No one can deny that Lainey Wilson is country. First and foremost, the music that she makes sounds like what some would call “real” country music. However, it doesn’t stop or start there. The music she makes is just a reflection of who she is. Wilson isn’t someone who comes from a big city who wants to cosplay having rural roots. The CMA Entertainer of the Year grew up in a Louisiana town so small that it still doesn’t have a stoplight.
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Earlier this month, Wilson sat down with Glamour to discuss her life and career. She touched on her formative years, her journey through Nashville, and more. During the conversation, she talked about what it means to be authentically country.
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Lainey Wilson on Being Country
“When you grow up somewhere like I did with the kind of people that I did, you can’t help but to be country,” she said. Wilson grew up in Baskin, Louisiana. The 210 census showed the town to have a population of 254. At the same time, her dad is a fifth-generation farmer, according to Biography. So, to say that the “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer grew up “country” would be an understatement.
“Country music was the soundtrack of our lives. We lived it out,” Wilson continued. “To me, country is being a good person. I think ‘giving people the shirt off your back’ kind of people, the people who don’t take no sh-t, but the people who will love you and lift you up,” she added.
“When I think about country folks, I think about hard work. I think about people who get up with the sun and then go to bed in the wee hours of the morning. I take being country as a huge compliment because it’s the truth,” she explained.
Wilson moved to Nashville in a pull-behind camper more than a decade ago. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to get where she is today. That strong work ethic combined with her rural upbringing might make her one of the most “country” artists in the genre today.
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