Country Music Artists

Current Artist - Morgan Wallen

One of the most current and well known country music artists is Morgan Wallen. Morgan Wallen started his amazing career at the age of three, singing songs for his church. Later on he learned how to play guitar and piano. Morgan Wallen officially started his career when he appeared on the sixth season of The Voice, a television singing competition show on NBC. Morgan Wallen first believed that he was meant to play baseball. He was a shortstop and pitcher at Gibbs High School in Knoxville, TN. During senior year, Morgan tore his UCL and was forced to stop playing. Colleges  lost interest and Morgan was left trying to find his purpose. In an interview with LancasterOnline, Morgan said, “I prayed and tried to figure out what was my plan and my purpose. That’s how I started writing songs and playing guitar just to get my feelings out.” Even though Morgan got eliminated in the playoff round of The Voice, it opened him up to the music industry. Morgan now had contact with managers and availability to start releasing music. Morgan moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the heart of country music and formed a band called Morgan Wallen and Them Shadows ft. Serg Sanchez. Serg introduced Morgan to people at Panacea Records and soon got signed in 2015. In 2016, Morgan then got signed by Big Loud Records and released his debut single, “The Way I Talk.” After that came his debut album, If I know Me, which quickly rose to the top 20 on Billboard 200 including songs “Up Down” Ft. Florida Georgia Line, and ‘Whiskey Glasses', which became number 1 on Country Airplay. Later, in 2020, Morgan was named New Artist of the Year by the Country Music Association at the CMA Awards. Morgan then went on to release his second album, Dangerous the Double Album. It debuted at number one and “had the largest streaming week ever for a country album.” The album contained songs like “Wasted on You”, which went to number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2022, Morgan told the world he wasn't done yet when releasing a song called ‘You Proof’, which was his top song peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Following the release of his second single ‘Thought You Should Know’, Morgan released his new album, One Thing At A Time, containing 36 tracks. The album was an immediate success, putting 5 of his songs from the album on the Billboard 200. Wallen’s title track reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200, making him responsible for holding half of the top 10 songs. He then won Male Artist of the Year at the Academy of Country Music. Morgan Wallen’s music perfectly describes the genre of country music. His songs tell heartbreaking as well as happy stories, and he has well earned his place in country music or quickly made his mark on country music.

https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/the voice#:~:text=New%20episodes%20of%20Season%2025,stream%20next%20day%20on%20Peacock. 

https://www.biography.com/musicians/a45268359/morgan-wallen 

Established Country Artist - Eric Church

One of the most successful men in country music is Eric Church. Eric Church’s music is considered legendary, along with the greats Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. Eric Church perfectly captures the heart and soul in his music that makes country music great. Eric grew up in Granite Falls, North Carolina. He started writing music at 13 and later taught himself how to play guitar. He went to Appalachian State for college and he started his own band called the Mountain Boys. After college he moved to the heart of country music, Nashville TN to try to pursue his dream. It took Church a year to publish a song with sony/ATV and then began writing for other artists. Later a producer named Jay Joyce took an interest in Church as a recording artist which led to him being signed by Capitol Records Nashville. Soon after Eric released his debut single, How ‘bout you, he then released his debut album, Sinners Like Me. By the time his label released his album, his song How ‘Bout You had reached the Country Top 20. In 2009 he released his second album titled Carolina which included songs like Hell on the Heart and Love Your Love The Most that scored Top Ten Singles twice on the Country Charts. In 2010 Church released another golden song called Smoke A Little Smoke which helped him win Top New Solo Vocalist at the Academy Of Country Music Awards. He then went on to release Cadewell Country Ep after continuous touring and followed it up with his breakthrough album, Chief. Chief was the album that put Eric on the map for country music, with the album debuting on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums Chart. The album also consisted of his first number one single, Drink In My Hand, which was soon replaced by one of his most famous songs, Springsteen, which had also entered the Pop Top 20. The song also won him one of his first Grammy nominations which was for Best Country Song and Solo Performance. Chief also won album of the year at the 2012 Academy Country Music Awards. In 2013 Church released a live set recorded in the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga, TN, called Caught In The Act. The album made it to the Billboard 200, debuting at number 5. Church spent the rest of the year working on his next big album, The Outsiders, which was the album's first single and was followed by Give Me Back My Hometown, which followed The Outsiders in the Country Top Ten. Church released the album in 2014 and hit number one on both the country and universal charts, making The Outsiders his second album to reach the top number one spot. The album produced five number one singles with Talladagea and Give Me Back My Hometown reaching number one on Billboard’s U.S. Country Airplay Chart. Eric then released a surprise album the first week of November, 2015 titled Mr. Misunderstood which went on to reach number two on the Billboard 200. The album won a CMA award for Album of The Year in 2016 and in November of 2016, Church released an EP called Mr. Misunderstood on the Rock Live and (Mostly) Unplugged. Round Here Buzz, the albums forth single, reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Country Songs chart in 2017. By the next year, Church released another album Desperate Man in October of 2018. As with The Outsiders, Desperate Man was the album's first single and title track. The album got a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album and one of the album's most popular songs, Some of It, got nominated for Best Country Song. The album was followed by two singles called Stick That In Your Country Song and Bad Mother Trucker, which were released in 2020. Following the release of the singles Eric released Heart on Fire and Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones which came out in 2021. Church’s new music came from his month of daily recording sessions in North Carolina with his band and not long after the triple album Heart & Soul were released in April of 2021. The first album Church released was Heart and he released & to fans days before Soul came out. Heart reached five on Billboard’s Top 200 and on the Country charts it reached three. The two albums produced hits such as Heart on Fire and Hell of A View and the & EP received a huge release when it came out. Currently, Eric Church has resumed touring around America. To this day he is still a huge part of country music, impacting current artists like Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson. In other words, you just read about the journey one of the best country music artists took to stardom.