “Here With You.” Much of the album focuses on love in various forms — romantic love, self-love and the love she feels as a mother toward her son. Guyton wed California native Grant Savoy in 2017; they welcomed Grayson in 2021.
“It takes work,” she says of her seven-year marriage. “You have to choose that person every single day. You go on TikTok and all that and see people portraying love in a happily-ever-after way, but in my opinion the real ‘happily ever after’ is going through something hard and coming out stronger. We have fought through different things and have gotten stronger. I love him more than I could ever love a person.”
Some songs from the album skew older, such as “Little Man” and “I Still Do,” which Guyton wrote in 2018, early in her marriage when the couple went through therapy.
“We had a therapist, and we had a forgiveness session and any of our issues with each other, we haven’t brought them up again and we’ve been able to come out stronger on the other side,” she says.
She adds of those relationship-fortifying sessions, “I thought I was going to walk into these sessions, and he was going to be doing all the apologizing, and I was the one doing all the apologizing. I was able to see a lot of ways that I was wrong, and seeing this person that I love so much, we had just missed each other in communication that we loved each other so much, but we didn’t know how to communicate it.”
Guyton says their relationship journey has taken “a lot of understanding each other. I bring him structure. He’s a California wild child and growing up, he basically took care of himself, and I grew up in a very Bible Belt household, so he definitely opened my eyes, helping me be a bit more free in showing who I am. I think it’s helped shape my songwriting to be more open with who I am as a person.”
They are a few years shy of their 10th wedding anniversary, but Guyton says they don’t wait for anniversaries to celebrate each other.
“We’ll do cool things together and it not even be our anniversary. My husband grew up extremely poor. He didn’t really do birthdays. He lived in motels and stuff like that, so he’ll just randomly give me a gift or do something on just a regular day.”
At the same time, the title track was inspired by mental health, particularly on the lines such as “Can you love me when things are really bad/ When I’m in flames?” In February 2023, Guyton lost three people she was close to, including her grandmother.
“My grandmother passed away, which was really hard. And Twitch [Stephen “tWitch” Boss]—I sang at his funeral. I didn’t make it a public thing, and then another of my husband’s friends who I loved [passed away],” she says.
Guyton is open about the remedies that have aided her in her own journey for positive mental health, including using Zoloft. “I was grappling with intrusive thoughts and this kind of stuff I couldn’t get a grip on and once I started taking Zoloft, it changed everything for me. I didn’t even know I was operating in such a state of angst for a long time,” she says.
She’s also taken other steps to protect her joy and mental health. “I don’t Google myself. I don’t read comments, I don’t even go on my social media. I have someone doing that for me, to be honest. I just really needed to stay off of it. I have a Finsta, a fake Instagram, but it’s my real Insta and I just share things with my friends and family. I used to love crime shows, but I don’t watch those anymore. I’m trying to keep myself positive. I just need joyful things–cute animals, nail tutorials, makeup tutorials.”
The past year also brought shifts in her professional life. She left her longtime management home at Borman Entertainment and is now working with music executive Cameo Carlson (who previously worked at Borman).
“I love [Borman Entertainment’s] Gary [Borman] and [her former co-manager] Steve Moir,” Guyton says. “They were amazing managers and have the ability to do so many amazing things in artists’ careers. I just needed a little change. I felt I needed a woman to continue my career with and Cam was just right. We’ve known each other for a long time and it’s been amazing…she’s a hustler and that’s what I need.”
Guyton brought all of those experiences, struggles and life shifts into the writing rooms for the album, teaming again with several key writers from her previous album, including her “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?” co-writers Emma Lee, Karen Kosowski and Victoria Banks and Tyler Hubbard, who worked on her Kane Brown collaboration “Nothing Compares to You,” as well as “My Side of the Country” and “Make It Me.”
“Nashville has the best songwriters in the world, without question — and I try to make every writer, new or familiar, feel like ‘Hey, if we don’t get it today, we can come back to it,’” she says. “ I intentionally want them to feel safe and not discounted as a songwriter, because sometimes you just don’t get it the first time. People are relaxed, they don’t feel the stress. In creating that environment, I will say that the songs come out so much better.”
Lately, Guyton has also been taking inspiration from pop newcomers, such as Teddy Swims, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
“I feel like they are very literal in what they are saying. They talk about anxiety; they talk about all this stuff that we haven’t always talked about, and it’s motivated me to be more open and honest with my life.”
Another artist she admires is her fellow country artist and reigning CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, whom she’s championing to take home a second entertainer of the year honor at the CMA Awards on Nov. 20 (“I hope she wins. It would be nice to see a woman win again. That’s who I’m voting for,” Guyton says).
That openness extends beyond simply her music and into her career and performance choices. In August, Guyton performed at the Democratic National Convention, playing her song “All American.”
“If you felt joy watching it [at home], it was a hundred times more joyful in person — the excitement, the sea of people,” she says of being at the DNC. “There was every race, nationality. It was patriotic. There were flags and just people proud to be an American. I will never forget that moment. That was one of my most favorite moments that I have been a part of.”
This year’s DNC featured an elevated number of country and Americana artists, also including The Chicks, Maren Morris and Jason Isbell, while artists including Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood and Brian Kelley took part in the Republican National Convention — an evolution in a genre whose artists have often been discouraged from voicing their political opinions for fear of alienating portions of their fanbases.
“It’s been this whole taboo thing, but at the end of the day we’re still citizens,” Guyton says. “I’m not telling you who you should vote for — I’m telling you who I’m voting for. But I don’t think it should be a crime, that you can’t support who you think is the best Presidential candidate. And especially as a Black American, my ancestors fought for me to even be able to vote. It is my duty.”
One of the reasons her song “All American” was chosen for the DNC was the joyous, positive aura the song embodies, and she names that same uplifting spirit as the centerpiece of her new album.
“I’m a fun, joyous person, and I wanted people to feel that,” she says. “I feel like people need to feel joy. I think so much has been going on in the world. I’m tired of the fear. I’m tired of the strife. I just want joy.”
A key part of CMA Award-winning Jelly Roll‘s story has been his rise from incarceration to becoming one of the most sought-after headlining artists out there today. Alongside his ascendant career, the Tennessee native has been dedicated to giving back to communities and encouraging those who are in jails and detention facilities.
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During Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken tour stop in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO paid a visit to the local Pulaski County Detention Center, visiting the female inmates in the CSI Reentry program just prior to Jelly Roll’s concert at Simmons Bank Arena on Oct. 22. On Instagram, Bunnie XO posted a video from the trip, calling the visit “chicken soup for the soul.”
“I went to jail today, willingly,” Bunnie XO said over a video clip of moments from the couple’s visit to the jail, where they met with the women, offered encouragement and Jelly Roll even performed, leading the crowd in a version of his Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper “Save Me.”
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“I was so honored today to be able to tag along with my husband … look how sweet these babies are,” as the video showed Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO walking in to visit with the inmates, who greeted them with cheers and smiles. “Today was chicken soup for the soul, man. To be able to bring smiles to their faces in probably one of the lowest times of their lives means everything to me. They all had the best personalities.”
She also noted how Jelly Roll cracked jokes and kept the crowd laughing, as she said, “I have to say, man, the most attractive thing about my husband is his heart.”
As the video concluded with footage of Bunnie XO hugging the women, Bunnie XO said the visit inspired her as much as she hoped it had for the inmates. “I hope they know how much of an impact they had on me and how much they lifted my spirit also,” she said in the video clip. “I realize more and more lately that God has given us these platforms to give back, not to receive. And that’s what I plan on doing alongside my husband.”
According to the official Instagram page for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, Jelly Roll also took the oath of office to be an honorary deputy.
Up next, Jelly Roll’s Beautifully Broken Tour will visit St. Louis on Oct. 23 and Knoxville, Tenn. on Oct. 25. Jelly Roll also just added a new hometown show to the tour, when it visits Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 26.
When people think about love, they frequently focus on expensive weddings, flowery poetry or heavy kissing sessions. But the ultimate act of love is arguably less romantic: paperwork.
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Making out a will, filling out the beneficiary lines on insurance forms or assigning someone for that “Payable on Death” section of a checking account are boring details that require uncomfortable thoughts about dying. But those actions smooth the passage of assets and can simplify life for survivors at a time when they’re torn by grief. Few things say “I love you” more than demonstrating it when the recipient can’t show appreciation.
“My wife says to me all the time, ‘If something ever happens to me, please be sure the boys know how much their mom loved them,’” Chris Lane says. “I’m like, ‘Honey, please do not ever say that to me again.’ I can’t even bear the thought of that.”
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Lane’s newest release — “If I Die Before You,” which Red Street issued to digital service providers on Oct. 11 — re-creates that kind of conversation with the singer contemplating his own passage. It’s similar to the approach in two high-impact predecessors, Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” and The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young,” but leans even closer to those awkward discussions about estates and advance directives. And it manages to transform a difficult moment into an ascendant one.
“I’ve never heard this topic talked about in a song before,” Lane says. “It felt like a really fresh and really cool idea, and they did it in a very emotional way.”
“They” are songwriters Emily Weisband (“Looking for You,” “Dance Like No One’s Watching”), James McNair (“Guy for That,” “Lovin’ On You”) and Seth Mosley (“Make You Mine,” “Build a Boat”). The three met at a second-floor office Mosley was renting at the Starstruck building on Nashville’s Music Row in 2022.
McNair brought up the title, “If I Die Before You,” which he had recently logged into his phone, most likely after hearing the phrase on a TV show. He didn’t know what kind of story it might create, but it led them to acknowledge that they’ve all had conversations with their spouses about how to handle an unexpected passing. “It’s the worst conversation in the world,” Weisband says.
But it had some powerful possibilities, too, if they could find the right balance, even with the word “die” in the hook. “You have to write it just completely bare and honest,” McNair says. “You can’t be cheesy, and it can’t be too morbid. It’s definitely delicate when you have that word in the title.”
They launched with the title in the opening line — “If I die before you/I hope you buy that Mustang” — with Weisband, who had a pop recording deal, leading the melodic charge. They toggled between the verses and chorus as they proceeded, Mosley girding the top line with more minor chords and sevenths than typically emerge in Nashville writing rooms.
“It’s not like a jazz record or anything,” Mosley says. “There are far more complicated songs and chord progressions out there, but I think as Nashville writers often forget, there are other options. And so if I can be a small part of helping just create stuff that’s slightly different, that’s something I like to do.”
The chorus lived primarily in unresolved chordal territory, creating a sweet tension as it recognized that “all our names end up on a rock.” Near the end, it almost came to a halt, imagining that God takes the singer first. “Baby, forgive Him,” the text read, “and keep living if I die before you.”
Imagining Weisband’s future family, verse two referenced “our hypothetical kids” as the weighty conversation continued. By the time they reached the bridge, the song eased into conversational syncopation, the story’s couple refocusing on the current moment. And on a bottle.
“We tried to lighten it up, in that sense of where it was kind of like a couch conversation over wine,” McNair says, “which I think helps it, you know. They weren’t in the lawyer’s office or something like that.”They wrote it in a scant two hours, prioritizing the song itself rather than how it might be received in the marketplace. Mosley produced a demo with an airy tone, Weisband singing lead.
“It was very low pressure,” she says. “It was not the typical Nashville grind it out till every word is perfect and every melody’s a smash-sounding melody. It’s just like, ‘Let’s let the song write itself, and we’re just kind of here to help birth it,’ if you will. We were the song’s midwives.”
Lane heard “If I Die Before You” when a publisher sent him a batch of songs. He was particularly curious about the title and made it one of the first he played from that group. He took the opening “mustang” reference to mean a horse, which fit his wife’s interests, and the rest of the song worked, too. He wanted it.
“I’m not a super-emotional guy at all, nor do I really love slow songs,” he says. “But when I heard this song, it struck an emotional chord in me — probably because I’m married and have kids now, so I look at life differently.”
He responded to the publisher, who apologized: Another artist — Jordan Davis, it turned out — had the song, and Lane shouldn’t have heard it. While Davis debated whether to release it, McNair played it for Luke Combs, who pressured Davis to put it out or let it go. Combs toyed with it, too, but decided it didn’t fit the project he was recording and passed. “We just kept laughing that for how pop-girl of a demo this was, all these guys were wanting to cut it,” Weisband says.
Ultimately, Lane checked in every few months about it, and his persistence won the day. He so revered it that he insisted on using two of the song’s writers — he got Mosley to produce it and asked Weisband to sing harmonies. And Lane was present for almost all the work as Mosley cut new parts — played primarily by multi-instrumentalist Jonny Fung and drummer Phil Lawson — over pieces of the original demo, shifting it to a country production.
Lane made one lyrical change: “Our hypothetical kids” became “our crazy, beautiful kids,” acknowledging his two boys. He worked tirelessly on his lead vocal, singing perhaps 20 or 30 takes to get every part right.
Mosley called on Gideon Klein and Carl Larson to overdub a string section. “I make string arrangements that are just me singing into a mic,” Mosley says, “and I’ll do 10, 15 tracks of me just humming parts, like, ‘This is a cello, part one,’ ‘Cello, part two,’ and then I’ll pass it off to Gideon. He’ll put it on sheet music so it actually makes sense. But then we go in and just stack it a bunch of times.”
Red Street continues to work Lane’s current single, “Find Another Bar,” currently at No. 28 on Country Airplay after 51 weeks. But “If I Die Before You” is the likely follow-up, assuming it generates the reaction they expect.
“Everything in my gut tells me that this is a career song,” Lane says. “I’m praying and hoping that people react to it in the same way that I did, and if they do, then it feels like the next one up.”
Kelsea Ballerini announced the dates for a 2025 U.S. tour in support of her Patterns album on Wednesday (Oct. 23), a 30-city aren trek that is slated to kick off on Jan. 21 in Grand Rapids, MI at the Van Andel Arena.
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The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer revealed the dates for her first all-arena headlining outing in an Instagram post, writing, “this ain’t my first rodeo (but it IS my first arena tour!!!!!!) i genuinely can’t wait to be back on the road with you in 2025 and sing our lil hearts out together.”
Fans can sign up now for early access to tickets here, with pre-sales starting on Oct. 29 at 10 a.m. local time, followed by a general on-sale on Nov. 1 beginning at 10 a.m. local time. Ballerini is gearing up for a sold-out gig at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 29 to celebrate the upcoming (Oct. 25) release date of Patterns, the follow-up to her 2022 LP Subject to Change. There will also be an artist pre-sale on Oct. 29 beginning at 12 p.m. local time; fans can register for access to the artist pre-sale here.
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“PATTERNS is an album about taking inventory of self and life as it is, moving through the things that need changing, and celebrating the wins along the way,” said Ballerini in a statement. “Writing this record really was just one big beautiful conversation with myself, Alysa (Vanderheym), Karen (Fairchild), Hillary (Lindsey) and Jessie Jo (Dillon). THAT is what I want to bring into my show…a night (well, a lot of nights) where we come together and have the greatest night dancing while unpacking all of it. With confetti and costume changes, of course.”
The 30-city Kelsea Ballerini Live on Tour trek featuring support from MaRynn Taylor and Maisie Peters will take the singer to Chicago, Milwaukee, Nashville, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix and Las Vegas before wrapping up on March 30 at the Ball Arena in Denver. In keeping with her commitment to support mental health charities, the singer is donating $1 from every ticket sold to her Feel Your Way Through Foundation, which aims to lessen the stigma around conversations about mental health.
Check out the dates for Ballerini’s 2025 North American tour below:
Jan. 21 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Jan. 23 — Chicago, IL @ United Center
Jan. 24 — Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
Jan. 25 — Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
Jan. 29 — Duluth, GA @ Gas South Arena
Jan. 31 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Feb. 1 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center
Feb. 4 — Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
Feb. 6 — Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center
Feb. 7 — Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
Feb. 8 — Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
Feb. 10 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
Feb. 13 — Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Feb. 14 — Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Feb. 15 — Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena
Feb. 18 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Feb. 20 — Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center
Feb. 22 — Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena
Feb. 23 — Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla
Feb. 26 — Fort Worth, TX @ Dickies Arena
March 13 — Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena
March 14 — Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena
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As introspective, detailed singer-songwriters such as Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers have topped Billboard charts and sold out amphitheaters and stadiums recently, Stillwater, Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores is primed to ascend to their ranks with his full-fledged debut album Welcome to the Plains, which came out last Friday (Oct. 18) via Island Records.
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The album follows a trio of EPs: 2022’s The Hutson Sessions, 2023’s Life Lessons, and this year’s Half Life that have led to Flores’ rise in the public consciousness thanks to a blend of his unrefined, folksy sound and unflinchingly honest lyricism. It’s made him the latest in a strong lineage of musicians such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours and other architects of the Red Dirt sound that has risen from Oklahoma since the 1970s.
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Flores, 23, began releasing songs in 2021, but it was “Please Don’t Go,” a raw-throated, emotional plea for a loved one to refrain from taking their own life, gained traction just over a year ago, ultimately earning over 154 million streams on Spotify alone. He’s followed such resonant songs as “Break My Bones” and “Losing Sleep.”
The songs’ success threw Flores into an ascendant surge, along with it a grind of being on the road, playing shows with 49 Winchester and headlining his own rapidly growing shows.
“We just played a 3,300-capacity venue in Oklahoma City,” he notes to Billboard. “The last time we played OKC, it was like a 500-capacity room. It’s crazy.”
He made his Grand Ole Opry debut seven months ago and played Stagecoach and the revered venue Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first time this year. He also earned a nomination for emerging act of the year at this year’s Americana Music Honors & Awards. But when it came time to record Welcome to the Plains, Flores tells Billboard he was “so scared, honestly.”
“I sat there in Asheville and just went over the lyrics,” he recalls of recording at Echo Mountain Studios there, as well as in Los Angeles and Nashville. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good enough for an album yet.’ But it came to a point where I was like, ‘Just let the songs be what they are and capture the moments of where I’ve been without overthinking it.’”
Welcome to the Plains was born during what Flores calls “a really dark spot in my life,” as he was meeting the demands of his skyrocketing career while battling anxiety and imposter syndrome, and also struggling to process and grieve the loss of a few people close to him, including Flores’s maternal grandfather, who took his own life in 2023.
In song and in conversation, Flores makes no secret that his utmost motivation lies not in massive sold-out shows, but in helping listeners through hard times. In releasing songs such as “Please Don’t Go,” Flores has also had to navigate the emotional weight of realizing that while his songs can be a balm and healing agent for some, music can’t always be a life-saving force. He delves into that feeling the new album’s “Oh Susannah,” particularly on lyrics such as “Why did I believe that I could save you, darling/ Without killing me?”
He had previously included a version of The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” on his Half Life EP, but in February, Flores had his own emotional moment onstage, breaking down during a performance in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is the only thing I ever cared about and for some reason I can’t figure out, I don’t feel a thing,” he told fans during a vulnerable moment in that show. “I’m struggling with it. I’m sorry, guys. I’ve gotta tell my truth. I don’t know why… I’m sorry that I can’t give y’all what y’all deserve. And I love y’all and I’m very grateful for y’all being here.”
Flores took a four-week break from recording and touring, cancelling a slate of shows and seeking help at mental-health counseling facility Onsite near Nashville.
“I’ve learned so much because, truthfully, people don’t go through this phase in their life until they are maybe 30,” Flores says. “I went to Onsite when I quit the tour, and I looked around the room and there were maybe three other people my age and the rest were mostly in their 60s. I felt like the last thing I want to do in this life is be that age and look back and go, ‘How have I been unhappy this entire time?’ I started doing a lot of personal work and I’m still working on myself.
“I knew I had to be a better leader than what I was,” he continues. “I wasn’t taking the time to process things that I needed to, and I wasn’t putting up boundaries in my own life between me and the fans. It just crippled me to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I like the music’—and that’s the only thing I ever loved.”
Unlike the primarily acoustic-driven songs on his previous releases, Welcome to the Plains is a harder-edged, full band project. The songs on the new album that flowed from that time away from the spotlight are often anything but somber, such as the driving heartland rock and nod to Red Dirt in the album’s title track, which he wrote with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. Elsewhere, in the pulsing “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight,” he longs for his last minutes with a lover to linger before they have to part ways.
“You would’ve thought that I would have written some of the most depressing songs, but I had this weird way of daydreaming about a better time, I guess. That’s where it was all coming from, just wanting to get out of that dark place,” he says. However, multiple songs, such as “The Good Ones” and “Angels Over You,” do touch on mortality, as does “When I Die,” a song Flores calls “the weirdest love song I’ve ever written.” The song brings levity on lines such as “When I’m in the ground, if I hear you talking s—t/ I hope I get the chance to be a ghost and scare your kids,” while also weaving in heartfelt sentiments.
“I get that humor from my dad,” he says. “I’ve written so many songs about living and dying because I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, so that’s where my head space was. I’m sure people are going to be listening to it around the time they’re grieving over someone and I hope it gives them a bit of a smile instead of just sobbing.”
Flores’s father is a retired welder and former drummer, while Flores’s family also runs cattle. Growing up in Oklahoma, Flores credits his family’s hard-working lifestyle with instilling the discipline that has benefited him on the road.
“Without that life, I don’t know that I’d be responsible enough to do this,” he says. “You’re up at 5:30 in the morning when you’re 12 years old, going out to the barn, working in the freezing cold, then doing your homework then going to school. Hard work and dedication is where it’s at.”
Flores grew up in a household filled with a mix of country and blues. He briefly attended Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before realizing the time he spent sneaking into local clubs to play music held more value for him. He eventually moved to Nashville, and immersed himself in folk and Americana music, including the works of Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
“I became obsessed with that music. It’s a huge influence,” he says. His new album offers a sampling of sounds, with deep emotional excavations sitting alongside flashes of sharp wit. (“I’m still figuring out what my [own] sound is,” he explains.)
“I also want to be a motivational speaker,” he adds. “I’ve always wanted to do speeches. I want to be good enough to where I can do that as a part-time thing. I’m also working on a bucket list of starting my own cattle company, branching off from what my parents have. We’re just waiting on buying land right now. We used to have 80 head back in the day. I want to get into the show cattle world again, to give kids a chance to show cattle, for those who don’t really have the money to do it, to let them learn from it.”
Eight months removed from that pivotal onstage moment in Missouri, Flores says he’s learning how to just be himself amid rising acclaim but knows he can always find refuge in Stillwater.
“It’s an odd feeling. I truly feel like I can just come back here and be myself, though I’m taking pictures [with fans] every single time I go to town. It’s an odd feeling because I went from being a nobody to everyone knowing who I am. It’s a feeling of being able to hide in plain sight, and then can’t hide anywhere. I don’t like hiding myself from people. I just keep going out and about and showing people I’m just a normal human.”