Latest Release
- JUL 31, 2026
- 2 songs
Essential Albums
- Lainey Wilson couldn’t have chosen a more fitting title for her fifth studio album. The wildly beloved country singer-songwriter’s rise to fame has surely been a whirlwind, catapulting the small-town Louisiana native from relative obscurity to stardom in just a few short years. That success was not earned overnight, though, as Wilson had put in nearly a decade of work before breaking out with Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’ in 2021. “I felt like my life was changing at 190 miles an hour and I was just trying to keep one foot on the ground,” Wilson tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “But I think those 10 years of nothing happening for me prepared me for my life changing super fast.” Whirlwind is Wilson at the height of her powers, mixing pop, rock, and soul into her already inimitable brand of traditionally informed country. Highlights include the title track, a light and groovy celebration of reckless love, and “Devil Don’t Go There,” a heartbreak ballad that lets Wilson lean into the emotive side of her versatile voice. The Miranda Lambert duet “Good Horses” connects two generations of country spitfires, with dusky production to emphasize the singers’ undeniable vocal chemistry. Wilson’s band sounds better than ever, too, which she attributes to years spent touring relentlessly and working toward a shared dream. “They are ride or die,” she says. “I mean, these guys are the ones that ate dirt with me. And I think it’s really important to keep the people close that you ate dirt with. They know you, they know how bad you want it. They want it just as bad. They love you for you. They sacrifice so much to be out there on the road with you.” Below, Wilson gives insight into a few key tracks. “Whirlwind” “I finally found a guy that gives me a run for my money. And he’s my biggest cheerleader. He’s just a good person. And he knows how important chasing down a dream is, because even when he was a little boy, football was his life. He did it and he tried out for the Steelers and made the team. And so he achieved what he set out to do. And so he knows. We met at a time where he was still playing with them, but then it all changed. So it was weird. It was like his life was changing as my life was changing and we were going different directions. So, yeah, life for us is a whirlwind.” “Middle of It” “We had actually just got nominated for Entertainer of the Year for the CMAs. And I had not been at my house in Nashville, and I didn’t have furniture in my house for months. We don’t need a couch, we’re not here. So my friends The Heart Wranglers came over and they just said, ‘Let’s do a heart check.’ And they’re like, ‘What’s going on? Where are you at? How you feel? Where’s your head?’ I sat on the floor and I just said, ‘I feel like I’m just smack-dab in the middle of it. It’s a blur to me where it started, where it’s going to end up. I just can’t hardly tell.’ And then we just started talking about how that’s really what all this is about anyway. That’s the beauty of it.” “Whiskey Colored Crayon” “That song actually came from a word exercise that my co-writer [Josh Kear] did. I’ll probably get this wrong, but every morning before he writes songs, he writes a list of things. And say the first list that he wrote was ‘things that I hate’ and maybe it’s lettuce or greens or whiskey or whatever. And then he writes a list of random things, things that you can use to create. He mix-mashed these words and he was like, ‘Well, I’ve got this whiskey-colored crayon,’ and we got to thinking about the storyline of this. And we came up with, ‘Okay, let’s think about a young student, the colored crayon part. Okay, and how could we tell a story about a little boy who goes through some things at home that most people don’t know about?’ We created the story. And for me, again, putting myself into the shoes of somebody else takes me out of my mess for a minute and gives me a fresh and new perspective. And I left that songwriting session, after we told this story, just feeling grateful.”
- Lainey Wilson’s meteoric rise to country fame came in large part from her determination to remain herself, whether that fit the typical country mold or not. On her 2021 major-label debut Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’, the Louisiana native branded herself a swaggering spitfire à la Miranda Lambert or Gretchen Wilson, with a gritty, Southern-rock-esque sound and honest lyrics to match. On Bell Bottom Country, Wilson is somehow even more herself, sharing family lore (“Grease”), personal stories (“Those Boots”), and her own personal ethos (“Hillbilly Hippie”). “I cannot imagine doing this for the rest of my life and pretending that I am something other than this,” Wilson tells Apple Music. “And that's what this record's about. It's about leaning into whatever it is that makes you you. I mean, Bell Bottom Country, country with a flare. It's about leaning into your story, your sound, where you're from, how you were raised, and being proud of it, and being unapologetically that.” Below, Wilson walks Apple Music through several key tracks on Bell Bottom Country. “Hillbilly Hippie” “That's it. It's a lifestyle. I just felt like that was the song that needed to be first on the record. I felt like it kind of sets the tone and, yeah, I think this record is a little more sing-along-ish.” “Watermelon Moonshine” “I feel like there's a little bit of something for everybody on this thing. I do. When we were writing 'Watermelon Moonshine,' it was one of those songs that, it just took you back to that young, wild, crazy love. All of us in the room had felt that at some point in time. It really has nothing to do with watermelon moonshine.” “Grease” “It's a saying that my mama used to say all the time: ‘Now we're cooking with grease,’ now we’re getting somewhere. I feel like those are little sayings that I cannot escape. Certain things that my family said growing up, it just somehow makes its way into my music. And if you listen to the record, you hear a lot of me talking about Mama, me talking about Deddy, me talking about the Lord. It somehow just makes its way into it, and I just can't even help it. Can't help it.” “Me, You and Jesus” “When I'm going through things like my daddy being sick, there's times where you're like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I don't even know what to do in this moment,’ and the only thing you can do is lean on your people and the Lord. That's it. There's nothing else you can do at that point. You got to throw your hands in the air and be like, ‘That's all I can do.’ That's what this song's about. It's about finding that person, whoever it is—it could be your boyfriend or your spouse or your best friend, your sister. It's about just leaning on them. That's what they're there for.” “Atta Girl” “It was basically a letter that I wish people would've said to me when I was going through things. So we have ‘Weak-End,’ and that's talking about being on the weak end of a heartbreak, and you got to go through it in order to see the other side of it. And I feel like once you are starting to see the other side of it, that's when you're telling yourself, ‘Atta girl, you got this. Move on.’” “Those Boots (Deddy’s Song)” “It was just a true story. What really sparked the song is growing up, me and my family, we lived in this uninsulated house, and instead of adding on like a normal person would do, they bought a portable building and cut out the side of it and attached that thing to the house. So me and my sister were living in the trailer. I remember every morning before Deddy would go to work, I remember he would holler my name, and I would run from the portable building into the house, and I would help him pull his blue jeans down over the top of his boots. And that was just my job as a little girl. It made me feel like I was doing something. It made me feel special, like I had a job. I've just always kind of thought back to that memory, and we ended up just coming up with this idea around Deddy's boots, and it's going to take a very special person to fill them.”
Artist Playlists
- Hear what Nashville’s fastest-rising star is performing on the road.
- Listen to the songs from the tour, all on one playlist.
- Their lyrical and musical genius fuels some of the world’s biggest songs.
Appears On
- Aug 17
- Iowa State Fair · Sun, Aug 16 · 8 PM
- Aug 21
- Mercedes Benz Stadium · Fri, Aug 21 · 6 PM
- Sep 18
- The Novo · Thu, Sep 17 · 8 PM
- Sep 20
- T-Mobile Arena · Sat, Sep 19 · 7 PM
- Sep 26
- Great Lawn at Central Park · Sat, Sep 26 · 4 PM
- Oct 2
- Ocean City Inlet · Fri, Oct 2 · 12 PM
- Oct 2
- Ocean City Beach · Fri, Oct 2 · 7 PM
- Oct 10
- Mohegan Sun · Sat, Oct 10 · 7 PM
More To See
About Lainey Wilson
Singer and songwriter Lainey Wilson blends tough-as-nails grit and tenderhearted sentiment in contemporary country tunes with more than a touch of traditionalism. Born in 1992, she was raised on the classics in the tiny town of Baskin, LA: “I knew that country music for me and my family was more than just a genre,” Wilson tells Apple Music. “It literally is what we lived.” She started writing songs before she hit her teen years and took a gig impersonating Hannah Montana in high school, eventually moving to Nashville to chase her dreams in 2011. But breakout success wouldn’t come until nearly a decade later with 2020’s thoughtful kiss-off “Things a Man Oughta Know,” which established Wilson as a smart writer and stirring performer. Her songs might be solidly modern in production, but they also reveal Wilson’s extensive knowledge of the genre’s history, winking at her ‘90s predecessors on 2022’s “Heart Like a Truck” or revitalizing the funky ‘70s for 2024’s “Country’s Cool Again,” solidifying her appeal to multiple generations.
- FROM
- Baskin, LA, United States
- BORN
- May 19, 1992
- GENRE
- Country