Country
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Post Malone’s first country album, F-1 Trillion, rolls in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 31) with 250,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 22, according to Luminate. It’s the sixth top 10, and third No. 1 for the artist. He last led the list with Hollywood’s Bleeding in 2019, which racked up five weeks atop the list. He first reigned with Beerbongs & Bentleys, for three weeks in 2018.
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The standard edition of the F-1 Trillion album was released on Aug. 16 and has 18 songs, 15 of which are collaborations with country stars ranging from Dolly Parton and Hank Williams Jr., to Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton, to HARDY and Morgan Wallen. Later on Aug. 16, F-1 Trillion garnered a deluxe reissue, dubbed the “Long Bed” edition, with nine additional solo Post Malone tracks.
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F-1 Trillion also leads the Top Country Albums — where it’s Post Malone’s first entry — and the Top Streaming Albums and Top Album Sales tallies.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 31, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 27. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
F-1 Trillion debuts with 250,000 equivalent album units earned — the second-largest week for any country album in 2024. Only Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter earned a bigger week this year among country sets, when it opened in April with 407,000 units.
Of F-1 Trillion’s first-week sum of 250,000 units, SEA units comprise 164,000 (equaling 212.86 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe album’s 27 songs), album sales comprise 80,000 and TEA units comprise 6,000. The album’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across four vinyl editions (a standard black vinyl and three color variants; which combined to sell 25,000 — Post Malone’s best week on vinyl), a cassette and a CD, in addition to explicit and clean digital download albums for the standard 18-song version and the 27-song “Long Bed” version.
F-1 Trillion was led by the crossover hit “I Had Some Help,” featuring country superstar Wallen. The single spent six weeks atop the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart, in May-July, reached No. 1 on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, and topped both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay tallies. It also crowned the all-genre Radio Songs airplay ranking and hit No. 1 on both the Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. “Help” was followed by two further preview tracks from the album before the full-length set dropped: “Pour Me a Drink,” featuring Shelton, and “Guy for That,” featuring Luke Combs. Both reached the top 20 on the Hot 100 and the top 10 on Hot Country Songs.
Reflecting their latest sonic turns, Post Malone is the second artist, following Beyoncé, to lead the Top Country Albums chart in 2024 with a first entry after having reached No. 1 on other genre-specific album charts with earlier albums. Between 2017 and 2022, Post Malone claimed four No. 1s on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (with Stoney, Beerbongs & Bentleys, Hollywood’s Bleeding and Twelve Carat Toothache), and also led the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart in 2023 (with Austin). Earlier in 2024, Beyoncé made her first visit to Top Country Albums with Cowboy Carter, leading the list for four weeks in April-May. Beyoncé previously logged eight No. 1s on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as a soloist in 2003-22.
Post Malone leads an otherwise sleepy top 10 on the new Billboard 200, as F1-Trillion is the only debut in the region. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess holds at its No. 2 high for a second week, earning 72,000 equivalent album units (down 1%), while Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls to No. 3, after 15 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1, with 62,000 (down 27%). Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 3-4 with 60,000 (down 5%) and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft descends 4-5 with 53,000 (down 8%).
Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene drops 5-6 with 44,000 equivalent album units earned (down 8%); Charli XCX’s Brat slips 6-7 with 41,000 (down 14%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season falls 7-8 with 38,000 (down 2%); Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album descends 8-9 with 36,000 (down 5%); and Bryan’s self-titled leader is a non-mover at No. 10 with 33,000 (down less than 1%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Reigning ACM and CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson just released her new album Whirlwind, a 14-song collection of new music, and is in the midst of her headlining Country‘s Cool Again Tour.
Beyond the spotlight, stage and studio, she also has a steadfast supporter in her corner — her boyfriend Devlin “Duck” Hodges, a former NFL athlete-turned-real estate agent. The couple have been dating since 2021, but they made their red carpet debut at the ACM Awards last year.
So it’s notable that a few love songs peek through on her new album, including “4x4xU,” “Counting Chickens” and “Hang Tight Honey.” However, in a recent interview with Billboard, four-time No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hitmaker Wilson says not to expect many over-the-top ballads to proliferate her projects.
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“I don’t think I’ll ever be that love songwriter that’s super mushy gushy at all,” Wilson says. “It’s going to always probably be a love song that’s like, ‘I love you, but I can still do my thing.’”
She does say that Hodges has had an impact on her music, noting that he listens to every song she writes. Though he’s not a musician, he offers a valuable perspective.
“Everything I ever write, he hears because he truly is my best friend and he’s got a great ear,” she says. “He can’t sing a lick — he tries to — and he’s got great taste. I know if I send him a demo or work tape, and he keeps going back and listening to it over and over, there must be something about this. He’s not in the business, he don’t have anything to do with this, and it’s nice to be able to see what other people’s opinions are because that’s the listener right there.”
Wilson says Hodges has been a steadfast supporter as her career has skyrocketed. “Thankfully, I have found a man that is so happy that he’s with a lady that can do her own thing. He’s just my cheerleader,” she explains. “He makes it real easy and it’s fun to be able to share this part of my life that I’ve kept my cards close to my chest, I guess you could say, for a while. My daddy always said, ‘If you tell all your business, you ain’t got any.’”
In her discussion with Billboard, Wilson also opened up about crafting her new album, working with Miranda Lambert, the importance of mentorship, and more.
Growing up in Commerce, Texas, an hour east of Dallas, Don Louis spent much of his childhood putting in long hours on his family’s 12-acre farm.
“I was blessed to have that discipline,” he tells Billboard. “I grew up feeding the pigs, picking the eggs and stuff. I always had that work ethic because my step-pop made me… I was the oldest brother and even if had to split the work with my brothers, it was always, ‘Go back and check your brother’s work.’ That fell on me.”
Still, he recalls his mother listening to music around the house, and how he spent time singing to himself when he was going about his farmwork. “Growing up, I heard Garth Brooks, Keith Whitley, Darius Rucker and Toby Keith. Toby and Garth had those soulful little runs,” he says.
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His new album, Liquor Talkin’, out today (Aug. 23) on Empire/Money Myers Entertainment, offers a deft blend of twangy country constructs, alluring dance grooves and glimmers of simmering R&B. Connecting them all is Louis’s velvet-meets-sandpaper voice.
Louis says he didn’t expect to name the album Liquor Talkin’, but realized it’s an apt title.
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“After I listened to the whole album, that’s how every one of these songs was — it felt like a different emotion or feeling when you’re maybe three shots deep,” he says. Those potential, varied, alcohol-fueled emotional paths of pain, joy, and open-heartedness are steeped in threads of country, soul, dance music, and more. Throughout all, his perspectives are soaked in the grooves.
The title track distills a hip-shaking shimmy, as does “Foot Loose,” while “Mine in My Mind” leans into a more traditional, dancehall groove. “I’m Gone” is a musing on how he wants his life looked upon when he’s gone — with celebration, not mourning: “That song is like, ‘Y’all have a good time, a celebration, and pour one out for me. Smoke a left-handed cigarette and enjoy that time we had together because you can’t buy more time.”
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“Long Time Comin’” chronicles making his way as a country artist, while he calls “Stick to Whiskey” “my pain song.”
Pain, in its iterations of heartbreak and disappointment, is a feeling Louis is well-acquainted with. He worked at a sawmill, pulling 13-hour shifts six days a week, before pursuing college football. Louis had dreams of playing in the NFL, and played football at Ouachita Baptist University and at Southern Arkansas University. However, those dreams were derailed after he was sidelined by a knee injury.
“I thought football was going to be my exit for the generational curse breaker of blue-collar work,” he recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘I know I’m not just supposed to be flipping logs my whole life.’ Not that I wasn’t good at it, and not that I didn’t bring love into what I was doing, but there was something inside me that felt I was supposed to shine in doing my own thing.”
With a sports career out of the picture, he threw himself full force into another love: music. In his free time, Louis would freestyle with friends, but it wasn’t until a girl downplayed his talent that he felt driven to prove people wrong.
“This one girl was in my truck and she played a certain rapper and the lyricism wasn’t hitting me well. I said, ‘He’s poppin’, he’s huge right now, but to me, it’s not good. I think I could do this just as well.’ And she said, ‘Nah, probably not. You can’t even sing.’ I had never sung in front of anyone.”
Coincidentally, Louis met someone with a nearby recording studio, and he recorded a version of his song “Lost Ways.” Initially, Louis’s music leaned more heavily into R&B, pop, and hip-hop, but he kept experimenting with sounds that would let his naturally twangy, burnished voice shine. Louis credits his late friend and fellow creative Chad Sellers with helping him write songs with a country construct. Still, getting label execs to take his country sound seriously had some trying moments.
“I remember we were doing the A&R vibe and I’m from the country, but they didn’t know that,” he recalls. “They only knew the music I had done previously. They were like, ‘This kid ain’t going to come in here and sing no kind of country.’ You should have seen their face when that first note came out—it was like, ‘Just let him sing how he wants to sing.’”
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He wrote songs and played for mostly empty rooms as he continued refining his skills and sound. It was after one of those shows in 2023 that his breakthrough started.
“I was at a show, struggling,” he says. “I think we played three hours for $250. Nobody was in the room, so basically it was practice.”
Later that night, he posted a video clip for the slow-burn two-stepper “Neon You,” written by Sellers, Dalton Little and Easton Hamlin. “I went back and it had 25,000 views — that’s the most attention I’d had on anything at the time,” he recalls. “I went to sleep that night and it was blowing up all night. I woke up and it was at like 75,000 views.”
In 2023, he released the Sellers-produced EP This Is for You, which included “Neon You.” The song now has more than 5 million listens on Spotify alone, as does Louis’s sultry 2020 release “Addict” (a TikTok video of “Addict” has earned over 4 million views). At present, Louis has over 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners, and over 4 million TikTok likes. He signed with Empire Nashville, and he and his label team were already building his fanbase step by step, even before the success of Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter put a spotlight on Black country artists — including his Empire Nashville labelmate, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” hitmaker Shaboozey.
Even as he sees the breadth of sounds widening that connect country with various other genres, and sees a rapidly expanding fanbase, he’s mindful of all the grind and creative struggles that fans don’t see.
“Everyone sees game day. You don’t see the practice that happens in between,” he says. “People will say ‘This is great music,’ or ‘What a great show.’ They don’t see when I’m staying up til 3:00 a.m., trying to write a song that encompasses my soul, my spirit and moves people’s hips, but also a song when they listen, they go, ‘This is deep.’”
As he releases his new album, and prepares for a slate of shows in the coming weeks in Texas, Colorado and Las Vegas, Louis is keeping his eyes on the next turning point.
“I don’t think there’s ever a level of contentedness. There’s a level of success you want to get to and then you got to set a new milestone,” he says. “I’m already working on a second album, I’m already five songs deep. You have to keep feeding it and stay hungry.”
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They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, they never told Jelly Roll that, because in a new behind-the-scenes video posted on Thursday (August 22) the “Save Me” country star details the out-of-body experienced he had in June when he flew to Detroit to meet his hip-hop top dog: Eminem.
The five-and-a-half minute clip opens with Jelly on the phone telling someone that he’s on his way to meet Slim Shady as he speeds down the highway with a police escort. In the clip, Jelly explains that his early morning road trip came after he played two shows at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry the night before, a whiplash of back-to-back career pinnacles that are truly hard to comprehend.
“I am fixin’ to meet Eminem. To some degree one could say we’re going from the Grand Ole Opry to meet Eminem,” he says while riding in the backseat of an SUV and stating the obvious, but also possibly talking himself off a ledge of disbelief at his good fortune. He explains that the trip was sparked by Marshall tapping him to sing in a Bob Seger tribute as part of the NBC Live From Detroit: The Concert at Michigan Central special that aired in June featuring Diana Ross, Jack White, Big Sean, Eminem and others celebrating the re-opening of the city’s restored train station.
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In the prime-time show, Jelly took the stage with event co-producer Eminem for a duet on Em’s 2002 song “Sing For the Moment.”
“Forty-year-old Jason DeFord is losing his mind,” Jelly says using his birth name. “Because I know for sure that 15-year-old Jason DeFord would faint! This is unreal, it’s really cool” he adds, staring out the window and contemplating this surreal moment. He then breaks down the mechanics of rappers expanding their local or regional fame to larger areas while recalling his attempt to break into the game more than a decade ago.
“Guys like Eminem were proud to be from Detroit, Michigan because superstars don’t come out of Detroit, Michigan,” he says, rehearsing an a cappella run of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which is interpolated in the Eminem song the duo performed. “We’re in the middle of some insanely historical s–t.”
Walking into the station and taking the stage for rehearsals, the big moment when the two men finally meet comes about half-way through the video. After a friendly greeting, Jelly admits to Marshall that he’s been “a little nervous” all day about their meet-up, wondering if the rap god even knows who he is. “Nah, I’ve been knowing you for a minute,” says a low-key Slim Shady.
Later, Jelly says that moment — standing next to Eminem and taking some promo shots — was on his Mount Rushmore of personal high points, along with meeting Garth Brooks and Dolly Parton. “Where I literally stood next to somebody and was like ‘this is f–king wild!,’” he says before picking out his wardrobe for the performance and having a chill hang with fellow performer Melissa Etheridge backstage.
The video ends with footage of the epic, orchestra-assisted performance and Jelly on his way out of town marveling at what just happened while re-watching the whole thing on his phone as he speeds to his next gig.
Watch Jelly Roll’s Eminem meet cute video below.
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Shaboozey dominates Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated Aug. 31) for a fifth week with “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The song drew 29.8 million audience impressions (down 2%) Aug. 16-22, according to Luminate. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The track by the Virginian (born Collins Obinna Chibueze) […]
08/23/2024
See how we broke down every track from Wilson’s new album.
08/23/2024
Lainey Wilson, one of country music’s brightest stars, is back with her latest album, Whirlwind, released today (Aug. 23) via BBR Music Group/BMG.
The album follows her critically acclaimed 2022 project Bell Bottom Country, which took home the Grammy for Best Country Album.
Whirlwind features 14 tracks, including standout singles “4x4xU” and “Ring Finger,” showcasing Wilson’s signature blend of storytelling and Southern charm.
The album also includes a collaboration with Miranda Lambert on the track “Good Horses,” a track that reflects the pull between life on the road and the comforts of home that was written at Lambert’s farm.
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“Miranda said, ‘Come hang out and take a nap. Me and Brendan [McLoughlin, Lambert’s husband] will feed you and then maybe we can write a song.’ They made burgers and pasta, we had everything,” Wilson told Billboard in a recent interview.
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“I had this [song] idea for quite a while and a lot of people had passed us up on writing it. Looking back on it, I’m glad they did because it was supposed to be us who wrote it together. But I think the magic kind of came from me and her having a lot in common when it comes to that love of the road, having a gypsy soul.”
Fans can expect a mix of emotions and experiences throughout the album, as Wilson digs deep into her life, love, and career.
“For this, it had to be quality over quantity. I couldn’t write 200 songs to get to my 14 [songs on Whirlwind]. I had to map out what I want to share, where do I want to get vulnerable, and really figure out the message I want to bring,” about the writing process for Whirlwind.
Wilson has been on a roll lately, earning accolades such as CMA Entertainer of the Year, ACM Entertainer of the Year, and a recent induction into the Grand Ole Opry.
Stream Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind in full below.
The Chicks hit the stage at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Thursday night (Aug. 22) to play “The Star Spangled Banner,” on the fourth and final day of the DNC at Chicago’s United Center before a crowd fired up and waiting for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to speak. Introduced as the winners of […]
On his 2023 full-length album, Pretty Little Poison, Warren Zeiders covered a little-known 14-year-old Chris Stapleton song, “Inside Your Head,” which Stapleton had recorded as part of rock duo The Jompson Brothers.
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While many artists would regard a Stapleton-sung song as beyond anything they would dare attempt, the task was undaunting to newcomer Zeiders.
“It’s full circle for me. I’m a huge Stapleton fan,” he tells Billboard. Zeiders includes another Stapleton song, “Love on the Line” on his new album, Relapse, out Friday (Aug. 23) via Warner Records. Zeiders is perhaps one of the few country music newcomers with the growl and grit in his voice capable of making such a song his own.
The Pennsylvania native grew up playing lacrosse and while a student at Maryland’s Frostburg State University, a series of sports concussions forced him onto the sidelines permanently. Zeiders, 24, turned his interests to music. In December 2020, he released the original song “On the Run,” and soon signed with Underscore Works’ Charly Salvatore for management. He quickly followed with his breakthrough hit “Ride the Lightning,” which has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. His EP The 717 Tapes followed in 2021, and this February, “Pretty Little Poison” become his first No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart (the song has also earned RIAA double-platinum status).
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On his new 10-song album, Zeiders seems poised to continue that surge, with the title track currently sitting at No. 36 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart. The album centers around a heart-shattering arc from romance to betrayal on songs including “Intoxicated” and “Stone’s Throw Away.” Scattered across the album are one-word titles, such as “Addictions,” “Betrayal” and “Intoxicated,” which draw on drug and/or alcohol-fueled imagery, but often delve more into entanglements of the soul.
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“In ‘Addictions,’ it’s about choosing my addictions over a lover — and when I wrote that song, I was thinking about the addiction I have for the music industry,” Zeiders says. “I’m choosing that over being with someone. It is saying, ‘I can’t be the person you want me to be right now, because I’m in my 20s and focused on this career.’ It’s fun to take that concept, like a drug term, and flip it on its head.”
Outside of the Stapleton-written song, Zeiders co-wrote very song on Relapse. Sonically, his new album, which Zeiders co-produced with Mike Elizondo and Ross Copperman, traverses a number of genres. Some of the newer songs stem from a June writing retreat in Miami, where he worked with pop hitmakers J Kash, Blake Pendergrass, and Ali Tamposi, who have written tunes for acts like Justin Bieber, Maroon 5 and Selena Gomez, as well as for country hitmaker Morgan Wallen.
“It’s been fun for me, stepping outside of that box and watching those people come into the country scene and want to be part of it,” Zeiders says. “Between JKash [co]-writing one of the biggest songs in country music, ‘Last Night’ for Morgan Wallen, it’s been cool to see.”
As with many songs in today’s data-driven music ecosystem, fans led the way in deciding the release of his new radio single, “Relapse,” after Zeiders and his team saw the response on Instagram and TikTok.
“It was definitely very clear to see on TikTok and Instagram that people were very much so connecting with ‘Relapse,’” Zeiders says.
In-person, Zeiders’ laid-back, joyous persona belies the tough-guy persona crafted in his press materials and album artwork — but his collection of breakup-driven songs are heartfelt.
“People like to joke about it, but I’m a lover boy. I’m a teddy bear at heart. But I know with the long hair and cowboy imagery I give off a different perception. I do have a tendency of breaking my own heart,” he says. “I fall for these women and these kinds of things and maybe it’s not the right fit. It’s like, ‘I’m going away for two months on tour — and can they handle the distance?’”
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“Betrayal” is a song Zeiders relates to all too well, alluding to a past romantic breakup: “That was an interesting part of my life. Not a fun one, but it is what it is. We all got our stories — but more than anything the overall process has been a fun one, and a totally different vibe from the first record.”
Zeiders will soon open shows for Jelly Roll on his The Beautifully Broken Tour this fall, while gearing up for a jam-packed 2025 — which includes both a slate of headlining U.K. shows beginning in January, followed by his stateside The Relapse Tour, which launches in March, with shows in cities including Nashville, Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
“I’m going on the biggest tour in the fall and being a direct support artist for Jelly Roll, who is touching so many lives, and [he’s] just massive in pop culture right now — the man is everywhere,” he says. “I feel that being in front of that many people night after night, whether it’s [playing for] my fans [or] having a chance to win over his and bring them into the fold, what’s going to be on my mind night after night is leaving a lasting impact, being a great opener for Jelly, making sure the fans are ready for him.”
Zeiders notes that he’s never traveled to the U.K., but as with picking songs, he’s letting fan demand lead the way on the European tour.
“Just looking at the numbers and looking at the demand, what’s super cool is I’m able to skip some steps. I’m not just going into 400, 500-seat rooms. We’re doing 1,000 and 2,000-seat rooms for my first appearance. It’s exciting to see the fan base and the people supporting my music and wanting me to come over there. The demand is there, and it’s going to be a fun experience.”
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“I’m here for a day then we’re back out, just coming here long enough to run a few errands and repack a bag,” Lainey Wilson tells Billboard in her signature Louisiana twang, on a rare day in Nashville for the singer-songwriter. She’s preparing for a slate of West Coast dates on her headlining Country’s Cool Again Tour — but even during her brief time in Music City, she’ll also attend the ACM Honors and make a surprise visit to her Bell Bottoms Up Restaurant & Bar, which opened in downtown Nashville earlier this year.
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At the same time, the four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper is gearing up for the release of her new studio album, appropriately titled Whirlwind, out Friday (Aug. 23) via BBR Music Group/BMG.
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That swirl of touring and recording has also come with a swiftly accumulating pile of accolades. In November, Wilson became the first woman since Taylor Swift in 2011 to take home the coveted CMA entertainer of the year honors. In February, she earned her first Grammy win, with her 2022 album Bell Bottom Country taking home best country album. In May, she doubled up on her entertainer of the year win, taking home the same accolade at the ACM Awards. Less than a month later, she was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. On Wednesday (Aug. 21), she was honored with the ACM’s coveted triple crown award and the organization’s milestone award.
The momentum has been hard-fought for this small-town Baskin, Louisiana native, who found work as a Hannah Montana impersonator early on (she recently had a full-circle moment, honoring Hannah Montana actress/singer Miley Cyrus during a Disney Legends event). She moved to Nashville in 2011, living in a camper near Bellevue while pursuing writers’ rounds and co-writing sessions. She released two independent projects before signing with BBR Music Group/BMG in 2018. In 2021, she released her major-label breakthrough, Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’.
That same year, almost exactly a decade after moving to Nashville, she earned her first Country Airplay No. 1: “Things a Man Oughta Know.” She’s followed that with a steady stream of both solo and collaborative hits, including the top 5 hits “Heart Like a Truck” and “Wait in the Truck” (with HARDY), her three-week solo chart-topper “Watermelon Moonshine” and the two-week chart-toppers “Save Me” (with labelmate Jelly Roll) and “Never Say Never” (with Cole Swindell).
She says the process of writing for Whirlwind was markedly different from her previous projects. “I realized very quickly as my career grows and changes, there are a million other parts of this job that I just didn’t know existed,” Wilson says. “For this, it had to be quality over quantity. I couldn’t write 200 songs to get to my 14 [songs on Whirlwind]. I had to map out what I want to share, where do I want to get vulnerable, and really figure out the message I want to bring.”
While the new album includes some of Wilson’s mainstay co-writers, including Dallas Wilson and Trannie Anderson (who, collectively known as the Heart Wranglers, co-wrote “Heart Like a Truck” and several songs on Whirlwind), Wilson also was intentional about adding new writers to the fold — including Aaron Raitiere and Jon Decious, writers on songs like “4x4xU” and the funky kiss-off track “Ring Finger.”
“I knew they had this quirkiness to their writing that I wanted to tap into,” Wilson says, noting that they were going for a Jerry Reed feel on “Ring Finger.” “I had been telling them I wanted a song that showed my speaking voice, because a lot of people talk about my accent — whether they love it or hate it, they talk about it.”
“It’s fun for me to step out of my comfort zone and write from someone else’s perspective,” she continues. “But as I got deeper into the song, I think it was like verse two that I realized maybe I’m not stepping into someone else’s shoes—maybe this is really me. I do have a bit of a crazy side and a little spunk, and I haven’t gotten to show that side of my personality as much as I have with ‘Ring Finger.’”
Despite her success with duets, Whirlwind features just one collaboration—with a woman she calls “my sounding board for a lot of things,” Texas native and fellow singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert. The two, along with songwriter Luke Dick, wrote “Good Horses,” an ode to the pull of both the adventure of the road and the comforts of home, while spending a day at Lambert’s farm outside of Nashville.
“Miranda said, ‘Come hang out and take a nap. Me and Brendan [McLoughlin, Lambert’s husband] will feed you and then maybe we can write a song.’ They made burgers and pasta, we had everything,” Wilson recalls. “I had this [song] idea for quite a while and a lot of people had passed us up on writing it. Looking back on it, I’m glad they did because it was supposed to be us who wrote it together. But I think the magic kind of came from me and her having a lot in common when it comes to that love of the road, having a gypsy soul.”
“As we were sitting up on her balcony, three bluebirds flew up and landed on the balcony,” Wilson adds. “She and Luke were sitting in the same spot where those bluebirds had landed when they were writing [Lambert’s 2019 hit ‘Bluebird’].”
Lainey, who has become a mentor for rising women artists like Anne Wilson and Ella Langley, says of Lambert, “She’s become that girl in my life in the industry that just calls and checks on me. Even yesterday, she just sent me a text and said, ‘Love you. Wherever you are, I’m thinking about you. Sending you all the good vibes.’ I think it’s really important to have women like that in your corner in general, not with just the music industry, but you just got to have those folks around you. I met her about three years ago, and I’ve been able to go to her and she just has some good insight. I try to make sure that I go to people like that who have been there and done it.”
Another album standout is closer, “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” sparked from a word exercise from co-writer Josh Kerr, who took lists of hundreds of words, mixing and matching them to see if ideas spark. Landing on the words “whiskey” and “crayon,” they began etching the tearful-yet-hopeful story of how a young child’s innocent question to his teacher — asking for a whiskey-colored crayon to complete a drawing of his father — catalyzed change in his father’s life.
“I come from a family of teachers. My mama was a teacher, all my aunts, my grandma, my daddy taught for a minute,” Wilson says. “I see how much of a difference they make in kids’ lives and I know they hear so many different things from these kids. In country music, I think of sad stories and storytelling, but even when I’m telling a story like that, I can’t help but have some kind of triumph or resilience.”
Of course, some songs lean into Wilson’s own life, from the title track to a few love songs inspired by her boyfriend of over three years, Devlin “Duck” Hodges. “It is really fun to sing about love when you mean it,” she says of songs such as “4x4xU” and “Call a Cowboy.”
Simultaneously with her surging music career, Wilson has further been elevated in the spotlight through her role as Abby, a musician, on the hit series Yellowstone. This week, it was revealed that Wilson will be a part of the upcoming season of Yellowstone, through an ad calling for extras for a concert scene featuring the singer. The second half of season five, the final season of the show, premieres Nov. 10.
“I’ll tell you, I’m so excited,” Wilson says of her upcoming work on the series, though she’s mum on specifics. “We’re waiting to hear all of those details about how much involvement I’m going to have. But as soon as they let me know, I’m going to learn the lines and do my thing.”
Beyond Yellowstone and a seemingly ever-expanding slate of brand partnerships, which have included Kendra Scott, Wrangler, Charlie 1 Horse and Stanley, Wilson says she’s “starting to realize other opportunities are coming that I never knew existed. There is so much I want to do — I want to try voiceover acting. I would love to do a country cartoon; if you need a redneck cartoon, I got you. I’d love to play another role of some sort or write a whole soundtrack.”
She adds, “There’s so much I want to do, but as long as I can get up and do what I love to do every day, this ain’t a bad life to live.”
Having forged a reputation for relentless work ethic and having piled up accolades and milestones over the past few years, Wilson has allowed herself at least one splurge — though, true to her nature, it’s a practical one.
“I got me some land,” she says proudly. “I’m going to try to develop it here [near Nashville] soon and get it going, but it’s got some beautiful trails and eventually I’m going to build a barn on it and get some horses of my own up here. All of my horses right now are back home in Louisiana. Those are the things I guess my family just taught me to be super proud of — owning a piece of America. I don’t see myself going out and splurging on ridiculous things. I enjoy doing things for my family and stuff like that, but I don’t see myself changing much.”