Lainey Wilson

Bell-bottom country

Lainey Denay Wilson was born on May 19, 1992 in Baskin, Louisiana, and sings and plays guitar, piano and harmonica. Wikipedia counts the town's population at 170 while press puts it at 200 to 300. She released the EP Country Girls Rule on Myspace in 2006, performed in high school as a Hannah Montana impersonator and moved to Nashville in August 2011; accounts of the camper trailer she lived in differ. Her self-titled debut came on Cupit on August 6, 2014 and Tougher on Lone Chief on April 8, 2016, then a self-released EP in April 2018 and a Sony/ATV publishing deal. She calls her sound bell-bottom country, a phrase Rolling Stone says she began using while promoting Sayin' What I'm Thinkin', and names Dolly Parton and Lee Ann Womack as influences.

With BBR Music Group she released the EP Redneck Hollywood (September 13, 2019, produced by Jay Joyce), toured with Morgan Wallen and made her Grand Ole Opry debut on February 14, 2020, introduced by Terri Clark. Sayin' What I'm Thinkin' (February 19, 2021) was followed by Bell Bottom Country (October 28, 2022), which won the Grammy for Best Country Album, and Whirlwind (August 23, 2024), her first top-ten album on the Billboard 200. She joined the cast of Yellowstone as Abby in 2022, was named CMA New Artist of the Year in 2022 and Entertainer of the Year in 2023 and 2025, and became an Opry member on June 7, 2024. Her feature film debut Reminders of Him came in 2026, along with "Younger You" with Miley Cyrus.

Tours include Back in the Saddle with Jason Aldean (2021), the Dangerous Tour with Morgan Wallen (2022), the Luke Combs World Tour (2023), and her own headline runs, Country with a Flair (2023), Country's Cool Again (2024) and the Whirlwind World Tour (2025 to 2026). Setlist.fm lists 367 setlists, 93 of them in 2024. Whether "Kinda Love It", October 2026, is a single or an album is unclear in our sources.