Over the past 18 months, life has been a bit of a whirlwind for country superstar Lainey Wilson, so it seemed the perfect title for her brand-new album. This year alone, she’s won a GRAMMY, been chosen Entertainer of the Year, and become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. And just a few of her many awards and accolades.
Her new album features 14 tracks highlighting Wilson’s true country sound and a gift for storytelling that’s led to seven No. 1 hits, so far. Fans have already heard the singles “Good Horses” featuring Miranda Lambert, and “Hang Tight Honey” which is quickly moving up the country charts.
Wilson and her band had a lot of fun making the video for “Hang Tight Honey” which allowed them to slip back in time with a retro country look. “Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. We got to really lay into that whole time piece and kind of go back. I feel like I’m an old soul anyway and my band does, too,” she says. “My band got to play on this whole record, and it only makes sense to have them in the video, too. We had a ball.”
The album with songs like “Devil Don’t Go There,” “Broken Hearts Still Beat,” and “Country Chickens,” touch on Wilson’s background, her thoughts and observations, and where she is in her life right now. They also reflect her heart and the things that matter most. Her song “Whiskey Colored Crayon” is a nod to the many teachers in her family, while “Keep Up With Jones” pays tribute to a country music legend who influenced her growing up.
“I want to make sure I tip my hat to the people who came before me and paved the way for me to even have the opportunity to do this,” she says. “And George Jones, was one of the artists my parents played all the time. Everybody felt like they knew George Jones in my house. They felt like they were hearing old cousin George when he was on the radio. So, when we were writing the song, I wanted to write it in a funny way that I think he would have thought was funny himself.”
For Wilson, who grew up in a small farming community in Louisiana, country music was a common thread that ran through everything. “Country music was more than a genre where I’m from,” she says. “It was a way of life.”
The music began calling her at an early age, and when she got the chance to visit the Grand Ole Opry as a child, her future was set. “I always had the dream but when I went there for the first time when I was nine years old, that’s where it was set in stone. I remember who I was watching, the way I felt, and I knew I wanted to be part of that family.”
It would take many years, but she was determined. In 2011, Wilson packed up her belongings, jumped in her little camper trailer, and headed for Nashville. It would be a long and challenging road, but she persisted. A little over a decade later, she had her first big hit with a song called “Things A Man Ought To Know.”
Several years after that, everything came full circle when Wilson was officially welcomed as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. “That’s the highlight right there,” she says. “Out of all the things that have happened in the past couple of years, it don’t get much better than that. From the first time I walked through the doors of the Opry I really did feel like these are my people, they get me. So, it’s a great feeling to be official.”
Wilson remains grateful for the career milestones that have come her way. In addition to her many music achievements, she made her acting debut in Season 5 in Paramount’s Yellowstone. She hopes to do more acting in the future. “I enjoy being creative and hoping once I get the opportunity I’m going to jump back on it. When I think about the kind of career I want to have, I think about Dolly, I think about Reba, and I think about the ladies that stayed true to themselves, but went against the grain and kind of stepped outside the box at times and weren’t afraid to try new things.”
Some of the new things she’s embraced include having her own club in downtown Nashville. It’s called, appropriately enough, Bell Bottoms Up. The bell bottoms that serve as her signature look got their start back home in Louisiana. “When I was little my mama bought me this blue leopard print pair of bell bottoms and I was completely obsessed with them. At one point she was like, ‘Lainey, you’ve got to take ‘em off, we’ve gotta wash ‘em. They made me feel sassy, like I could do anything.”
When she came to Nashville, she realized being a decent singer/songwriter as a female might not be enough to make her stand out from the crowd. “So, I thought, what can I do that feels true and real to me, but allows me to step outside the box? And for me, that was putting my bell bottoms back on.”
She’s received a lot of crazy looks as a result of those pants through the years, but not anymore. Today, Wilson’s life is moving at a full, rich, and extremely fast pace and she’s enjoying every minute of it. She’s been busy with her “Country’s Cool Again” tour and is excited her long-awaited album is now finally available. She hopes people listening to it will feel what she did when she was writing and recording it.
“It was during a time in my life that was changing at a rapid pace,” she says. “It was a whirlwind and it still is, but I was trying to focus on things that would remind me who I am to my core. And that’s Lainey the sister, the friend, the girlfriend, the dog mama, the daughter, and making sure I am all of those things, so I can be Lainey the artist and tell the kind of stories people can relate to. So, I hope people feel at home and grounded when they hear it, and it brings a little bit of peace to their whirlwind.”
Lainey Wilson's 'Whirlwind' Album: A Deeper Dive
Lainey Wilson’s hot streak began when her major-label debut single, “Things a Man Oughta Know,” hit No. 1 three years ago, even as she was enjoying recognition from a small recurring role in “Yellowstone” and several early song syncs on the series. Collaborations have factored into her rise (she shared top 5 hits with Jelly Roll, Hardy and Cole Swindell), but no outside assists are necessary when what audiences really buy into is just Wilson — a sweet-voiced cross between Miranda Lambert and Dolly Parton who’s as good-natured as she is gutsy, whose talk of horses and 4x4s somehow makes her more magnetic even to city slickers, and who has a hell of a good song sense.
“Whirlwind” is another superior example of Wilson’s ongoing collaboration with producer Jay Joyce, and how it generates grabbags of songs that sound completely diverse from track to track and yet all authentically country and certainly all utterly her. She’s already won everything there is to win within the realm of the genre, so could this finally be a moment when the Grammys get it right and nominate her in one of the top all-genre categories, after thoroughly blowing it in bypassing her for a best new artist nod?
Lainey Wilson's 'Whirlwind': A Song-by-Song Look
Wilson’s finely-tuned lyrics and immediate hooks make the feelings she’s singing about feel massive and ready to bring in any listeners for comfort, particularly on the arena-ready drinking lament “Bar in Baton Rouge” (“The good thing about rock bottom/Is up’s the only way/I’m about to open up a can of healing this heartbreak,” she muses) and the keep-your-head-up ballad “Middle of It.” On the latter, she sounds like she could be singing to a former version of herself: “You were heartbroke that boy did ya wrong/Your pride took a hit but you wrote a hit song,” she sings in a sympathetic cadence that’s just knowing enough to imply her intimate familiarity with the situation.
While Whirlwind has its more playful moments, like the strummy depiction of puppy love “Counting Chickens” and the kick-him-to-the-curb stomper “Ring Finger,” it’s at its best when Wilson is in full-on power-ballad mode, showing off how her brassy soprano can buckle at just the right moments. “Call a Cowboy” is a dazzling ode to someone who’s “rock-steady-loaded, locked, and ready” that captures awe in its sweeping riffs and Wilson’s reach-for-the-heavens vocals; she cleverly hides that it’s actually a love song until just before it ends. “Good Horses,” a duet with fellow country disrupter Miranda Lambert, is luminous, with the two singers’ voices braiding as they trade commiseration about how they, too, need to run wild sometimes. And the title track is a love song that feels as big as a Western sky, with Wilson taking the central metaphor and twisting it into the serene declaration that “loving you’s a breeze.”
Lainey Wilson: A Star on the Rise
Wilson has established herself as one of country’s most appealing stars, her blend of songwriting chops and bubbly charm winning over audiences in Nashville’s community and in arenas. On Whirlwind, she lassos her Everywoman appeal and her skills as a songsmith and vocalist into 14 songs that feel ready for repeated jukebox plays at dive bars and honky-tonks all across the country.
