Lainey Wilson’s Exhausting (but Rewarding) Country Music Hustle
The New York Times
The singer and songwriter struggled for years to break through. Now she’s staking a claim for herself — and other women in the genre — with a new album, “Whirlwind.”
Lainey Wilson was born and raised in Baskin, La., population 210. Her dad is a fifth-generation farmer. “We grew corn, wheat, soybeans, oats. We did cotton back in the day,” she said proudly in a recent interview. While her ascent to country-music stardom means that her family’s finances are secure, she noted that lately there’s been a lack of rainfall in the northeast part of the state. “This year’s going to be pretty rough,” she added. “Farming has a lot of ups and downs. It’s very similar to the music business.”
After years of struggle in Nashville, where she was repeatedly told she was “too country for country,” things are decidedly looking up for the 32-year-old singer-songwriter. In November, Wilson took home five Country Music Association Awards, including album of the year for her breakthrough, “Bell Bottom Country.” She also won the night’s most prestigious honor, entertainer of the year, beating out stadium-filling acts like Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs, and becoming the first woman to win that prize since Taylor Swift in 2011.
“It’s like I’ve been running for mayor for the past 13 years,” Wilson said of the relentless hustle required to land a publishing deal, to say nothing of scoring hits both solo and as a duet partner, a scene-stealing role on TV’s “Yellowstone” and now, a major C.M.A. achievement. She recalled the six-hour drives to gigs where the bar’s staff was the only audience, endless auditions in front of po-faced music executives, dispiriting meet-and-greets with radio programmers. “People could have cared less about me,” Wilson said with a good-natured smile. “I guess I was just too naïve to quit.”
“I have always been blown away by Lainey’s work ethic,” Combs said in an email. The country star used to write songs with Wilson in her camper trailer, back when they were both Nashville greenhorns. “She’s impossible not to root for,” he added.
Wilson had taken a couple of days off from a cross-country tour in support of her Aug. 23 album, “Whirlwind,” to attend the Los Angeles premiere of the summer blockbuster “Twisters.” Its soundtrack features her wistful “Out of Oklahoma,” a ruminative ballad about never forgetting where you came from (“And if I ever get a little too far/I remember where I left my heart”).
