Drew Baldridge was literally moving cows with his brother on the family farm in Patoka, Illinois, when he fully realized his musical destiny. After years of living in Nashville and experimenting with his sound, Drew understood his new direction. All it took was a trip back to his hometown to get back to his roots. To connect to the country. 

That small-town feel is reflected in Baldridge’s newest single, “Senior Year,” which is out now via his own Patoka Sounds banner. Written written alongside Tim Nichols (Hall of Fame songwriter) and Jordan Walker (Luke Combs), “Senior Year” has captured the attention of country radio as it connects with fans whose school years have been “cancelled” due to COVID-19. Students, parents, teachers and more are finding solace in this song as they miss the experiences that come during the culmination of high school. Organic fan discovery led the song to chart on both Billboard and Mediabase with no major label support. 

“Senior Year” is the follow-up to “Before You” which Baldridge released earlier this year - co-written with LoCash members Preston Brust and Chris Lucas - as a tribute to his fiancé Katherine. Just before quarantine locked the country down, Baldridge was lucky enough to squeeze in a trip to propose to his girlfriend of four years.  

Before breaking through with new music in 2020, Baldridge first debuted on the country music charts with his R&B-infused single "Dance With Ya" in 2016. But sophomore single “Middle of Nowhere Kids” was really the tune that led Baldridge back to his traditional roots. Written by Tony Lane, Randy Montana, and John Pierce, "Middle of Nowhere Kids" conjures up those images of growing up in Patoka, population 550. 

And as he has done for most of his career, Baldridge achieved radio success on his own terms – with extreme drive and belief in the message. As with “Senior Year,” “Middle of Nowhere Kids” became a Top 50 song with no major label help. The connection between Baldridge and his passionate fanbase is true and authentic.  

But getting to this new and more mature version of Drew Baldridge wasn't the work of a moment. It didn't come without a price, either. "I took six months off to write and recollect and clear out what I want to say," Baldridge says. "It was a really hard process, I'm not gonna lie. Half my band ended up quitting and moving on to other projects. Those guys were with me for six years. I couldn't blame 'em if they wanted to move on to different things. They were tired of waiting on me to figure out my life."

During the six months that Baldridge took off to write and focus on the music, his grandfather passed away (less than two years after his grandmother passed away). This turned into a time of going back home and reengaging on the family farm and helping out with responsibilities left behind. Both grandparents had been formative influences on Baldridge, as a musician and also as a man. "My grandma was the one who took me to my piano lessons. She would always come over to the house and make sure I was playing while I was in kindergarten," recalls Baldridge. "She'd come up and sit at the piano next to me and say, 'Alright, show me what you've learned.'"

Baldridge's grandfather may not have been musical, but his lessons were no less important. "My grandpa couldn't sing a tune in a bucket. He probably never would've thought he'd have a grandson who'd play music. He just taught me hard work from a young age," says Baldridge. "I think being in the music business right now, if I didn't have that background, there were several times I would've given up. My grandpa never complained about anything. He just worked hard."

That's why Baldridge sees no shame in saying that he's gotten this far through blood, sweat, and tears rather than coasting along on talent. "Knowing that you're not the most talented is a benefit. Never saying that you're the best always keeps you growing," he says. "I know I'm not the best singer, I know I'm not the best performer, I know I don't have the best songs. But I strive to do that every day and I'm not gonna stop until I hopefully one day get there."

The results are there to see in the tear-jerking pathos of "She's Somebody's Daughter," the slow-burning gospel of "God's People," or the glory days reminiscence of "Senior Year." "A lot of the songs I wrote, like 'Senior Year,' that's 100 percent about my life. It's 100 percent about how I was walking the halls in that jersey, how we almost went state that year, how I can still see my hat being thrown up in the air," Baldridge says. "I want to create those images, create those stories that people can hear in their car and relate to 'em and take 'em back."

No matter what changes in Baldridge's life, with his band, or even in his music, one guiding principle will always be there. 

Bailey Zimmerman has surged to the forefront of 21^st century country music with the release of Religiously. The Album., arriving as not only the biggest all-genre streaming debut since 2021, but also the biggest streaming country debut of all time. Deriving its name from his rapidly rising current country radio single, “Religiously,” the LP entered at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and No. 7 on their all-genre Billboard 200 chart. The “comfortably bruising and appealingly bruised” (The New York Times) project also features his multi-Platinum, No. 1 debut single, “Fall In Love,” as well as his most recent multi-Platinum hit, “Rock And A Hard Place,” which spent a whopping six consecutive weeks at the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay Chart. Both tracks were also included on his record-shattering debut EP, Leave The Light On, and their success propelled the breakout superstar to close out 2022 as the year’s only country artist to receive two Platinum certifications from the RIAA and prompted Billboard to name him as their No. 2 Top New Country Artist and No. 4 Top New Artist Overall. The 2023 ACM Awards New Male Artist of the Year nominee and CMT Music Awards multi-nominee has ignited television audiences across the country with show-stopping performances on Good Morning America, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! and the 58^th Academy of Country Music Awards, and incited critical applause from Forbes, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Billboard, American Songwriter and many more. With more than 2 billion streams to date, he is out on the road now with Morgan Wallen as part of his monumental 2023 One Night At A Time Tour, and already selling out football stadiums coast-to-coast including SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston.

Rooted in the classic skills of country music’s past – but finding new ways to deliver three chords and the truth – Dylan Marlowe is an emerging Sony Music Nashville artist proving tradition and convention are very different things. Drawing on the familiar themes of small-town youth, yet amplified with punk rock propulsion and outside-the-county-line lyricism, his debut album Mid-Twenties Crisis presents the simple truth of a complicated age, spoken plain (just against the grain). Raised in Statesboro, Georgia, the avid outdoorsman’s unique creative path began with an equally-diverse soundtrack, ranging from Eric Church and Kenny Chesney to Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Good Charlotte and Blink-182. A self-taught writer fusing heartland storytelling with hard-edged intensity, Marlowe broke out with an attention-grabbing cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” in 2021, changing the lyrics to reflect his own backwoods story and resulting in more than half-a-million TikTok followers. Marlowe went on to drop a series of self-penned singles and EPs like “Record High” and Dirt Road When I Die, eventually racking up more than 282 million global career streams as an artist, while co-penning Jon Pardi’s Number One hit, “Last Night Lonely.” The 2023 anthem “Boys Back Home” (feat. Dylan Scott) has accounted for more than 112 million streams while becoming his first country radio single, and Marlowe has continued to cultivate an audience on tour with Cole Swindell, Hardy, Brantley Gilbert and more. Building on the momentum with 15 co-written tracks, Mid-Twenties Crisis fuses Nashville story craft and country-punk energy with angsty defiance and a clever smirk, as Marlowe captures the beautiful torment of the 20s decade. Standing apart from his peers while staying true to himself, the rising star reminds country fans that authenticity doesn’t have to be boring. And in fact, the expected might be overrated.