Easton Gray: Country Artist From a Small Town With Big Dreams

Lehi, Utah isn’t exactly known for producing country music stars, but Easton Gray is determined to change that. In a town where wide-open spaces and small-town values shape everyday life, Easton’s music reflects those same roots—authentic and heartfelt. He’s not just another artist trying to make it big, he’s a storyteller who wants people to feel something when they listen. 

“My favorite thing about music is how you can sit in a room miles and miles away and hear someone singing, and you can feel what they’re feeling. That’s the main drive behind all my projects. That’s just why I do it,” Gray said. 

His journey into music started in 2020 when he picked up a guitar during lockdowns. “Everybody was home and so I just started playing guitar. My dad plays a little bit and I thought it was super cool,” Gray said, “[Eventually] I was like, I’m gonna try it out.” 

“I just stayed home and watched {guitar tutorials on] YouTube for like five hours a day,” he said. What started as a hobby quickly turned into something more serious. Before he knew it, he was writing his own songs, playing with friends and figuring out how to turn his passion into a career.

Fast forward a few years, and he’s dropped his first EP “One Last Time?” Every song on it tells a story, pulled straight from his own experiences. “I try to write based on personal experience,” Gray said. “I feel like it makes people emotional and helps people connect with me more and maybe even relate to what I’m talking about.”

Standout tracks

One of Gray’s most personal songs, and a standout track on the EP, is “Did You Get My Voicemail?” It’s an acoustic track that digs into the ups and downs of love. “I started to write the song, and then I called my girlfriend, and she didn’t answer, so I left a voicemail with some of the song in it,” Gray said. He then realized how the song started to take shape from that moment and decided to complete it. 

As a raw and intimate country ballad, lyrics like, “Well it’s three in the morning, I’m all alone / but I sit here calling your phone,” perfectly capture that feeling of loneliness when you’re separated from someone you care about. Then there’s the powerful line “God only knows where I’d be without the touch of your hand” which shows the depth of the emotional connection Gray is expressing.

When I heard “I’m sorry I can’t be there tonight / just wanna sing you to sleep again / one more time,” it struck me in such an emotional way. Even though it’s meant to be a positive, romantic song, there’s an undeniable sense of longing and vulnerability that speaks to the heart. To me, this song feels like a raw testament to the struggles that come with relationships–the moments of distance and uncertainty. 

Despite these hardships, Gray is reminding us that love makes everything worth it. It’s this honest, heartfelt message that makes “Did You Get My Voicemail?” such a unique track.

Climbing the ladder

One of the biggest surprises for Gray was seeing the title track, “One Last Time?” land on Spotify’s “New Country” playlist. “I did a bunch of research on how to pitch my song to Spotify,” he said, “The very first release day, it was at like 3000 streams and I was like ‘What is going on?’ It took a couple of days to show up, but then, I realized it was on an editorial playlist. I was ecstatic.” 

That moment gave him a glimpse of what could happen if he kept pushing. Right now, Gray is focused on playing live shows, growing his audience and keeping up the momentum. “Once I do have an audience, I can put something big out that’ll hopefully stick around for a while,” Gray said.

Of course, being an independent artist isn’t all highs. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work most people don’t see—figuring out how to market himself, handling the technical side of music releases and even dealing with little things like typos in his Spotify profile. “I don’t know how it can say [my] first song was uploaded in 2003,” Gray said. “I’m pretty sure I accidentally put in my birthday instead of the release date. I’ve tried to go back and fix it and it just gets pushed under the rug. So now it’s kind of like a weird thing that’s kind of funny.” 

But he takes it all in stride, knowing that every step—big or small—is part of the journey. “As long as people are listening, I’ll keep making music,” he said. “That’s all I can ask for.” 

So if you’re into raw, honest storytelling wrapped in country melodies, “One Last Time?” is worth a listen. Easton Gray isn’t chasing fame—he’s chasing something real. And that just might be what sets him apart.