"I've Dreamed of Putting This Album Out": Hudson Westbrook on Lessons Learned, His Rapid Rise & Staying Texas

It's amazing how much can change in the span of a year. From new jobs and new houses, to new relationships and personal growth, a 12-month period can find yourself looking at a much different version of your life than you thought possible.

In much the same way, in just over 14 months, Hudson Westbrook's life has done a complete 180º.

Back in the beginning of 2024, the 20-year-old was studying to be a landman at Texas Tech, but after innocently tinkering around with a guitar and teaching himself to play, everything started to change.

After the release of his first-ever song, 'Take It Slow,' in April 2024, Westbrook's stars began to align. Taking off on social media and gaining early fans, he followed the release up with instant earworms like the blue collar love song of '5 to 9,' the windows down anthem of 'Two Way Drive' and the harrowing 'House Again,' among others.

Now, a little over a year later, the Texas native has become one of the biggest rising artists in the country scene, boasting over 5 million monthly Spotify listeners, hundreds of millions of streams and spots on nearly ever Artist to Watch list under the sun.

And it's all come in practically the blink of an eye.

"It's been really cool to see the difference in the crowds from January to May," Westbrook shared with Holler just before making his coveted Grand Ole Opry debut. "We're taken very seriously now. People know my songs and they know the deep cuts that people didn't know eight months ago."

Since last Friday (July 25), Westbrook fans have had a new batch of songs to learn the lyrics to as well, as the burgeoning entertainer releases his debut project, Texas Forever.

Brimming with 17 songs all co-written by the artist himself, the collection marks Westbrook's first musical chapter, and it's one that he's been itching to write for some time.

"I've dreamed of putting this album out since I wrote the first song on it," Westbrook said, fighting back a smile. "I think my main goal was to really stay 'Texas' during this album. What that means to me is using real instruments–real drums, real guitars and having my band play it with no tracks. No hate on anyone that uses tracks, but I personally just think that listeners will know the difference between classical and something that is produced or fake."

Originally going to be named Darlin' after the first song on the album's tracklist, Westbrook pulled from more than 60 songs written over the last 14 months, explaining that the headspace and phase of life he's in informed many of the decisions to get the album down to 17 songs.

"I'm still a college kid at heart and I think that the record shows that. There's not any life lesson songs on there. I'm not there yet, you don't want any lessons from me yet," Westbrook explained with a laugh. "One day you might, but for right now, I think my age group is a little younger. I feel like they'll love heartbreak, and they'll love love, and there's some fun songs on there, and then 'House Again' and 'Sober' and all those songs."

A proud native of the Lone Star State, Texas is always at the center of everything Westbrook does, from the album's sound to its name and everything in between, and following the devastating and fatal floods that took place earlier this month in the Texas Hill Country, he sees this album as something even bigger.

Using his platform and the promotional opportunities for Texas Forever to help raise awareness and funds for those impacting by the destructive Central Texas floods, Westbrook explained, "I think God had a bigger plan because now Texas is going through a hard time. We've been doing anything that we can to help, whether it's donating merch proceeds, donating posters to Texas families, hanging up Texas flags all over Nashville or scannable QR codes to donate. It's all going towards someone and something bigger than me."

Additionally, Westbrook reflects on his heartbreaking duet with Mackenzie Carpenter, his favorite Texas country music, what's to come from the rising singer-songwriter and more.

"I was listening to her album like crazy and when we wrote that song, we were cutting vocals for 'House Again.' Lukas Scott and I wrote 'Lie To Me' and he had an open guitar in the room. I picked it up and started strumming and mumbling along to the melody, and he said, 'I have a verse for that!' We had written the whole entire song and I was like, 'Okay, what if we wrote this as a duet?'"

"It's not the most country song in the world. It's very cinematic so I didn't know if it was a 'me' song, but thought it should be a duet. We wrote a whole girl verse, rewrote some of the chorus and put a bridge on it, so the bones were there."

"It came together in such a special way because we wrote that, we cut a demo on it and I sent it to Mackenzie. I was like, 'Hey, I know this is a very cinematic song and it isn't 'A Dozen Red Flags,' but I think you're a perfect fit.' She said, 'Do you mind if I rewrite the verse?' and she rewrote the verse and put her own twist on it. We got into the studio together and cut the song, but we kept the original acoustic of it and just added to it with the band."

"My go to country album from top to bottom would have to be Turnpike Troubadours' Diamonds & Gasoline. Evan Felker wrote that whole album alone and I love their modern Texas sound. I've always wanted to hear that and take Texas instruments with whatever melody you wanted to over it–even if the melody leans pop, put some Texas on it."

"I think that's the main thing that I'm doing right now, is going into every single write with that intention and with Turnpike on my mind. I love Turnpike. I mean, any Turnpike album that you can name, I listen to it all day."

"I would tell him to make a ton of friends before music starts and to really enjoy your time with your buddies. The way I see it, I just graduated college, I'm off to my first job and it's time to make a name for myself."

"You don't realize that this is the real world now, so I just wish I could tell that kid to make as many friends as you can, go out, have fun with your buddies, don't take anything too deep and don't worry about what everyone thinks. To stand up on a stage and sing every day, you can't worry about what everyone thinks. I wish I would've not cared about what anyone thought and just done my own thing. I did eventually, but I wish I wouldn't have cared as much while I was first doing it."

"Life goals would be to work out more; I hope I'm working out more by then! I'm a little more adjusted on the road to where I catch a workout more now. Another goal would be to enjoy the people around me, and not focus so much on the chase but more on being present in the moment and truly being there."

"I want to sell out a stadium one day. I think, if that's not the goal, then then you're doing it for the wrong reason."

"Mostly, I hope that I'm the same person that I am today as I am in 12 months, 14 months, whatever. If this past year looked like this, I don't know what next year's gonna look like, so we'll see. Hopefully, it's a repeat of this year, but if it is, I hope I keep levelheaded and keep my original sound that I've always had."

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