Dustin Lynch brought the neo-traditionalist influence of Alan Jackson, Clint Black and George Strait into the 2010s and spiced it up with a dash of something new. Born in Tennessee, in 1985, Lynch went to college in Nashville, but he already had music on his mind, occupying a flat right behind the legendary country hub The Bluebird Café and playing there as much as he could. By 2012 he had released his self-titled debut album; his deep, oaky voice and mix of country and rock flavours helped make it a No. 1 country record. (Lynch’s movie-star mug probably didn’t hurt his appeal.) He earned a huge hit straight out of the gate with the twang-soaked, moody-but-romantic ballad “Cowboys and Angels”. But Lynch let the world in on a little of his range when the party-starting title track from his 2014 follow-up, Where It’s At, became a country chart-topper. Not one to stand still, Lynch opened his sound up to modern pop and R&B influences on 2017’s Current Mood, and the soul-inflected “Small Town Boy” turned into one of his biggest hits. He fanned those flames a little further in 2020 on Tullahoma, producing seamless country/R&B mergers like the platinum single “Ridin’ Roads”.