Louisiana Girl

ARTICLE BY Vanelis Rivera

PHOTO CeCe Dawson

One thing Lainey Wilson does not ever want people to say about her is that she forgot where she came from. “I’m proud of where I’m from, I’m proud of how I was raised,” she says. She attributes her love and acumen for storytelling to sitting around the kitchen table with her family listening to her parents tell the same story over and over again, each time more embellished and exciting. “I have a whole lot to owe to Louisiana,” she presses, wanting to emphasize profound gratitude to the people of Baskin and North Louisiana. There’s no mistaking that Wilson’s roots run deep.

Lainey Wilson had an active and affluent 2021. Recently she made her late night television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live where she performed her hit single “Things a Man Oughta Know,” a song that topped the charts and was nominated for the CMT Music Award’s for Breakthrough Video of the Year. Following the release of her first major label album Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’, she was chosen as iHeartRadio’s On The Verge artist, claimed her first #1 song on country radio, was named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2021, and was included in various “Best of 2021” year-end lists by Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Billboard, Taste of Country, Whiskey Riff, and All Access to name a few. Not to mention, Wilson’s music has been featured three times in Paramount Network’s hit television show Yellowstone. From the outside looking in, the stardom is undeniably glamorous, but the fact is, behind one year of flashing lights is a decade of slogging through the proverbial grind. “They say it’s a 10-year town,” exclaims Wilson, referring to Nashville, her home since 2011 when she left the tiny community of Baskin, Louisiana in a Flagstaff camper trailer. Yet even now, after trudging her way through paying her dues in the big city and into a surging music career, this blond long-haired, bell bottom devotee, is still unapologetically true to her small-town roots. 

One of Wilson’s first and favorite childhood memories has to do with her father farming cotton, “back in the day when cotton prices were a lot better,” she says. “I remember my mom would cook like this huge meal and we would take the food out literally to the field for the farmers.” Along with her mother and sister, they would picnic on tailgates and sometimes saddle horses to ride. On occasion, she’d get the thrill of being asked to jump on the cotton. “We would get in the back of the cotton trailers and just jump as hard as we possibly could. All the kids jumping on all the cotton to push it down so they could add more cotton.” Though regarded as a simple kind of life, the more grueling aspects of the profession didn’t get past Wilson. “Agriculture is the backbone of America, period. Everything we have, food, clothes…where would we be without a farmer?” In fact, much of what she learned about farming aligned with her experiences in the music business. “You get up every single day, rain or shine. It don’t matter. And I think this is really with anything in life. You plant it, you water it, you watch it grow. A tornado or a hurricane could roll through and wipe it all away. But at the end of the day, if it’s your livelihood, if it’s what you love, and if it’s the only thing you know how to do, then dammit you figure it out.” 

Though many can’t relate to growing up in a designated village of approximately 239 people, Wilson will eagerly relate what that origin has meant to her: “Being from such a small town really showed me how important community is.” She realized this the most when she moved to Nashville, “a little fish in a big ole pond.” At first, it was hard to find her people, ones who would stay in her corner, people who believed in her, the kind of support she had known all her life in Louisiana. “I’m not gonna lie, there were definitely times when I ran across the bad kind of people. And I was not used to that, just because where I’m from everybody’s good. You know, everybody has the best intentions,” she reveals. But always, her hometown fans rooted for her, applauding her as a 9-year-old singing a cappella for 20 minutes at a corner store; cheering her on through her whirlwind teenage years often performing as a Hannah Montana impersonator; and now proudly telling all their friends of her success.

       Nashville was a culture shock, though. “I had never really driven on an interstate…I just went and was kind of thrown into it.” As she dove in headfirst, she tried to remember what her community had taught her: “Roll your sleeves up. Don’t take no for an answer. You can’t have a plan B; if you have a plan B, then Plan A is not going to work.” Going back home wasn’t an option for Wilson, not because she didn’t love Baskin or North Louisiana, but because since she was 9 years old, she knew Nashville and its songwriting community was going to be home. “I took my first family vacation when I was about nine years old, and we went to Gatlinburg and drove through Nashville on the way home back to Louisiana. And I remember exactly where I was when I told my parents, ‘This is home.’ I was looking at the Batman building [in downtown Nashville].” The moment felt divine, and though it pulled her away from the home she loves, the deep ties to her state and community permeate her life, particularly her songwriting. 

“I feel like the music that I write, the music that I record is truly a direct reflection of where I was raised,” she says, referring to the hard-working, “blue-collar folks who would give you the shirt off their back, who take pride in what they do, take pride in working hard for their families.” She feels proud herself to be from a community of good-hearted people that take being a good neighbor to heart. Through her music, she shares what she knows about being honest and true to who you are “to your core.” A storyteller at heart, she considers her music as unifying: “Whether it’s a beer-drinking song, or whether it’s a sad song, my job is to get up there and make people feel like we’re in this together.” As a fan of songs she can emotionally sink into, Wilson acknowledges she didn’t have enough of a story to tell her first few years in Nashville. She understands that her ten-year wait was necessary. “I needed more life to live,” she smiles.

The day she wrote “Things a Man Oughta Know,” she was with Jonathan Singleton and Jason Nix. “In my opinion, two of the best songwriters in Nashville, and they’re just dear friends of mine,” she says. That day, catching up around a coffee pot, just “shooting the bull,” Jason revealed to Wilson he had a song he’d been saving for a male artist, but that maybe could work with a female artist. Not a fan of songs being pushed to a demographic, she wanted to take on the challenge of turning a “boy song” into something everybody “and your mom” can relate to. “I don’t want to go in here singing about lipsticks and dresses and twirling around, you know.” When Jason mentioned the title of the song, she instinctively began talking about things her parents had taught her growing up, “like how to back up a truck and trailer, how to start a fire, change a tire, turn a wrench.” Once the trio began digging a little deeper, they noticed the overall picture of the song. “This song right here is about having good character, it’s about treating people the way that you want to be treated. It’s about the golden rule. It’s about having the courage and the discernment to do the right thing.” Those are the characteristics her family made sure she left Baskin exemplifying. “This is a song for all the people who had a hand in raising me,” she adds. 

From the get-go, her parents knew Lainey was a strong-willed force to be reckoned with. Even at two, she was letting people know what was on her mind. “We were headed to Monroe, and we were passing a McDonald’s, and I was in the backseat.” Wilson kept bugging her dad to stop at McDonald’s, to which her father responded. “Okay Lainey, we’ll take you by McDonald’s.” And that’s just what he did, drove right on by. From the backseat, her parents heard, “I’m tired of this shit.” Wilson laughs at this story now, but she understands the significance of being assertive at a young age. “The truth sets you and everybody else around you free,” she says, at the same time acknowledging that it’s still important to think before you speak. “Telling the truth is hard. It really is hard. Because you’re scared about how people are going to take it or you’re scared to admit it yourself.” Nevertheless, every song on her record is based on the question, “Is this song saying what I’m thinking?” 

Going against the grain comes naturally to Wilson, a trait she admires in other musicians like Chris Stapleton, Eric Church, and Brothers Osborne. “They are who they are; they just say it like it is. And I love that about people. Even if it makes your skin crawl a little bit. At least it’s making you feel something at the end of the day,” she asserts. It’s no surprise that her all-time hero is Dolly Parton. “Dolly can do no wrong,” she laughs, admiring the music icon’s ability to tell it how it is with a little bit of grace. “She can be sassy with a little bow wrapped on top.” Her great respect for Parton takes the form of a song titled “WWDD,” track 10 in her new album: “When life rings my southern bell / I just gotta ask myself, hell / What would Dolly do?” A question we should all adopt for this new year. 

Like her idol, Wilson has also made a name for herself based on her fashion leanings, namely her signature bell bottom look. “So I’ve just always been obsessed with things that are just different and unique. And I like to call it bell bottom country…it’s country with a flare,” she says, not just about the article of clothing, but her approach to life. “It’s about finding that thing that makes you stand apart or makes you you and leaning into that.” Bell bottoms have been just that for Wilson who enjoyed her first pair when she was about 9 years old. “They were blue leopard, and I was obsessed with them,” she says, adding, “I think we’ve all got a little bit of bell bottom country about us.” 

One thing that Wilson does not ever want people to say about her is that she forgot where she came from. “I’m proud of where I’m from, I’m proud of how I was raised,” she says. She attributes her love and acumen for storytelling to sitting around the kitchen table with her family listening to her parents tell the same story over and over again, each time more embellished and exciting. “I have a whole lot to owe to Louisiana,” she presses, wanting to emphasize profound gratitude to the people of Baskin and North Louisiana. There’s no mistaking that Wilson’s roots run deep. Her culture surfaces in her cheerful drawl, fun fashion sense, and relatable lyrics. “I can’t be anything but what Louisiana made me, and that’s the truth,” she says with her French bulldog Hippie on her lap, and a mounted art print in the background that reads “Hey Y’all!”