Overnight stardom took years of work

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This article was published 27/05/2023 (1235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hiding behind Lainey Wilson’s sudden rise in the country music world are the hours, days and months of work it took to become an overnight sensation.

The 31-year-old singer-songwriter became country’s newest superstar on May 11 at the Academy of Country Music Awards after winning four trophies, including female artist of the year and album of the year, as well as offering two dramatic performances during the gala.

Receiving an award from her idol, country legend Dolly Parton, is her crowning achievement, a reward for slogging through songwriting sessions and gigs in grungy Nashville bars after leaving her family’s farm in Louisiana when she was 18 to chase her dreams in Music City.

“I tell you, it’s been a whirlwind, but I do feel like I am exactly where I’m supposed to be,” says Wilson, who plays the Centennial Concert Hall Tuesday. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is be a part of the country-music family and have country music love me as much as I’ve loved it, and it really feels like that’s starting to happen.”

Wilson began writing songs as a nine-year-old, inspired by the likes of Parton and Reba McEntire, dreaming of following their path from farm to stardom.

She met Parton for the first time when the 9 to 5 singer handed her the ACM award for female artist of the year.

“In my opinion, she’s the best. She’s got a heart of gold, seems like a hard worker, tells it like it is with a little bow wrapped on top. She has not been afraid to step outside her comfort zone. She’s straddled that line of acting, of singing, of doing it all,” Wilson says.

“When my momma was cooking in the kitchen or if I was riding the tractor with my daddy while he was working, it seemed like Dolly Parton was definitely one of the soundtracks to my life.”

Wilson’s rural background — she was born in Baskin, La., which is about as far from New Orleans as you can get without leaving Louisiana — and her deep southern accent give her the country cred other mainstream artists strive for.

“I do think back to that all the time and think about all the parallels that farming has with country music and with the entertainment industry in general,” she says. “You get up every day and bust your tail and you have good years, you have bad years, a tornado could roll through and wipe it all away, but at the end of the day, it’s your livelihood, and that’s what I watched both of my parents do.”

Wilson planted her musical seeds in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — she says she wrote more than 300 songs during the lockdown as a way to cope with isolation — and harvested a bounty of hits, beginning in 2020 with Things a Man Oughta Know.

It was her first No. 1, and was the ACM’s song of the year in 2021. How Wilson and her co-writers Jason Nix and Jonathan Singleton were able to keep it to three minutes and 20 seconds is a songwriting miracle.

“When we were sitting down to write the song, my co-writer had the idea we were going to be here all night because there’s a lot of things y’all need to know,” Wilson says with a laugh.

“All jokes aside, it’s a song about being a good person, knowing the difference between right and wrong. The song is not about whether he can change a flat tire or start a fire or turn a wrench — I mean, we can do all those things. It’s about having a good heart, being a good person.”

Heart Like a Truck, which is from Wilson’s 2022 album Bell Bottom Country, isn’t the first country song written about a pickup, but its metaphors caught on with fans who survived the potholes of the pandemic, despite not knowing what the world would be like at the end of the COVID road.

“It became a song about finding freedom and strength, about not being afraid about the scratches and the dents and the bumps along the way and instead embracing it,” Wilson says. “I think a lot of us during that time learned a lot about ourselves.”

Wilson’s also become a popular partner for duets, such as in Wait in the Truck, a top-10 murder ballad she performs with Hardy, another up-and-comer, that deals with domestic violence, and the new single Save Me, which Wilson sang with Jelly Roll during the ACM gala.

A duet with Parton for a Judds tribute album is also in the works.

Her success has also landed her arena and stadium gigs; this year, she’s supporting Luke Combs on his North American tour. Gaps in the schedule have allowed Wilson to set up her own headlining shows, such as Tuesday’s in Winnipeg.

“When I play with Luke Combs, my job is to get the crowd going, get them all greased up and ready to rock the rest of the night,” she says. “There’s definitely a big difference to playing a 30-minute slot to playing an hour-and-a-half or two hours. When I have a longer set, I can get up there and take my time, know the audience and let the audience get to know me.”

Like Parton, Wilson has taken the plunge into acting. In the latest season of Yellowstone, she portrays Abby, a country singer who gets mixed up in the romance and deception of the Montana-set drama starring Kevin Costner.

In one episode, she performs Smell Like Smoke just before the two-stepping at a Bozeman bar turns into a brawl that brings in the police.

“I do think it puts a face to a name,” she says. “I think a lot of folks listen to country radio and they might know the name or they might know the song but they don’t know the person who really sings it. I truly think that Yellowstone is a big reason why what I’m (doing) now is more popular than a few years ago.”

She was coy about whether Abby has any future appearances on the series, referencing one of the ways characters are killed off in the show.

“Fingers crossed,” she says. “They haven’t taken me to the train station yet, so there’s a possibility I’ll be back.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall