10 Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know

It's time for another of our monthly roundups of the 10 Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know.

This month, we've got a six-piece from Kentucky who are reviving traditional bluegrass with their viral hit, an up and coming Scottish country folk singer who's already played the main stage at Glastonbury and so many singers from tiny out-of-the-way places it almost feels like a small town special this month.

There's all this and more as we dive into another of Holler's monthly roundups of our latest loves; a who's who of the most exciting prospects leaving their mark on the country and Americana landscape.

Here's Holler's 10 New and Upcoming Country and Americana Artists You Need to Know for October 2025:

KC Bruner's story almost sounds like the plot to a Hilary Duff film.

Two years ago, when a move to Arizona feel through, KC, real name Kacey, followed her sister from her small hometown of Swisher, Iowa, to big city Nashville instead, planning to follow in her mother's footsteps as a hairstylist. Working in a salon during the day and writing songs for fun in her free time, she began to wonder what the world beyond those salon walls would think of her songs and started to post clips of her originals to TikTok in June of 2024.

18 months on and her TikTok is already an open time capsule of unreleased originals of the highest quality with titles like 'Why Do Women Forgive So Easy,' 'There's a Girl Out There' and 'This One's for Me.'

"I wrote this song for all the girls he texted when we were together," she says in one clip by way of introduction to a song called 'You Can Have Him.' It's this easy way with putting what she's feeling in the most intimate moments of her life into words that makes KC Bruner one of the most exciting new country songwriters coming up at the moment. She invites us into her world and shows us around, taking us to all the places in her heart that it hurts most to go, leading us through the heartbreaks and the mistakes, introducing us to her loved ones and her hopes and fears and her faith in her songs. She doesn't hold back, she goes deep every time she goes in.

"I love that laidback small town kind of vibe and feel like it’s framed the way I look at life," she says. "Living in a small town brings everyone together in a way, people feel more connected and I definitely have carried that with me. I try to keep my people close."

One of those originals, 'Bringing Home a Cowboy,' became her first release back in May 2025, inspired by her dad, who is also a songwriter and musician, telling her to stop writing songs about guys.

"I think he got a kick out of it," she laughs. Co-written with Guy Kopelman and Jesse Bluu, with its wry humour and conversational charm, 'Bringing Home a Cowboy' was the perfect introduction to a wider audience for her diaristic, deeply heartfelt songwriting and her raspy woodbine-and-whiskey delivery.

Her talents caught the eye of Electric Feel Records, who signed Bruner as their flagship artist in Nashville and the three singles that have followed since have set her up for a full takeover in 2025.

'Hey Dolly' is an open letter to the queen of country, written when KC found her own "Jolene" while 'Old Fashioned' unapologetically takes aim at today's swipe culture and the death of courtship written by Andrew Bolooki, KC Bruner and one of our 10 Artists You Need to Know from last month, Ava Hall.

Scattered amongst her original songs are a selection of bedroom renditions of country classics that clue you in to how deep her love and understanding of the genre goes; Lee Ann Womack's 'I May Hate Myself in the Morning,' Reba McEntire's 'The Last One to Know' and George Jones' 'Grand Tour' reflecting the deep-rooted musical influences she grew up with and the sounds of country and gospel that poured out of her speakers back home.

This is classic, old school country but with a completely modern twist. If you want to feel hopeful about where country music is heading next, then just take an hour out to scroll through KC Bruner's TikTok. It's going to be just fine.

'Old Fashioned' is out now on Electric Feel Records

Listen If You Like: Megan Moroney, Maggie Antone, Laci Kaye Booth

With seven million streams and counting on Spotify alone, there's a fair chance you'll already be familiar with The Creekers. Creeping out of the hollers of eastern Kentucky, the bluegrass six-piece released their first album, Pour Me In The Creek, in 2024 but it was this year's River Rat EP, released in April, that featured their viral Summer smash 'Tennessee' and led to them being signed to Warner Music Nashville and Warner Records.

Formed over a shared love of traditional "Hillbilly music," the band, comprised of Tanner Horton (vocals, lead guitar), Allen Hacker (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jagger Bowling (bass, vocals), Ashton Bowling (cajon), Scott Sutton (banjo, vocals), and Anna Blanton (fiddle), are the latest unlikely beneficiaries of a music loving TikTok audience who show little respect for genre boundaries when it comes to picking and mixing their listening habits.

"Most of our band is from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky," the band explain. "In the small city of Hyden. There wasn’t a lot of things to do there so most people played music. Our fiddle player is from Southern Indiana right across the river from Louisville."

"Where we grew up a good ol bluegrass pickin session was the norm," they tell us, explaining how most of the band are from the small city of Hyden in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. "It seems like almost everyone could play an instrument or three. At a young age most of us learned to play at these sessions by learning from folks better than us. We grew up with the old time music and it’s still influencing us."

"Tanner, Scott, and Jagger are more of the bluegrass traditionalists of the band. They love Jimmy Martin, The Osborne Brothers, The Stanley Brothers and most the old classic bluegrass standards. Ashton and Anna are very diverse in their listening. Ashton loving Sundy Best and Chris Stapleton with Anna growing up on Allman Brothers, Little Feat, Newgrass Revival, and the Beatles. Allen grew up singing and listened to church songs and hymns and later got into Keith Whitley, Lonesome River Band and Chris Stapleton."

Whether you Call it bluegrass, new grass, soul grass, jam grass, Americana, old timey mountain music, crusty fidget folk or just good old simple country music, it feels like the viral moment The Creekers are currently enjoying is just the start for these plucky traditionalists playfully reviving Kentucky's musical heritage.

"It’s been crazy to be honest," they admit, taking stock of the last few months. "The song went viral from a video we did at a radio station while we were there to promote a bluegrass festival. Anna wasn’t even with us that day. We never thought anything of it. Then a couple days later our inboxes were flooded with every major record label and booking agency in the world. At times it was overwhelming but we are grateful and blessed this has happened to us. We are blessed to have that song that Allen wrote to help move us forward in our musical journey. Everyday we still pinch ourselves because it just doesn’t seem real."

The River Rat EP is out now on Warner Music Nashville

Listen If You Like: Billy Strings, The Steeldrivers, Melissa Carper

The small Glasgow satellite town of Bellshill has already gifted us indie pop legends like BMX Bandits, Soup Dragons and Teenage Fanclub, as well as international mega pop star Sheena Easton, and now Bellshill has borne us our very own British Americana superstar in the making.

Off the back of a whirlwind five years that's taken her from posting lockdown cover songs on Facebook to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and onto a sold out UK tour of her own, she's now releasing her wonderful full length debut album, The Consequence of Love, and staking a claim as Britain's queen of Americana.

Produced by Ryan Hadlock - best known for his work with The Lumineers and Brandi Carlile's The Firewatcher's Daughter, as well as Zach Bryan's 'Something in the Orange' - Downey's debut album adds a matured Americana classiness to the poppy indie folk of her previous EPs. Recorded at Seattle’s Bear Creek Studio, The Consequence of Love features ten tracks that effortlessly showcase her uniquely Lanarkshire take on West Coast Laurel Canyon folk delivered with her unmistakably Scottish lilt.

“All my life, all I've wanted to do is perform,” she says. “That's my happy place. Before lockdown, I was a busker, and then I played the pubs. And even before I was old enough to busk, since I was about 10, I was trying to do charity gigs everywhere that I could. That was my way to express myself. I even used to sell homemade CDs from the local ice cream van.”

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Downey started posting covers online after her grandmother had asked her to post a song to Facebook because she missed hearing her voice.

Plenty more covers followed and eventually her lockdown-era social media fandom led to a connection with James Skelly from The Coral, a record deal and a move to Liverpool.

One cover even led her to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury after she posted her take on 'Rotterdam' by The Beautiful South, and it was liked and commented on by the song’s writer Paul Heaton, famous for his love of classic country songwriting.

“Unbeknownst to me I'd been on Paul’s radar since the cover of Rotterdam. Because three years later, on a random afternoon, walking back from the pub, I got the phone call,” she explains about how she went from playing to 300 people in Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut to headlining in front of 30,000 people at Warrington’s Neighbourhood festival, continuing to perform with Heaton across 2023, into 2024 and joining him for his slot opening on the main stage at last year’s Glastonbury festival.

Last spring, Rianne Downey spent a month in Seattle, recording The Consequence of Love. Leaning into her love of folk and country and her passion for Scottish and Irish culture, her debut album is a thing of rare beauty. These are songs that pick you up and whisk you away from wherever you are. The sort of songs that make you miss your stop on the bus in the mornings. Songs for staring into cups of tea in cafés on rainy days and imaging you're anywhere but there.

The title track is pure Emmylou, while the sprightly 'Good in Goodbye' could have been written by Paul Heaton and 'The Song of Old Glencoe' sounds like Brandi Carlile reimagining an old Celtic folk ballad.

“I'm a whimsical person in my brain!” she admits. “And when I picture life it's all woodland creatures and fairies and old paintings. Growing up, my family were always telling me folklore and different stories about Scotland – and I was also learning all the famous Scottish and Irish tunes.

“I knew that going fully down that route was never for me,” she acknowledges, “but I wanted to write a love song to Scotland and to my childhood. I wanted to take all this gorgeous music that I'd learned growing up and turn it into Rianne Downey music, basically!”

The Consequence of Love is released on 17 October on Run On Records

Listen If You Like: Brandi Carlile, The Secret Sisters, Amanda Shires

"I never would’ve picked up a guitar and a pen without folks like Guy Clark or Townes Van Zandt," admits Jack Blocker about growing up in Dallas, Texas. "My Texas roots are the single strongest influence I have as an artist and songwriter. There’s such a rich history of music in Texas and I feel some responsibility to honor that in the songs that I write."

Released last month Jack Blocker’s debut album, The Land On Most High, is a collection of melancholy soaked, old timey country and western that tips its hat to the delicately rolling melodies of Townes Van Zandt and the gentle, homespun poetry of Willie Nelson. Profound in their simplicity, these are the kind of country songs you'll want to pack up with a cool box of beers for a Sunday afternoon down on the riverbank.

"Heartfelt and homemade," is how he fittingly describes it. "I’ve got music ranging from gospel to honky tonk and everywhere in between but I’d like to think they all share the same heart. Each tune is honest and lived in. I just call it country music but I understand that doesn’t hold the same meaning that it once did."

“The Land On Most High is the studio album I’d been hoping for the chance to make for half a decade. It was produced by a personal friend and hero of mine Patrick Lyons who I’ve listened to for years on Colter Wall records. My good buddy and keys player James Yardley helped me narrow down about 30 work tapes into a 10-song record with a cohesive voice and theme. We tracked it in three days here in Nashville and I’ve been playing it all across the country this year in any room that’ll have me. The album is a bunch of specific stories and snapshots from my time living in Texas and Arkansas, but I’ve found through time on the road that plenty of folks see their own friends and homes in the record."

The Land On Most High is out now on Elbow Grease

Listen If You Like: Pug Johnson, Sam Outlaw, Zach Top

Tucked away on the soundtrack to the second series of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated smash-hit rom-com Nobody Wants This alongside country heavyweights like Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves and Ella Langley is country newcomer Baylee Lynn with only the fourth song she's ever released.

'That's What I'll Be' follows previous singles 'Cautiously Optimistic,' 'John, Dear' and 'Heart On My Sleeve' as she stakes her claim to be the pop country singer to watch in 2025.

With her blend of breezy pop hooks and playful country lyricism, Baylee Lynn is set to capture the hearts of every Megan Moroney fan scrolling expectantly through TikTok while we await the new album.

A viral clip of Baylee wearing an 'Am I Okay?' trucker cap and singing Dan Seals' 'Everything That Glitters Is Not Gold' in tribute to her late grandpa tells you everything you need to know about the 17-year-old singer. Whether she's covering 'She's In Love With the Boy' in a stairwell with her friends or lip syncing to Danielle Bradberry, with a little wink and a knowing eye roll, Baylee Lynn stitches together traditional three chord country with the kind of playful, straight up pop of Sabrina Carpenter or Tate McRae to come up with a fresh and uniquely Gen Z take on classic country pop.

Originally from Greeneville, Tennessee, she got her start singing southern gospel in the small church her family attended and she taught herself to play guitar at six-years-old. The daughter of '90s country loving parents, she was raised on Dolly Parton, Lorrie Morgan and Reba McEntire, took up piano and wrote her first song at 13 tapping into her country music inspirations as well as her own love for pop stars like Miley Cyrus, Fergie and Megan Trainor, which makes complete sense when you listen to the three singles she's put out so far.

"Heart On My Sleeve' is out now on UMG Recordings and the Core Records. The full EP follows on 16 January.

Listen If You Like: Emily Ann Roberts, Elizabeth Nichols, Mackenzie Carpenter

Whether it's Kacey Musgraves' 'Merry Go Round,' John Cougar Mellencamp's heartland anthems or bro-country's beery tailgate party starters, country music has always given a voice to small town America. Songs soaked in nostalgia, faith and community have been able to somehow capture the contradictions of teenage restlessness and the unexpected comfort of returning. Add to that canon the candid, heartfelt songwriting of 19-year-old singer-songwriter Lakelin Lemmings.

Growing up in the small town of Henderson in West Tennessee, the heartbeat of any town, anytime, anywhere, USA pumps through her songs as she transforms the everyday humour and pathos of her hometown into rich coming-of-age minidramas.

“When you live in a small town there’s not much to do," she says about her latest single, 'Parking Lot.' "In Henderson we don’t have a movie theater or bowling alley or anything like that, so me and my friends would spend our time hanging out in a parking lot. Most of the time it was the Chester County High School parking lot. A lot of my memorable moments as a high schooler were spent in a parking lot, and I know it’s a universal experience -at least for the South! - so I decided to write a song about it.”

Mixing a little of Miranda Lambert's sparkiness with the down-to-earth easy charm of Brandy Clark, she can turn you ear with a simple phrase, a sly wink and a seemingly stray observation that perfectly sums up what it feels like to be a small-town American girl in a world that feels like it's only getting bigger and further out of reach.

“I'm always listening,” Lakelin says. “I really like to listen in on conversations or pay close attention to songs that I hear and see what inspires me. Often, just being aware of real-life conversations and situations can help me find my next song idea that will connect with listeners.”

"I grew up in the heartland / A couple miles off the main road / Singin’ along to every country song with a hairbrush microphone," she sings in 'American Dreamin,' remembering being raised up the right way on Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn, Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Womack and Taylor Swift.

Signing her first Nashville publishing deal at just 17 years old, she has since amassed more than 100,000 followers on TikTok as she strives to let listeners - especially girls her own age - know that they’re seen and heard and understood.

In her single 'Keep the Faith,' a timely song of inspiration, she offers a powerful, faith-based message of comfort and hope, penned by three-time GRAMMY winner Lori McKenna alongside fellow Billboard No. 1 hit country songwriters Phil Barton and Jaron Boyer.

“I mostly write my own songs, but when ‘Keep the Faith’ was pitched to me, I fell in love with the song because it has such a powerful message,” she says. “It spoke to my own Christian faith and my belief that when days are hard, you've just got to keep on praying, keep on believing and keep on going. With everything that's currently happening in the world, no matter what your religious or political beliefs are, we all need to keep the faith right now.”

Her latest single 'Keep the Faith' is released on 17 October via Stone Country Records

Listen If You Like: Brandy Clark, Ashley McBryde, Hailey Whitters

It's definitely small town month this month in Holler's 10 Artists You Need to Know.

Hailing from the rural town of Troy in central North Carolina, with a population of just under 3,000, 23-year-old singer songwriter Chandler Dozier has taken his small town country dreams all the way to the honky tonks of Lower Broadway where he and his band have been perfecting their barroom sound night after night ready for a big time break that's just around the corner.

"Troy is comparable to Mayberry, the town from The Andy Griffith Show," Dozier jokes. "My upbringing had a large impact on me. Living in a small town I learned valuable lessons about humbleness, work and how to be a good person. I feel that without these experiences, I would not be the same person I am today. It took a trip to Nashville in middle school for me to discover my love for country music."

On his debut EP, playfully titled Bakersfield East, he tips his hat to the Bakersfield sound coming out of Southern California in the '50s and '60s, its neo-traditionalist descendants in the '80s and early Bluegrass of the Appalachians.

"It's quite evident that I love Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound," he admits. "But I also love Bill Monroe's bluegrass, Bob Wills, western swing, Memphis' rockabilly and the early Nashville sound."

The title of his EP is a reference to the musical lineage he's made himself a part of as he squeezes himself neatly up front alongside contemporaries like Drake Milligan and Zach Top in their march for reviving and reclaiming traditionalism.

"I chose Bakersfield East because in the 1960s when the Bakersfield sound was at its peak, it rivalled Nashville so much that it was nicknamed 'Nashville West,'" he says. So me being based in Nashville, but my biggest influence being Bakersfield, I thought it would be clever to name it so. The point of the EP is to display my different influences and capabilities as an artist and writer. It has something to offer for any fan of country music."

Fans of traditional country music will find everything they need to fall quickly in love with the songs of Chandler Dozier. Rattling rockabilly rhythms, rim shots and short stops, an aching fiddle, sighing pedal steel, twangy country telecaster and his rich, creamy country croon all going into the pot together for one fail-safe, fool proof recipe.

The Bakersfield East EP is available now

Listen If You Like: Drake Milligan, Zach Top, Braxton Keith

22-year-old singer songwriter Brandon Wisham describes himself as a "Genre Chameleon," and it's easy to see why. His first five singles take in everything from gritty country to infectious boyband pop, soulful hip hop and driving indie rock.

"If I had to make a list of my top five artists, I’d say Justin Bieber, Luke Combs, 3 Days Grace, Blake Shelton and Michael Jackson," he says. "With all the consumption of music I had growing up it’s hard to just have one set sound for me."

A Savannah, Georgia native, Wisham spent his childhood in Williamston, South Carolina as the youngest of seven children, brought up heavily on country music from his dad's side and R&B, soul and pop from his mom's. He took up guitar as a child, playing cover shows in local bars when he was just 15 years old and wrote his first-ever song when he was 19. The emotional 'Pain Won’t Last,' written about losing his father to Covid, went on to be the song that set the ball rolling.

After sharing his original songs online, his posts caught the ear of Bailey Zimmerman and the pair quickly formed a friendship that led to Wisham moving to Nashville and landing a global publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and The Core Entertainment.

In 2024 Zimmerman cut 'Pain Won’t Last' for Religiously. The Album. and invited the rising star out on the road with him. Since then Wisham has been out on tour with Josh Ross, Tyler Hubbard, Lakeview, Austin Snell and Nate Smith, and spent time in the studio with producer Brandon Hood, best known for his work with Ty Myers and Mackenzie Carpenter.

His latest single, the Nate Miles produced 'Whiskey's Whisperin',' is setting him up for a big breakout year in 2025. With its moody R&B inflections and heartfelt sing-talk vocal it could have easily been the 38th song on I'm The Problem if he'd told everyone it was by Morgan Wallen.

'Whiskey's Whisperin'' is out now on UMG Recordings and the Core Records

Listen If You Like: Morgan Wallen, Bailey Zimmerman, HARDY

"We’re all messing up and learning as we go through life," Sophia Zamani says, talking about her latest single. "‘Mistakes That I’ve Made’ is about just some of the mistakes that I’ve made! It’s a kind of light-hearted reflection on some of my regrets."

The first single since the 19-year-old singer songwriter released a pair of albums, Shelter from the Rain and Start Again, in the back half of 2024, ‘Mistakes That I’ve Made’ is the kind of country song that bursts out of the speakers at you and demands to be played over and over and over again.

Originally hailing from the town of Alamo in Northern California, Zamani moved to the Czech Republic for her sophomore year then onto New York City to finish high school, which probably explains why her music sounds all over the fucking place. In the best way.

"It was more being exposed to different places, people, and experiences that influenced me," she says. "But the quiet slow life in Alamo definitely did as well."

Straddling the borders of country and Americana as well as alt-pop and indie folk, she's part of a wave of contemporary songwriters who are spreading themselves out across genres like it’s a game of musical Twister with one hand on the indiepop circle, a foot on Appalachian folk and an elbow in classic country.

'Mistakes That I’ve Made’ is out now

Listen If You Like: Margo Cilker, Olivia Ellen Lloyd, Clover County

Growing up in Spring, Texas, and now based in Austin, Effy Harvard is reviving country music's Golden Age by mixing a big slug of Patsy Cline's countrypolitan melodrama with a dollop of Loretta Lynn's old school honky tonky tonk and a twist of Wanda Jackson's rockabilly sass. Her recordings exude the no frills charm and easy simplicity of the country music of the ‘50s and '60s, but it's tempered with a distinctly post-genre pop sensibility that sets her apart from similar throwback hat acts.

"My love for that era comes naturally, both sonically and visually," she says about drawing her influences from the '50s and '60s. " I’m rooted in the retro country lane. It’s vulnerable, tongue in cheek, all thrown into a time machine. It’s important to me to have real recordings of the instrumentation, and vocals where you can almost hear the dust falling."

“That era feels timeless - collared garments, finger curls, cat-eye liner - it just feels like me," she explains. "I’ve always felt a connection to icons like Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. I truly feel like an anachronism. As if I’m meant to exist in that time, or perhaps I did in a past life.”

Taking her influences from everyone from Sam Cooke and James Taylor to Clint Black and Keith Whitley, Bright Eyes and even Paramore, Effy Harvard is a thoroughly postmodern kind of pop country singer, sitting at a curious crossroads where Kitty Wells meets Lana Del Rey.

Like Dolly Parton herself, the power of songs like 'Without You Loving Me' and latest single 'Answering Machine' lies in their performance. It's all in the set up. It's sweet and it's sad and it's perfectly staged. Her warm and creamy country rasp holding back in dramatic restraint before she lets go and blows you to pieces.

"I value those who pave their own road, lean into themselves, and feed me poetry," she says. "I return to those I connect with emotionally; I am drawn to intensity. I honor the duality of feelings, often they come in pairs, life’s not always a steady line. Music saves me every day, and I hope to create songs that make someone feel understood, or at least get them dancing."

'Answering Machine' is out now.

Listen If You Like: Belle Frantz, Lola Kirke, Caitlin Rose

Listen to a selection of songs from our 10 Artists You Need To Know on the playlist below.

For more of the monthly editions of Holler's 10 Artists You Need To Know, see below: