Tanner Usrey

One Liner:  Really great, low-key Americana guy in the vein of Zach Bryan

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but country and americana

Home: Prosper, Texas

Poster Position: 4 (20) 
Weekend One Only.
Sunday at 5:15

Thoughts:  While on the beach for Labor Day, a friend asked me about what country artists would be at the Fest this year.  I told him about Randall King and Morgan Wade, and said that I guess Mumford and Lumineers are in that wheelhouse.  But I hadn't yet heard this cat - got a basic but powerful sound that makes me think of Zach Bryan, Charles Wesley Godwin, and personal favorite Chris Knight.  That kind of country that leans into southern rock sounds and great lyrics.

Originally from Prosper, Texas, which is one of those far north suburbs of DFW that probably used to be a little slice of small-town nothing, but is now likely a mega-suburb in the making full of cheap D.R. Horton homes and a high school with an 80 million dollar football stadium.  Matt Carpenter, LaTroy Hawkins, and Torii Hunter, all accomplished MLB players, were from Prosper, as are Deion Sanders and Dak Prescott.  Kind of wild to have that many stars from a little quirt of a town.

He says that he used to belt out music all the time as a little kid, that his family would tell him to shut up.  In high school he picked up a guitar and leaned into making music.  His favorite band is Whiskey Myers, which is something I have heard of before, but I don't know that I have ever heard one of their songs.  He released the Medicine Man EP in 2019, which gathered a bunch of streams, and then was featured on Yellowstone and grabbed even more listeners.

"Come Back Down" was that initial big single that got people streaming - 30.1 million streams.

Basic on the instrumentation, but a classic lost love lyrics tune.  Great sound.  "Take Me Home," a 2023 single is also great even though it is basic.  I have wondered before how it is that Zach Bryan, the most basic of singer-songwriters, using the most basic of acoustic guitar tunes underneath, can turn into such a massively HUGE phenomenon.  His show at the Two Step blew my mind because of the crowd's fervent participation.  But listening to this, I can't really see the difference.  Maybe it's all about social media or something.  Or maybe one is a good looking ex-Navy guy and the other is a chunky bearded bro?  Who knows.  "Josephine" is lovely too.  Funny thing, the Yellowstone tune doesn't even make his top ten.  Only 2.2 million streams - and the opening of it makes me think of Stapleton's song about getting stoned.  I'll give you that new single, the top tune from his new EP called Who I Am.  15.6 million streams.

Those fan-created slip videos are so weird.  Like, setting up in a stairwell to do rock-paper-scissors and then sending that video to a country music artist for a video for a love song?  So strange.  But I like the song a lot.

I'd definitely go check this out - I dig the old school alternative of The Breeders, but this guy feels like he would put on an electric show.