Over the course of his groundbreaking career, Granger Smith has amassed a massive audience known as "Yee Yee Nation" built through heavy touring and grassroots fan engagement. He has a social media following exceeding 8.5 million along with more than one billion online video views. Smith broke onto the national scene with Remington, an album that garnered him the No. 1 RIAA PLATINUM smash "Backroad Song." Smith was also awarded a BMI Country Award for writing, producing, publishing and performing "Backroad Song" and followed it with the Top Five hit, "If The Boot Fits." His album When The Good Guys Win spawned the hit “Happens Like That” that has been certified RIAA GOLD. Granger also released his first-ever book "If You’re City, If You’re Country", which immediately hit No. 1 on Amazon best-selling lists. Known as an artist but also for his alter ego, Earl Dibbles Jr., his family’s YouTube series “The Smiths” and his outdoor apparel company, Yee Yee Apparel, Smith is a jack of all trades. Additionally, Granger and his wife Amber started The River Kelly Fund to bring awareness and invest in children in need, arts and education, wildlife preservation, military, veteran and first responder assistance, donor affiliations, and many more organizations in honor of their son River Kelly Smith. Smith is releasing his 10th studio album on September 25 called Country Things, Vol. 1, which ultimately showcases the man, the father, the performer and bona fide artist Smith has become.

At the heart of Staind's loud, angst-laden music are the confessional lyrics and introspective personality of frontman Aaron Lewis. While other post-grunge bands were successful in mining the dark caverns once explored by Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, Lewis allowed his sensitivity to pour freely from his words and often pensive vocals, enabling Staind to strike a balance between heavy metal bombast and thoughtful, melodic rock. Born in Springfield, Vermont, Lewis listened to folk music as a child. The son of divorced parents, he chronicled the emotional turmoil in his childhood with Staind, namely on tracks like "Epiphany" and "For You," from Break the Cycle. Like the late Kurt Cobain from Nirvana, Lewis cast an unpretentious, no-frills image, exhibiting a brooding disposition and emotional vulnerability that troubled youths could relate to.

Lewis recorded his first album with
Staind, Tormented, in 1996. The band remained on the fringes of mainstream acceptance until "Outside," a live collaboration between Lewis and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst during the 1999 Family Values Tour, blew up on alternative and mainstream rock stations a year later. With only his acoustic guitar as his musical backing, Lewis delivered a raw, anguished performance of a song that Staind would later record in the studio for Break the Cycle. The track carved the path for Staind's subsequent commercial breakthrough.

The band sustained a decade of popularity before Lewis broke free with a solo career in 2011, refashioning himself as a conservative country singer on his 2011 EP, Town Line. He had some success with the album but before he could capitalize on his country career, he reunited with Staind for an eponymous album in 2011. In 2012, he prepped his full-length country debut, The Road, which appeared toward the end of the year. Thanks to the minor hits "Endless Summer," "Country Boy," and "Forever," the album went to seven on Billboard's country chart, and he followed it with another country album, Sinner, in the fall of 2016. Sinner debuted at number one on Billboard's country chart and at four on the Top 200.

Lewis released the non-LP single "Folded Flag" in 2017 but it took him another two years to deliver State I'm In, his third solo album. Produced by Buddy Cannon, who also helmed Sinner, State I'm In arrived in April 2019, preceded by the singles "The Bottom," "State I'm In," and "It Keeps on Workin'."

On the opening track of Shane Smith & the Saints' new Hail Mary LP, "Heaven Knows," singer and guitarist Shane Smith lays bare the last four years of his band's journey. "We set our sails for deeper seas, heaven knows what we will find," he sings.

Since releasing their last prior album, 2015's Geronimo, the Austin, Texas, five-piece have plunged ever deeper into their adventure as a touring band. Hundreds of shows a year in more than 40 different states and on three different continents, including visits to Ireland and Malaysia, have brought them to the 10 stormy tracks that make up Hail Mary, which will be released June 28th.

Now three albums and nearly 10 years into their career, Shane Smith & the Saints are ready to go for broke. "It pretty much summarizes where we are as a band and where I am as an individual after pursuing this for practically the last decade," Smith says of Hail Mary. "We're a scrappy group of guys and this is more or less one of those moments where we're really trying to put it all out there. We're trying to give it our best shot on this record."

Some artists break one or two rules. Koe Wetzel breaks pretty much all of them. The Texas-born singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer kicks out hard rock hooks with a twang bred in rough and tumble dives, yet meant for stadium stages. For as much as he unapologetically trailblazes between grunge, country, Americana, and damn near everything else under the sun, this maverick broke through the old-fashioned way—he busted his ass. Since 2015, he has quietly sold over 200,000 units independently, cranked out 100 million streams and views, and went from playing bars with chicken wire in front of the stage to hosting and headlining his own packed-to-the-gills Koe Wetzel’s Incredible Music Festival surrounded by fireworks and thousands of screaming fans.

Building a diehard audience, Koe’s 2017 debut Noise Complaint became a phenomenon powered by “February 28, 2016” [19.2 million Spotify streams], “Something To Talk About” [15 million Spotify streams], “Love” [12.9 million Spotify streams], “Fuss & Fight” [11.9 million Spotify streams], and more. The momentum continued with 2019’s Harold Saul High and its singles “Ragweed” and “Forever” as more sold-out shows ensued. Following a tireless grind, he surprise-released the 2020 anthem “Kuntry & Wistern,” which exploded right out of the gate trending on Apple Music and garnering praise from The Boot who wrote “Wetzel has earned a reputation as one of the Lone Star State’s most high-energy and engaging performers.”

Only three years out of high school, still living in his small East Texas hometown, Kolby Cooper started selling out shows and clocking millions of streams using only his songs as muscle, earning streaming numbers typically reserved for household names. Amassing over 113.5 million on demand streams to date, Kolby will release his first EP as a signed artist, Boy From Anderson County, on August 6 via BBR Music Group / Wheelhouse Records in partnership with Combustion Music. The prolific songwriter has an uncanny ability to turn his and his friends’ life stories into relatable songs his rabidly zealous fanbase can’t get enough of, and his upcoming EP is no different, stacking the release with high-energy rockers, scorching break-up anthems and reflective love songs. With new music on the horizon, Kolby continues his strenuous tour schedule throughout 2021, headlining sold-out shows all over the country, bringing with him his signature blend of Lonestar State roots, rough-hewn vocals and wailing electric guitar. Fans will have no doubt that his forthcoming EP is authentically Kolby. For more information on Kolby Cooper, visit his website www.KolbyCooper.com

A gritty, country-leaning roots rock band out of eastern Oklahoma, Turnpike Troubadours at their best synthesize the populist, political folk of Woody Guthrie and the outlaw-styled honky tonk of Waylon Jennings with doses of bluegrass, Cajun, and straight-out rock dynamics. Fronted by singer and guitarist Evan Felker and including bassist R.C. Edwards, fiddler Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engleman, and drummer Gabe Pearson, the group celebrates and explores modern rural life with a full awareness of history, delicately avoiding being ornate revivalists. A debut album, the self-released Bossier City, appeared in 2007. The follow-up, Diamonds & Gasoline, was produced by veteran songwriter Mike McClure and released in 2010. Goodbye Normal Street, their 2012 album, became their first to appear on Billboard's country chart, peaking at 14. Three years later, they released their fourth album, The Turnpike Troubadours, and watched it debut at number three on the Billboard country chart, a sign that the band's fan base was expanding. 2017 saw the release of the group's highly anticipated fifth studio long-player, A Long Way from Your Heart.

Given the choice, Sam Riggs would take skydiving over watching movies on any given Sunday. That sense of daring is a key element in his brand of country, a rock-infused sound with a chip on its sonic shoulder from a guy who counts Garth Brooks, Foo Fighters, Eric Church and A Day To Remember among his influences. 
 A St. Cloud, Florida, native, Riggs’ career took off after he set welding aside and quit college in a series of events he calls “the ultimate gamble.” His risky nature and rebel spirit show through in the music, and that no-fear approach to life is quickly setting him apart. “I need to push it to the edge,” he says. “I don’t know how to be any other way.”

A longtime cult figure among fans of outlaw country and the gritty side of Americana, Ray Wylie Hubbard is a singer/songwriter specializing in hard-edged character studies and rough-hewn, compassionate meditations on life and relationships. First finding fame as the author of the outlaw anthem "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," Hubbard's later work was often filled with acidic wit, and his more serious songs earned him a reputation as one of the leading figures in the Texas singer/songwriters community. After years of scuffling, Hubbard first showed his true potential in the studio with the dark-edged approach of 1994's Loco Gringos Lament, while 2001's Eternal and Lowdown found him reinforcing the blues influences in his music, 2006's Snake Farm was steeped in raw and rootsy rock, and 2017's Tell the Devil I'm Gettin' There as Fast as I Can was a lean, elemental meditation on God and man.

Born November 13, 1946, in Soper, Oklahoma, Ray Wylie Hubbard and his family relocated to Dallas during the mid-'50s; there he learned to play guitar and eventually formed a folk group with fellow aspiring musician Michael Martin Murphey. Befriended by the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Hubbard later formed a trio named Three Faces West, which regularly performed at the Outpost club in Red River, New Mexico, a musical hotbed also trafficked by artists including Steve lb and Bill & Bonnie Hearne. Upon the breakup of Three Faces West, Hubbard toured the Southwestern coffeehouse circuit as a solo act before forming another group, Texas Fever; they too proved short-lived, and he returned to New Mexico to again take up residence at the Outpost.

While in Red River, Hubbard rekindled his friendship with Walker, who in 1973 recorded Hubbard's most famous (if least representative) composition, "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," on his acclaimed Viva Terlingua LP. The success of the album guaranteed Hubbard instant cult status within progressive country circles, and at the same time, he set about organizing a new backing band, dubbed the Cowboy Twinkies. Considered by many the first cowpunk group -- their regular set lists included everything from Merle Haggard songs to a show-stopping cover of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" -- the Cowboy Twinkies' music met considerable resistance in both country and rock quarters; frustrated, Hubbard funded a demo tape that won the group a contract with Atlantic. However, the label left the band in limbo, and they finally jumped ship to Warner Bros., which shipped them off to Nashville to record their debut LP, Ray Wylie Hubbard & the Cowboy Twinkies.

Released in 1975, the album suffered from label-imposed over-production and fared poorly; Hubbard did not resurface prior to 1978, when he signed to Willie Nelson's short-lived Lone Star imprint to record Off the Wall, which contained his own version of "Redneck Mother." The following year Hubbard acquired a new backing unit in the form of the Lost Gonzo Band, previously Walker's supporting group; comprising guitarist John Inmon, bassist Bob Livingston, and drummer Paul Pearcy, they recorded the live LP Caught in the Act. By 1984, Hubbard was backed by the Bugs Henderson Trio, which featured guitarist Henderson, bassist Bobby Chitwood, and drummer Ron Thompson; with them he cut another live effort, Something About the Night.

Hubbard didn't record for another eight years, instead building a small but loyal following through constant touring. Finally, he issued Lost Train of Thought on his own Misery Loves Co. label in 1992, followed in 1995 by the Dejadisk release Loco Gringos Lament. Dangerous Spirits appeared two years later, and in 1999 Hubbard returned with Crusades of the Restless Nights. Eternal & Lowdown, which was issued in summer 2001, captured the haunting poetics of religion, philosophy, and salvation. It was followed in 2003 by the raw and gripping Growl, the laid-back Delirium Tremolos in 2005, and Snake Farm in 2006. Hubbard's near constant touring schedule and curating his own Grit 'n Groove Festival in 2009 and 2010 kept him busy. He eventually emerged with A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There Is No C) in 2011, and followed it up with The Grifter's Hymnal in 2012.

In April 2015 Hubbard released another self-produced set, The Ruffian's Misfortune, which like his previous two albums was released through his own Bordello Records imprint. Also that year, Hubbard published his long-awaited autobiography, A Life...Well, Lived. In August 2017 he returned with the studio album Tell the Devil I'm Getting There as Fast as I Can, which featured guest appearances by Lucinda Williams, Eric Church, Patty Griffin, and Bright Light Social Hour. Hubbard's mainstream visibility got a boost when longtime fan Eric Church invited him to co-write a song, which became the title track of Church's 2018 album Desperate Man. Big Machine Records next signed Hubbard to a recording contract, and 2020's Co-Starring would be his first major-label release since 1978. A set of collaborations, Co-Starring's opening track, "Bad Trick," included contributions from Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Don Was, and Black Crowe's frontman Chris Robinson. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi