Country
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Waylon Wyatt recently had a pretty good excuse for missing school: the 17-year old was on the road with Dwight Yoakam. “Just last week, I couldn’t make it to school on Thursday and Friday, because I was opening for Dwight. You know how crazy that seems?” the high school senior asks.
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But Wyatt (whose full name is Waylon Wyatt Potter) is getting used to crazy moments since he began writing songs two years ago, influenced by alt-country artists such as Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan. The Hackett, Arkansas native has broken through thanks to songs including “Everything Under the Sun” (a song he says was inspired by “watching sunsets over a lake in my hometown”) and “Arkansas Diamond,” which lie at the intersection of folk, country and rock. “Arkansas Diamond” has earned more than 24 million Spotify streams, while “Everything Under the Sun” has reached over 12 million streams on the platform.
Today (Sept. 6), he and fellow newcomer (and “Maxed Out” singer) Bayker Blankenship have teamed up for the churning, heartland rock of “Jailbreak.”
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“I found him on social media after he covered a song of mine, ‘Arkansas Diamond,’ and we reached out to each other,” Wyatt tells Billboard over Zoom. “We became friends and now we have a song we created and recorded together. It’s pretty wild.”
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In August 2023, Wyatt signed a deal with Music Soup and Darkroom Records. Darkroom’s roster includes nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish, “Feel It” performer D4vd and DJ/music producer John Summit, with Wyatt becoming the label’s first country/Americana artist. “I found that more unique about [signing with Darkroom Records] was they don’t have [a country/Americana artist], so maybe I could give it to them,” he says.
He is quick to credit Darkroom’s unconventional method of reaching out to him during several other labels also expressing interest. “I worked for my dad’s construction business and in one of my TikTok videos, I was wearing the company’s hat. Darkroom DM’d me, but also called my dad’s business, got ahold of his secretary, and then scheduled a Zoom meeting,” Wyatt recalls. “It all kind of kicked off from there.”
In addition to artists such as Bryan and Childers, Wyatt counts some of his biggest influences as pioneering country artists popular way before he was born, including Waylon Jennings, Don Williams and Hank Williams, Sr. “I actually prefer [the music of] Hank Williams, Sr. over Hank Williams Jr. — I might get hate off that, I don’t know,” he says.
Though he sounds surefooted in his blend of rugged acoustic country/rock, Wyatt says he’s dabbled in different sounds.
“I’ve wanted to do all kinds of singing since I was 12 or so. I had my little rap phase where I was big on Eminem — the first song I probably ever learned by him was ‘Lose Yourself,’” he explains. “I actually wrote some raps, too; I wouldn’t say they were the best, but it was trial and error. But just all these years of finding myself musically, it’s been great.”
He followed his breakthrough songs in July with the seven-song, acoustic-driven EP Til The Sun Goes Down, a project he wrote and recorded on his own (the project was released via Music Soup/Darkroom). The lo-fi effort features his gritty voice backed by only an acoustic guitar, with songs including “Back to Then,” “Arkansas Diamond,” “Phoning Heaven” and “Riches to Rags.”
“There was no overproduction or anything on these songs,” Wyatt says. “I didn’t imagine it being a bigger body of work, but as I progressed through ’em, I was like, ‘All these songs that I wrote so far, they could run together.’ They’re all based out of the same stuff. All of them are very relatable pieces of work.”
Wyatt’s hometown of Hackett has just 800 people, making for a close-knit community, including his schoolmates, who are proud of his career breakthrough. “A lot of them don’t know how to process it because I’ve grown up with them and it’s a small school. My hometown is small, so I know pretty much every face around here. But they’ve been so supportive,” he says.
Wyatt, who is booked by Wasserman, is set to perform during AmericanaFest this year, before making his Stagecoach Festival debut in 2025. But he’s also balancing music with completing his senior year of high school. “My parents never did go to college or anything,” he says, “but they are big on [my] finishing the school year out.”
Ahead, he says he would love to release another project, one that “would probably include a little more production than just guitar. And more fiddle, because I love hearing fiddle.”
Last spring, while working with Post Malone on his upcoming country album, the hired studio songwriters took a break. Malone started noodling on guitar. “He’d be playing, like, old B-sides, Toby Keith songs, that nobody knew,” recalls Chase McGill, a Nashville veteran who has written songs for Morgan Wallen, Kenny Chesney and many others. “But he knew everything.”
When Malone’s F-1 Trillion came out in late August, the pop and hip-hop star had an advantage that previous country crossover hopefuls have lacked. He plunged into the country-music business, and into Nashville, working with respected local songwriters (like McGill, Taylor Phillips and James McNair), gigging at key local clubs (Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and the Bluebird Cafe), collaborating with veterans (he performed with Dwight Yoakam on SiriusXM) and recording duets with other stars (Hank Williams Jr., Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Luke Combs and Wallen are on the album).
“That’s the difference when somebody brushes up against the genre vs. someone who immersed themselves into the genre,” says Randy Chase, programming executive vp for Summit Media, the Birmingham, Ala., broadcaster that owns nine country stations. “When people try to cross into country from other genres, a lot of times it’s on their terms, and they want to put their foot into the pool. He went all in, even with the risk that it could hurt him down the road.” Adds Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for top broadcast chain iHeartMedia: “He understands country music. It’s not like he’s just trying to learn how to be a country artist overnight.”
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Post’s duet with Wallen, “I Had Some Help,” debuted at No. 1 on Hot Country Songs and the Hot 100 in late May, scoring 76.4 million streams and, earlier this week, topped Billboard’s Songs of the Summer chart.
Adding “I Had Some Help” to heavy rotation was “a no-brainer,” says Steve Stewart, Cox Media Group’s director of country content. “Morgan continues to be one of the hottest artists on the planet, so that immediately gave us the green light.” Similarly, Summit’s country stations played “I Had Some Help” twice an hour throughout its debut day, then once an hour the next day and repeatedly through the weekend. “I heard the song about two weeks before it came out,” adds Summit’s Chase. “I said, ‘This is a country record that is also going to go pop.’”
Last week, F-1 Trillion landed atop the Billboard 200, Post’s first No. 1 since his pop album Hollywood’s Bleeding in 2019. (The new album also hit No. 1 on Top Country Albums in its debut week.) “There are legitimately 15-plus songs that could be radio singles,” says Scott Donato, program director and operations manager for WGTY, a country station in York, Penn. “It reminds me of late-’90s, early-2000s country. He’s been able to capture every corner of the format.”
Before Post Malone became famous as a hip-hop artist with 2015’s “White Iverson,” he performed at a Dallas-area Italian restaurant where he worked during high school, and later covered songs by Hank Williams and Bob Dylan in videos he posted online. He became an established star who could fill U.S. arenas, then began transitioning to country around 2018.
The marketing teams at Big Loud Records and major label Mercury/Republic Records, already working together on Wallen’s releases, soon began brainstorming Post Malone marketing plans from the conference room at Big Loud headquarters in Nashville. (The two labels are teaming up on radio promotion – Big Loud for country, Mercury for Top 40 and other formats.) “Post ingratiated himself within the creative community — opened up to writers, collaborators and session musicians — that were the throughline of this campaign,” says Patch Culbertson, executive vp and general manager of Big Loud, adding that his company helped make introductions to Parton, Shelton, Williams and others. “They had a great vision from the beginning.”
Big Loud execs persuaded Mercury’s team to start the album’s campaign earlier than planned, so it could set up a splashy CMA Fest appearance, in which Post and Shelton performed “Pour Me a Drink.” “He got the hit on TV, which is a whole different demo from what he was used to serving,” says Candice Watkins, Big Loud’s senior vp of marketing. “He got to meet the industry.”
In April, Post performed at the Stagecoach Festival, where Jordan Pettit, the Grand Ole Opry’s director of artist relations and programming, was in attendance. Pettis later spoke to Alex Coslov, executive vp of Mercury Records, and “there was immediate interest on their behalf to pursue his Opry debut as part of their launch plan,” Pettit recalls.
Post performed at the Opry for the first time in mid-August. “It began to take on the feel that this was not just a pop artist leaning into country music for a moment in time,” Pettit says. Coslov added to Billboard: “Our core strategy was built around showcasing the authenticity of Post’s entry into country music by highlighting his time in Nashville.”
Several country programmers say Post is the type of artist who will be able to toggle between genres, depending on his musical impulses, and may not be absent from Top 40 and hip-hop radio playlists for long after F-1 Trillion. (His first three albums combined for 11 billion to 12 billion on-demand streams apiece, according to Luminate, but he dipped on 2022’s Twelve Carat Toothache, with just 1.88 billion streams.) “This is a guy who went, ‘This is my art, here it is,’” says Tim Roberts, vp of programming and format captain for radio chain Audacy. “Could he make a whole pop album next year? Absolutely.” Post’s tour begins this Sunday in Salt Lake City, and “it really is all country-based,” according to Big Loud’s Watkins, although she expects pop hits, too.
So far, Post’s pop-to-country transition has far surpassed similar moves by Sheryl Crow, Jessica Simpson, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, or even Beyoncé, whose Cowboy Carter album was a culture-dominating hit earlier this year, but did not stick to country radio formats. “The Beyoncé songs weren’t great country songs; they were great Beyoncé songs,” says Nate Deaton, general manager of online country station KRTY.com in San Jose. “The Sheryl Crow country record was really good, but it didn’t have any hits on it — it didn’t have ‘Pour Me a Drink.’ It didn’t have one of those songs that was a standout runaway smash.’”
Deaton calls Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker’s debut country album, 2008’s Learn to Live, a more apt comparison: “He did the exact same thing that Post Malone did. He went to Nashville and ingratiated himself with Nashville songwriters. Darius got on a bus and went to all these radio stations, even though he was a big star.” For Post Malone, Deaton adds, “It would not surprise me at all to see an ongoing country career, a la Darius.”
The devil, or demons, have been referenced in a string of current and recent singles, including Jelly Roll’s “Halfway to Hell” and “I Am Not Okay,” Tyler Braden’s “Devil I Know,” Ashley McBryde’s “The Devil You Know” and Jackson Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy.” Mitchell Tenpenny’s “Demon or Ghost,” recorded with metal band Underoath, was released Aug. 9; Lee DeWyze issued “Devil in the Details” on Aug. 2; Stephen Wilson Jr.’s “The Devil” is the opening track on his debut project, Son of Dad; and Lainey Wilson’s just-released Whirlwind slips in “Devil Don’t Go There.”
A new Jon Pardi single – “Friday Night Heartbreaker,” released today (Sept. 6) – casts a stunning woman as a Medusa-like “hell raiser” and a “devil in disguise.”
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It’s not like it’s an entirely new subject — The Louvin Brothers’ “Satan Is Real” ranks among classic country’s deepest discussions of the dark angel and his role in humanity — but the current volume of devil themes, and the weight of the songs they appear in, seems significant.
“We see more people confessing what they’re really feeling and being a little more open and honest,” says songwriter Ashley Gorley, who co-wrote “I Am Not Okay,” which references “the devil on my back and voices in my head.” “I think the devil is real, so I think it’s showing up in people’s writing.”
One obvious source for the topic lies in the pandemic. When COVID-19 forced creatives off the stage and into their houses, they had plenty of time for self-examination, questioning who they were, why they had made certain life choices and the meaning of the world around them.
“It’s very easy to look at the past few years and recall moments of dark, and I think that with the darkness comes the imagery,” DeWyze notes. “As far as the devil being in music now, it’s almost like it represents those things, whether it be the faith and redemption or the existential struggle, or, you know, a physical being literally at your door.”
Historically, the devil has represented temptation in country music. Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman,” Alan Jackson’s “Between the Devil and Me,” Joe Nichols’ “Brokenheartsville” (in which “the devil drives a Coupe de Ville”) and Terri Gibbs’ “Somebody’s Knockin’ ” (depicting him with “blue eyes and blue jeans”) all place Satan in the equation as its characters grapple with sexual tension and betrayal.
“The devil is always, I hate saying it, but an interesting character to me,” confesses Academy of Country Music songwriter of the year Jessie Jo Dillon, who co-wrote “Halfway to Hell” and “Friday Night Heartbreaker.”
“It’s like this tempter or temptress always.”
The ultimate temptation comes when the devil persuades a victim to sell their soul for a short-term outcome. That’s at work in the movie Damn Yankees when a Washington Senators fan plots to bring down the New York baseball team. It’s at the heart of the legend behind blues icon Robert Johnson. And it’s the storyline in the The Charlie Daniels Band’sLuciferian country tale, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
“It personifies the duality of dark and light, and the feeling of struggling with those demons,” Jelly Roll notes.
“My favorite devil song by far is ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia,’” Pardi adds, “because the guy won. He won the fight.”
Beyond that song’s surface entertainment, though, is a much deeper concept that hints at the never-changing struggle between right and wrong. Cheaters and criminals, in general, earn their reputations by stealing short-term gain while ignoring potential long-term consequences. It’s a battle that plays out daily in politics, in finance, in barroom pickup lines and even in artistic decisions.
“My favorite songwriter ever, Bobby Braddock, told me, ‘Mitchell, are you writing music for a lunchtime or a lifetime?’ ” Tenpenny recalls. “I think there’s a lot of lunchtime music right now, and we need that lifetime music again. Can we make a quick buck to this? Yes, but it’s going to kill so many souls, and that’s where the devil gets involved, in my opinion, and why we keep using him as a metaphor.”
Musical trends in country have made it easier to chase the devil thematically. HARDY, Jelly Roll and Tenpenny are among the artists who have employed hard rock in varying degrees within country. Acts in that format have often toyed with Satanic imagery in songs, stage wear and graphics, and the infusion of power chords and death screams into country practically requires the devil to tag along.
“As far as the look and aesthetics, the devil and demons have always been in the rock’n’roll scene,” Tenpenny maintains. “T-shirts and metal, skeletons, skulls, that kind of thing has always been a part of it. I think that that definitely has an influence.”
But another musical development that may have paved the way for Satan’s ascent in country might well be Eric Church. Particularly notable is his track “Devil Devil” from The Outsiders, with a spoken-word “Princess of Darkness” prelude that links Music Row to hell: “The devil walks among us, folks, and Nashville is his bride.” Church even employed a 40-foot inflatable devil on his 2015 tour, nicknaming the blow-up doll “Lucy Fur.”
Church’s road guitarist Driver Williams co-wrote Dean’s “Heavens to Betsy,” alluding to demons in the opening verse and expressing surprise in the chorus that St. Peter would “ever let a sinner like me in” to heaven. That latter phrase is a direct homage to Church’s debut album, Sinners Like Me.
“Eric has a theme of good versus evil that kind of goes throughout his writing,” Williams observes. “I just can’t help it if that rubs off on me in the writing room a little bit just because I do look up to him so much as a songwriter.
“You look at all the major superstars right now, from Luke [Combs] to Morgan [Wallen] to Thomas Rhett, their idol is Eric — Jelly Roll, too. So I definitely see Eric’s handiwork rubbing off on all of these major superstars that are having moments right now.”
Satan, it turns out, may contribute to artists’ successes when he appears because he offers so much possibility for the protagonist.
“You immediately become the hero in the story,” DeWyze says, “when the devil is placed in it.”
Ultimately, the devil is having his moment because the world seems so tough. The pandemic may be behind us, but years of political turmoil and cultural negativity that predated COVID-19 still drag down the national conversation. That most certainly plays in the background as the devil takes the spotlight.
“Country music looks at that and it tries to give a positive at the end,” Pardi suggests. “We may be singing about darker times, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel in country music.”
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For anyone out there who still thinks Post Malone‘s boot scoot into country is just a lark, check out “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom).” The western swinging tune is the first new single from county icon Dwight Yoakam in nine years and, of course, he has country music’s current brightest light on it.
“I don’t know how we lost our way/ I don’t know where these two hearts both went astray,” Malone croons over the song’s shuffling guitars and pedal steel arrangement. The two men trade vocals on the country waltz’s catchy chorus, singing, “Bang, bang, boom, boom/ There’s nothing left here now but sadness/ Bang, bang, boom, boom/ And the emptiness of all that’s gone/ Bang, bang, boom, boom/ No sounds but just sorrow and madness/ And bang, bang, boom, boom/ It’s how a broken heart beats on.” The song will appear on Yoakam’s upcoming album, Brighter Days (Nov. 15), the follow-up to 2016’s Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…
According to a release on Friday (Sept. 6) announcing Yoakam’s album, the singer intentionally wrote “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye” as a duet with Malone for the LP that features 12 new songs written or co-written by Yoakam; the collection also features two covers, the Carter Family’s staple “Keeping on the Sunny Side” and Cake’s “Bound Away.” Malone is the only guest vocalist on the album that features the originals “Wide Open Heart,” “I’ll Pay the Price,” “California Sky,” “If Only,” “Time Between” and “Every Night,” among others.
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Malone sounds perfectly comfortable alongside his old pal Yoakam, who he’s collaborated with and covered several times over the past few years. Back in 2018, Posty popped up on Yoakam’s Bakersfield Beat SiriusXM channel when they teamed up on the host’s 1993 single “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere,” as well as a cover of Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” and earlier this year at the Stagecoach Festival Malone dueted with Dwight on the country icon’s “Little Ways.” In July, Posty jumped on stage at Yoakam’s show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles to duet on a number of songs, including “Little Things” again, as well as Yoakam’s signature tune “Guitars and Cadillacs,” “Fast As You” and “It Won’t Hurt.”
According to a recent TMZ TikTok, the pair were spotted riding horses on the streets of Hollywood while wearing glittering Western suits during what appeared to be the video shoot for the new song’s video.
Malone is currently riding high with his debut full-length solo album, F-1 Trillion, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and the Top Country Albums chart, as well as topping the Top Streaming Albums and Top Album Sales charts. The collection features Malone singing duets with a galaxy of country stars, including Hank Williams Jr., Tim McGraw, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley, Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Chris Stapleton, HARDY and Morgan Wallen.
Listen to Malone and Yoakam on “I Don’t Know How to Say Goodbye (Bang Bang Boom Boom)” below.
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Jason Aldean defended wife Brittany Aldean’s stance on gender-affirming care for transgender youth and his thoughts on Donald Trump during an on The Tucker Carlson Show Sept. 4.
The former Fox News host brought up Brittany’s previous comments calling gender-affirming care for transgender youth “genital mutilation” in a social media post in 2022, which garnered backlash from artists including Maren Morris and Cassadee Pope.
“My wife is very outspoken and she’s very firm in her beliefs,” Aldean said, noting that the couple share a 5- and 6-year-old, and that he also has a 21- and 17-year-old. “We were talking about it earlier, you’re trying to make things normal to me that aren’t normal. And, I think when she said that, it’s just like there’s a certain — I feel there are people that are going to take offense to everything these days, no matter what you say. [Brittany] said that and people jumped all over that, but I mean, I agree with her.
“If you want to be trans or do those kinds of things, if you’re an adult and can make those decisions and you’re old enough to have the mentality to know what you’re doing and know what that looks like for the rest of your life, that’s one thing,” he continued. “If you’re, as a kid, your parents are already instilling that in you and, like, all this stuff and allowing you to do those things before you are of age … you can’t even vote until you’re 18. Why should you be able to do that? Or [you can’t] drink a beer until you’re 21, but you can change your … it’s just weird to me. I think if somebody wants to do that and they’re old enough to make that decision, hey, it doesn’t affect my life, whatever. But you can’t try to make that normal to everybody.”
Aldean later added, “I got to send my kid to school and we’re talking about, like, the transgender stuff and like, ‘What do I do if he comes home and is, like, ‘Man, there’s a girl in my class that’s a boy.’ That’s hard to explain to a 5- or 6-year-old. I don’t want to have to explain those kinds of things to a 5-year-old who doesn’t get it … it’s those kinds of things that made me kind of step up [politically] a little bit more.”
The Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health do not recommend gender-affirming surgery for anyone under 18, and medical experts who provide this type of care previously told Billboard that underage patients are not allowed to make such life-changing decisions by themselves.
“Prior to any gender-affirming medical or surgical intervention, all minors must have an intake with a knowledgeable mental health provider internal to our system,” Dr. Joshua D. Safer told Billboard in 2022, after Brittany made her initial statements. “Once deemed ready for a medical/surgical intervention, the processes we have for adults are then brought into play.”
Elsewhere during the chat with Carlson, the country artist discussed the upcoming election, as well as his friendship with Trump.
“I love Trump, man,” Aldean said, and recounted how he got to know the twice-impeached former president. “I did think it was cool that here’s this guy that is really not a politician, and at the time you had, all the A-list stars were going, ‘Oh, Trump’s running for president.’ They were all excited, almost kind of like it was a joke a little bit. And then, he won, and I don’t think anybody thought he would win. And for the next eight years, it’s been nothing but trying to just, like, slander this guy and just all the stuff you watch him deal with in the media.”
The musician also shared how he had been invited to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, where they played golf and generally “hit it off.” Added Aldean, “I kept in touch with him over the past few years, and try to see him when I can.”
The country artist, who sat next to Trump during the Republican National Convention, said that he “had no intentions of getting political — it just kind of happened.” He noted that having young children inspired him and his wife to pay more attention to politics. “My thing is, I don’t vote for the person,” he shared. “Like, as much as people may say that’s a lie or whatever, for me it’s like, ‘Which of these groups is going to take the country in a direction that I feel like it should be taken for my family, my kids and their future and those kind of things and to me, that’s what I base it on. I feel like personally, for me, that’s him.”
As for whether Trump will win, Aldean said he hoped so, but he thought the business mogul — who was convicted of 34 charges of falsifying business records in May — was going to win in 2020 as well. “I’m obviously a supporter of Trump. Do I think he can be brash sometimes and say some things that he could probably have a bit better of a bedside manner? Sure,” he admitted. “At the end of the day, I don’t really care if he hurts your feelings or not, as long as, like, as a country we’re moving in the right direction, the economy is great, there’s jobs for people. … One of the reasons I’m a supporter of his, I just like the direction I feel like he would take us.”
Watch Aldean’s full interview with Carlson below:
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With apologies to Boy George, Meghan Patrick can be considered a charter member of a small new club of punctuation punks, the Comma Chameleons.
Her debut single, “Golden Child,” purposely omits a comma from the title, disguising a twist in the song’s hook, “Everything that glitters ain’t golden, child.”
Patrick’s not the first to use that punctuation mark to make a clever switch in a song’s meaning. Craig Campbell’s “Family Man” emphasizes the singer’s priorities by answering a question with the simple phrase “Family, man.” Kacey Musgraves’ “Space Cowboy” injects new meaning into an old Steve Miller Band expression: “You can have your space, cowboy.”
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Patrick accomplishes some wordplay by implying there’s a comma in the song’s hook, but leaving it out of the title isn’t only an attempt at creating surprise. It’s also a method of underscoring the parent album’s theme.
“The biggest reason why we didn’t put the comma in was because it’s the title track to the record, and the record is just Golden Child,” she says. “The whole record is connected. It’s sequential, it’s meant to be listened to top to bottom, in order. This song kind of ties it all together.”
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Patrick had the album title and concept before she had the title track, which arrived thanks to a suggestion by a co-writer.
After attending the CMT Music Awards on April 7 in Austin, Patrick flew back to Nashville for a next-day writing appointment. Operating on two or three hours of sleep, she showed up at the home studio of co-writer Aaron Eshuis (“One Bad Habit,” “This Is It”), where they were to collaborate with Joey Hyde (“Later On,” “Made For You”). Naturally, she told them about the album she was working on, already titled Golden Child, based on the opening line of “Blood From a Stone.” Eshuis decided the album needed a song named “Golden Child.”
“Aaron is kind of the quiet shaman,” Hyde says. “He doesn’t speak a whole lot. I mean, when we’re together, I take a lot of oxygen out of the room. So when he does say something, everybody really shuts up and listens.”
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Hyde came up with the hook, “Everything that glitters ain’t golden, child,” and Patrick decided the song should represent a letter to her younger self. That angle helped them write the first line or two, but then they turned their efforts toward the chorus, where she compiled some sage advice, a bit like “Humble and Kind” at a faster tempo.
“The thing about writing songs where you’re sort of trying to impart wisdom or give advice, in some ways, you don’t want to ever come across too preachy or too judgy,” Patrick says. “It’s more just ‘Hey, this is what I’ve learned. This is how it goes.’ ”
The clincher, developed by Patrick, was a warning to “wear your diamonds on the inside.”
“The moral of the story is that a lot of things that I thought were the diamonds — the things that I was wanting and striving for within the industry, the people I thought I needed to hang out with, or the things I thought I needed to do — they weren’t that great,” she says. “You can win all you want in this industry, but what you have on the inside — your character and how you treat people — that should be the most valuable thing about you.”
They made a point of crafting “Golden Child” as her own personal statement. “So many of those lyrics were just spoken by her in the room,” Eshuis says. “We just tried to make them rhyme.”
Hyde addressed it musically with a chord progression that invites the listener to lean forward. The opening seconds begin with a minor chord, infusing the piece with a darker texture. The chorus would start with a five chord — a brighter triad that still needs to resolve.
“We never fully give the big breath of relief at any point in this song,” Hyde says. “From a music standpoint, we keep the hooks coming at you so it’s familiar and comfortable, but we don’t let you get off the edge of the cliff.”
They closed shop after nailing the chorus and first verse, then reassembled the next day, April 9, determined to bring “Golden Child” to the finish line. Where the first verse had focused on the younger girl who was to receive the letter from her older self, the second verse highlighted several challenges she could expect to face, offering solutions for each.
Eshuis and Hyde were determined to build a demo that would provide a strong guide for the final production, though since they had produced some of her earlier material, they had an idea that the day’s recording might prove to be the master. “We didn’t know,” Hyde says, “but we knew.”
As they shifted into production, they adjusted the underlying rhythm for “Golden Child.” They had written it as a shuffle, but to toughen it up, they gave it more drive — “kind of a Tom Petty groove,” Eshuis says.After the guys laid down some acoustic guitar parts, Patrick tackled the vocal informally in the center of the studio.
“I do have a vocal booth, but we didn’t use it,” Eshuis says. “She was singing on a Telefunken U47 in the middle of my writing room, and all three of us had headphones on, just looking at each other while she’s singing, which is how I do almost all my vocals now. It just makes it easy for communication.”
She anticipated coming back at a later date to deliver a more suitable vocal when she was better rested, though it was so strong they later decided only to do a small amount of touch-up.
With her vocal in place, Hyde played drums and Eshuis took on the bass parts, establishing the foundation for the track. Leading into the final chorus, Eshuis filled in one instrumental hole with a bass lick played high on the neck, inspired by Craig Young’s work on Lady A’s “I Run To You.” Hyde threw on the electric guitar opening riff and a solo with a dirty tone.
They needed only one additional musician; Patrick had them send the track to fiddler Jenee Fleenor for extra country texture.
“There was just something about adding in that fiddle that gives you that great classic country feel,” Patrick says. “Jenee is just such a great, tasteful player. And also, if I’ve got a chance to put a spotlight on or empower another woman in the industry, I’m going to take it. So all in all, it was a great choice.”
Already established in Canada, Patrick created a Golden Child web series to better introduce herself to American country fans. River House released “Golden Child” to country radio through PlayMPE on Aug. 5, with a Sept. 9 add date. The label believed so strongly in the song that it sent it to broadcasters even before it went to digital service providers, marketing the Comma Chameleon entry with an exclamation mark.
“We did send it out for some testing to a few trusted friends and stuff at radio, and the response was really positive,” Patrick says. “But I have known and felt like this needed to be the single ever since I wrote it.”
Corey Kent has Willie Nelson to thank for changing the course of his life.
By age 16, Oklahoma native Kent had already spent years playing music, including five years as part of a Western Swing group, but by his mid-teens, he was pondering quitting music. When Nelson played a show in Tulsa, Kent got a ticket, and quickly engineered a plan to perform with the legendary country entertainer.
“I got a piece of cardboard out of the trash, found a Sharpie from a lady at the concession stand, and wrote, ‘It’s my dream to play a song with you,’” Kent recalls to Billboard. Kent continued holding up the sign until Nelson called him onstage — and at Kent’s request, they sang Bob Wills’ “Milk Cow Blues.”
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“From that point on, I knew I was never going to stop until I got where I wanted to go — but that [had been] the closest I ever got to throwing in the towel,” he says. “But Willie was there for me, and he probably didn’t even realize just how much that moment meant to me.”
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It was what Kent calls “another of those black bandana moments.” That symbolism is woven throughout his sophomore major label album Black Bandana, out Friday (Sept. 6) via Sony Music Nashville. The bandana — which serves as inspiration for the album’s title, title track and cover art — has long been a favored cloth of cowboys, bandits and gang members. But for Kent, his own black bandana has been a practical deterrent from rocks or dust while riding his motorcycle. Kent drove his motorcycle to meet with his managers at Triple 8 Management for the first time and walked in with a black bandana around his neck.
“We had the formalities, and they were like, ‘You need to think about keeping that. That might need to be a thing as part of your image and onstage, to help you stand out in a sea of male country artists trying to break through,’” he explains.
A songwriter at heart, Kent also recognized the image’s deeper meaning. With his co-writers Rocky Block, Jordan Dozzi and Brett Tyler, Kent put the inherent rebellious spirit symbolized by a black bandana into song.
“’What’s the opposite of a black bandana? A white flag,’” Kent says. “Then it took on this whole meaning of staying the course and keeping on, even when everyone else quits. This is for when you want to wave a white flag, it encourages you to raise a black bandana.”
Kent notes that the album was originally to be called Bixby, in a nod to his Oklahoma hometown. After realizing “Black Bandana” served as the fulcrum and centerpiece for the project, the album’s other songs, such as “Rust,” “Ain’t Gonna Lie,” and “This Heart,” were written around themes of grit, tenacity, love, faithfulness, and hard-fought triumph — music for those whose lives have been seasoned by rocky times.
Those are themes Kent is well-acquainted with, having moved to Nashville to pursue music, only to land and then lose a publishing deal. He left Nashville for Texas just before the COVID-19 pandemic. With concerts paused, his family of five had to sell their house to continue paying his band members. Undeterred, Kent also worked at a pavement company, with his family living on an income he says hovered just above the poverty line for a while.
“It was a crazy tough time,” he recalls. “There were a lot of moments, a lot of exit ramps that would’ve been way easier to quit than to keep going.”
His breakthrough came in 2022, with the song “Wild as Her.” He was quickly signed by Sony Music Nashville. “Wild as Her” reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and has since been RIAA-certified platinum. He released his major label album debut Blacktop last year. But on his latest, he says he’s realized a wider, deeper scope of impact: “It’s the first record I’ve made that I had bigger motives [behind] than just writing about my own life.”
Each song, he says, points to a heartier, deep-rooted, flintier kind of love, fashioned from years of enduring together hardships and triumphs. For instance, “Never Ready” details milestone moments — finding love, raising children, facing the death of a parent — that many people face whether they feel prepared or not. “I got tired of hearing all these love songs where it was just like the honeymoon phase only,” He explains. “What about people like me, who are seven, or eight years in and have tough times but still are making it work and love their wife? Where’s that song? It’s not all glamorous.”
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He also eschewed the typical Music Row writing rooms, instead bringing a host of songwriters — including Joybeth Taylor, Austin Goodloe, Rocky Block, Brett Tyler and Lydia Vaughan — out to his residence in Texas for writing sessions. Kent is a co-writer on six of the album’s songs, including “Rust” and “So Far,” but was intentional about recording only the most standout songs, disregarding whether or not he was a co-writer on them — a defiant goal ossified through Kent’s early career days of trying to make it as a songwriter.
“I had a lot of holds, but I never got into big cuts, because I wasn’t in the rooms with the writers who were co-writing with the artists,” he recalls. “I remember going, ‘That sucks for somebody like me that gave everything just to be right here in Nashville writing songs. Now I don’t get a shot, even though I wrote a great song, just because I didn’t write it with the guy that’s putting the record out.’ That frustrated me to my core.”
One of the few outside cuts was “Now or Never,” an ’80s-tinged power ballad he performs with “Road Less Traveled” hitmaker Lauren Alaina, as they sing of a couple on the precipice of a relationship-altering decision.
“I was supposed to just put the song out myself — it was already recorded — but the more I listened to it, the more I realized it could be a strong duet,” he says.
Kent was playing a radio event at Billy Bob’s Texas when he first met Alaina. “I was blown away when I heard the power in her voice — the tone, the control, it checked all the boxes,” he raves. When Kent brought up the idea of Alaina singing on the track, she agreed.
“She’s a complete pro,” Kent says. “She was every bit as good in the studio as she was live, and she gave this song a really cool dynamic that it didn’t have before.”
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Kent’s relentless underdog spirit has resonated with his fans, including the video he posted on social media on his way to this year’s ACM Awards in May.
“I was driving my old 1996 Bronco. I was just reflecting, and said something like ‘On my way to the ACM Awards with zero nominations, one badass record on the way…” and I dedicated it to anyone still putting in the work,” he recalls. “They’ve got their head down. They’re outworking everybody. I realized how many people identify with that, and those are usually the pretty soft-spoken people, those who aren’t necessarily going to jump up and down and say, ‘Look at what I’m doing.’ People resonated with that and a few weeks later, we wrote ‘Black Bandana.’”
In late September, the WME-signed Kent will take the album on the road for his headlining Black Bandana Tour, visiting 25 cities in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, including Atlanta, Boston, Dublin and London. Joining him on select dates will be openers Braxton Keith, Kaitlin Butts, Max McNown, Karley Scott Collins and Lauren Watkins.
Parallel with music, Kent recently launched his Bus Call podcast, which features Kent in conversation with a mix of music industry friends and non-industry friends he’s met along the way, including songwriter Kevin Fowler and Mac Terrence Sr., who works to bring positive influences to at-risk youth.
“I just wanted to make people aware of some really cool people in my life that I’ve met along the way,” he explains. “A lot of these people, I’ve met on the road, so that’s why we call it ‘Bus Call,’ because we bring them on the bus in whatever city we’re stopping in. Most times, it’s just me catching up with friends and having the same conversation we would regularly have, except we have a microphone in front of us.”
Black Bandana may be Kent’s second major label project, but as he prepares for its release, he again draws inspiration from Nelson, his sights set on playing the long game.
“I’ve put my work in, I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I plan to be here 20 years from now,” Kent says. “When you look at Willie Nelson, [whose] about to put out his [76th solo studio album], the second one doesn’t seem all so do or die. You owe it to yourself to take the pressure off and create something you’re passionate about. Let the chips fall where they may, and then you move on to the next one. That helped me lower the pressure on the new album and realize I’m looking at this from a 20-year perspective, not a next-year-only perspective.”
Luke Combs, Jelly Roll and Zach Bryan will headline the 2025 edition of the Stagecoach Festival, taking place April 25-27 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. It will mark the first time that Bryan (April 25) and Jelly Roll (April 26) have served as headliners on the Mane Stage, while Combs returns for the first time to headline since 2022.
Lana Del Rey — who is working on a country album titled Lasso, as she revealed at the Billboard x NMPA Songwriter Awards in February — will also appear at the festival. She joined Paul Cauthen at this year’s event for a duet of “Unchained Melody,” and headlined both weekends of Coachella earlier that month.
“Super pumped to be coming back to headline Stagecoach,” said Combs, in a statement. “It was one of the most memorable parts of the year when we did it in 2022, so really glad they’re having us back for round 2. We’re gonna have a blast.”
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Jelly Roll added, “Last year I got to play Stagecoach for the first time and it was incredible. And I didn’t just get to play. I got to hang out as a fan of artists I love and take my daughter to see some of the best entertainers in our format. Coming back to headline Stagecoach this year is a dream-but I’ll be attending as a fan this year as well, so get ready. See you in April.”
STAGECOACH 2025
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The festival announced its lineup as country music continues to experience a surge in popularity. “Country music is in a golden moment right now. The genre is hotter than it has ever been, and we are enjoying every moment of it,” Stacy Vee, vp of festival talent for Goldenvoice, told Billboard in an email interview. “It has been incredibly satisfying to be in a festival where so many different voices and styles of music are welcome. The world has been delivering us an abundance of phenomenal talent and the hardest part is having to choose who gets the slot.”
Two of this year’s hottest acts, Bryan and Shaboozey, have worked their way up to the Mane Stage, which is always a pleasure to see, Vee says: “Zach Bryan’s set at the Palomino Stage in 2022 was legendary and now he is headlining the Mane Stage. Shaboozey was such an exciting special guest last year and we’ll see him for a full set on Mane Stage.”
As usual, Stagecoach, which started in 2007, will feature a number of other non-country acts, including Backstreet Boys, T-Pain, Goo Goo Dolls, gospel singer Blessing Offor, Creed, Jewel, Nelly, Sammy Hagar, The Bacon Brothers and Tommy James & the Shondells (who also performed at the fest in 2017).
The Backstreet Boys have long been on Vee’s wish list. “I have literally dreamed of bringing them to the show for so long, I think it is going to hit so hard,” she says.
Among those also on the bill are Brothers Osborne, Chayce Beckham, Dylan Gossett, Flatland Cavalry, Koe Wetzel, Midland, Nico Moon, Scotty McCreery, Sturgill Simpson, Whiskey Myers and Tucker Wetmore.
Vee declined to answer a question about the continued paucity of country women available for top spots. Miranda Lambert headlined this year, Carrie Underwood in 2022, and Shania Twain in 2017. Lainey Wilson, who has not headlined the festival, last played in 2023. There are around 20 women playing among the 65 acts in 2025, including Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, Anne Wilson, Crystal Gayle, Dasha, Alana Springsteen, Anna Avery, Nikki Lane and The Castellows.
General admission passes start at $579, while Corral Standing Pit passes that provide access to the standing room only pit area in front of Mane Stage start at $1,899. Corral Reserved Seating, which is for a seated area behind the Corral Standing Pit and other amenities, including access to the Corral Saloon and air-conditioned bathrooms, start at $2,299. Tickets go on sale Sept. 13.
True love is where you find it. And sometimes you find it at a Deftones show in Las Vegas. In honor of her eighth wedding anniversary to Jelly Roll, Bunnie XO posted footage of the singer’s surprise onstage proposal to her during a show by the “My Own Summer (Shove It)” band that led to […]
Indie country duo Muscadine Bloodline, who just released their new album The Coastal Plain in August, revealed Wednesday (Sept. 4) that they’re suspending their planned headlining fall shows after getting the call to open for Post Malone‘s upcoming F-1 Trillion Tour.
The F-1 Trillion Tour launches this weekend, starting Sept. 8-9 with two shows in Salt Lake City, Utah, and wrapping Oct. 26-27 with two shows in Austin, Texas.
Muscadine Bloodline’s Gary Stanton and Charlie Muncaster revealed the news on their social media page, saying, “We got a curve ball of a life-changing call this morning and Post Malone just offered us to be direct support on the F-1 trillion tour. We’re talking Nissan Stadium, Fenway Park, arenas and amphitheaters across the country. In our 9 years of doing this we would have never dreamed of an opportunity like this. To tour the country with one of the biggest artists in the world for his entire tour.”
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The fall leg of the duo’s own The Coastal Plain Tour was slated to launch this weekend with shows in Iowa and Minnesota, but they noted that they’re suspending those September and October dates to join Posty’s tour.
“As difficult as it is to let some of y’all down on short notice (especially this weekend in Iowa and Minnesota)…to be asked by Post Malone to take this undeniable, once in a lifetime opportunity… it’s something we have to do and will tell our grandkids about one day.”
They noted that they will still be performing at the Redbull Jukebox in Nashville on Oct. 2 and that the November shows on the Coastal Plain Tour are still moving forward. Additionally, concertgoers who purchased tickets for the September and October leg of the Coastal Plain Tour will be contacted by their point of purchase, and the duo said they “will be making these cities a priority to return on our next tour.”
“We are praying for grace and understanding from y’all cause yall’s supported us this far and from day one we’ve always strived to make being a part of muscadine bloodline a family, it’s afforded us this huge opportunity as independent artists and proves anything is possible,” they said. “We will see y’all on the F-1 Trillion tour this fall with @postmalone.”
Post Malone’s tour is named after his recent debut country album, F-1 Trillion, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and has spent two weeks (so far) at the pinnacle of the Top Country Albums chart.
Stanton and Muncaster launched Muscadine Bloodline in 2016 and, in addition to The Coastal Plain, have issued the projects Teenage Dixie and Dispatch to 16th Ave.
Watch Muscadine Bloodline’s announcement below: