Max McNown

One Liner:  A measure of cheesy country and an equal measure of scrubbed-up folk

Wikipedia Genre:  Country, folk rock, Americana

Home: Nashville (now, originally from Bend, OR)

Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 23
Both Weekends.
Day and Time.

[location]

Thoughts:  So, he is on the poster for Bourbon and Beyond as well, and my review of him for that was not great.  He somehow gets top billing by being up on the 4th line, and yet I had never heard of him until listening to B&B.

My initial reaction to his first few songs was very negative - cheesy Nashville crap-ola - but if you just let his tunes roll for a while, you get through the TikTok bait and into something a little less awful?  Like, "Better Me For You (Brown Eyes)" just feels plodding and manufactured for clicks and singalongs where the crowd is holding up their cell phones with flashlight on.

Funny thing, when I read his name, I was like "wasn't that a quarterback for the Bears?"  Close.  Cade McNown, this kid's uncle, was drafted by the Bears in the first round in 1999 (and only played there for 2 years).  Why does my brain retain these things?

But I just turned on his music again (now in July), and his second most popular song is a deeply cursed EDM song with Kygo that makes me want to die.  Like, awful lyrics, terrible vibes, just an awful experience.

Two albums - 2024's Wandering (Love Me Back), which includes the most streamed tune, and 2025's Night Driving, which includes the "Brown Eyes" track - many EPs, and some singles.  Honestly a lot of music (although a lot of these are repeats).

His most streamed tune has a Marcus-Mumford-covering-a-Noah-Cyrus-song vibe.  "A Lot More Free" has 313.1 million streams.

A little stomp and clap, a little whistle, and you've got a hit.  "World Change Me" sounds like a song featured on Yellowstone (non-complimentary).  And earlier when I said something more real, I'm not saying it is the greatest music I have ever heard, but kind of what Noah Kahan could sound like if he had an army of producers and songwriters at his side.  Like, "Bury Me in my Hometown" is a little trite, but I don't hate it.  And the Both Sides of the Blade EP, from 2025, is pretty nice.  And then I hear a recent single ("First Born Daughter") and it's not even country, just bad pop.  I really don't like it.

Feels like the country lovers really got the shaft this year on this poster.  If this is the best they get, then I guess they will come out to watch him, but I'll be somewhere else I think.