Lainey Wilson

Lainey Wilson's music maintains a small-town sensibility while boasting the big-city polish of contemporary Nashville production. Singing in an unapologetic Southern accent, she writes tough but heartfelt contemporary country songs with an edge, rooted in vintage Southern rock and classic rock, along with a dash of modern-day pop. Wilson's debut album, 2016's Tougher, demonstrated that her personality was already fully formed, while her major-label debut, 2021's Sayin' What I'm Thinkin', had more polished production and yielded the breakout hit "Things a Man Oughta Know." Wilson consolidated her success with the 2022 album Bell Bottom Country, which drew upon '70s outlaws and country-rock but spun these retro sounds into something fresh and distinctive. After being named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association, she won a Grammy Award and joined the cast of Yellowstone. Wilson's fifth album, Whirlwind, was released in August 2024.

Lainey Wilson was born in Baskin, Louisiana, a dot on the map with a population of just 300 people. Her father was a farmer, and her mother taught school. Wilson caught the music bug early; she started writing song lyrics when she was just nine years old, and she learned to play guitar at the age of 11. In high school, one of Wilson's teachers asked her to impersonate Hannah Montana for a school project, and the act went over so well that she began performing her Hannah Montana tribute act across the state. Fittingly, she would open many of the shows singing her own songs and then finish the set as the character that made Miley Cyrus famous.

After finishing high school, Wilson left Louisiana for Nashville; her first home in Music City was a trailer her father set in the parking lot of a recording studio, where the manager helped support the aspiring artist by giving her an electrical hook up. After a few years of playing local shows and working on her songwriting, Wilson released an album in 2016, Tougher, which attracted enough attention to peak at number 44 on the Country Albums chart. Her next release was an EP simply titled Lainey Wilson, featuring six songs from the singer.

With her star on the rise, Wilson signed a publishing contract with Sony/ATV, and next landed a record deal with the BMG-distributed Broken Bow Records. After wrapping up a tour opening for Morgan Wallen, Wilson entered the studio with producer Jay Joyce, and September 2019 saw Broken Bow release her three-song EP Redneck Hollywood. Two years later, Wilson unveiled her Joyce-produced debut long-player, Sayin' What I'm Thinkin', which included her breakout hit "Things a Man Oughta Know," which topped Billboard's Country Airplay chart. The song helped her win two awards each at the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards: ACM granted her New Female Artist of the Year and Song of the Year, while the CMAs named her Female Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year.

Wilson began the cycle for her next album in May 2022, when she released "Heart Like a Truck," which peaked at 16 on the Country Airplay chart. Its parent album, Bell Bottom Country, arrived that October. A reunion with Jay Joyce, the record emphasized Wilson's roots in '70s country-rock and produced a trio of charting hits in "Heart Like a Truck," "Watermelon Moonshine," and "Wildflowers and Wild Horses." Not long after its release, Wilson appeared in the hit television series Yellowstone, and contributed several songs to its soundtrack. In 2023, she was the star of the CMAs, winning five of the categories she was nominated in, including Entertainer of the Year, becoming the first woman to earn that trophy since Taylor Swift in 2009. In addition, Bell Bottom Country won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album in 2024. Also that year, Wilson duetted with Keith Urban ("Go Home with U"), contributed a song to the star-studded Twisters soundtrack ("Out of Oklahoma"), and released "Hang Tight Honey," the lead single from her fifth LP, Whirlwind. The album came out a few months later in August. ~ Mark Deming