The Coming of a Country-Music Bieber
He loves a pick-up truck, but can he drive?
My love of Spotify has been well-documented; should I be surprised that the streaming service has again blessed me with something strange?
The curated playlists that recur on my Spotify home screen include the evocatively titled New Boots and the self-explanatory Young Nashville. The cover photos for these switch from time to time, featuring a new artist represented on the list.
The image for Young Nashville made me do a double take the other day, because, well, how young are we talking? Even in thumbnail size, the grinning person perched by a river looked shockingly fresh-faced. Maybe my eyes had applied a youthifying filter to someone named Brent Hitchkick or Finn Glugg (incidentally, great names for a honky-tonk drag performer).
But no, here was Maddox Batson, and he was born in 2009. The 14 year old comes to us from Birmingham, Alabama, but really he is a child of the Internet, treading the path from viral sensation to record deal. The journey from Internet fame to mainstream legitimacy has real precedent. After all, Charli D’Amelio is now dressed by Prada, and Emma Chamberlain runs a multimillion-dollar coffee company. The most notable example from the music industry dates back almost 20 years: one swishy-haired Canadian posting Chris Brown and Ne-Yo covers on YouTube.
With his own broad grin and flat-brim flow, Batson can’t escape the Justin Bieber comparisons. His TikTok and Instagram are awash with commenters calling him the “country Bieber,” and he seems to be leaning into the likeness; he shared his own cover of Bieber’s (actually very good?) song “Love Yourself” in November.
Unsurprisingly, Batson’s comment sections are also full of nasty remarks about his appearance, his voice, and his age. His videos showcase a level of beaming earnestness that could easily be called “cringe.” His voice is unmistakably that of a pre-teen, high and trembly over his acoustic guitar. Still, there’s something oddly compelling about his combination of pep and confidence –– what one finds in videos of a young Jack Harlow. There’s an endearing cockiness on display, a posturing that is still playful and joyful.
At the moment, Batson has two original songs out: “Tears in the River,” released in March, and “I Wanna Know,” which came out on Friday. There’s a video of him lip syncing to “Tears in the River” on his social media accounts where he’s standing in a kitchen. Behind him, a carrot-printed hand-towel hangs over the oven door, and he’s dressed in a backwards cap and camo hoodie. He starts with a brief origin story: “Have you guys ever had a crush? Well, ya boy has. And my most recent one wouldn’t let me get in a relationship with her because her last relationship was toxic. So I wrote a song about it.”
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He proceeds with the lip syncing, paired with staccato dance moves that are somewhere between Covid-era TikTok and the pop-and-locking of an early-career Bieber. In videos for “Tears in the River” and “I Wanna Know” (about a girl he met at church) he repeats one gesture: forming a heart with his fingers that he tears asunder. “Tears in the River” is about a “young girl” in the “heart of Alabama.” With a kind of literal pantomime, he puts a palm facedown by his hip to represent her youngness as smallness.
Even though the dance moves and the videos have a throwback feel, Batson’s references are also decidedly of the moment. “I Wanna Know” opens with the line “I already know what Wallen songs are on your playlist,” a reminder that the much-embroiled Nashville star (who recently chucked a chair off a Broadway rooftop before headlining Stagecoach) provides the soundtrack for a new generation of country fans. Many of Batson’s lyrics are reminiscent of Morgan Wallen songs –– which is to say, they’re vague, rhymed, and not particularly interesting.
Still, it’s not hard to root for the face of Young Nashville, who wears his heart on his camo-printed sleeve. His earnest persona feels refreshing, and in some ways, age appropriate. Batson’s dad accompanies him on the guitar in certain covers, and in one post-show video he asks his mama for a pen to sign a fan’s tote.
While he doesn’t yet risk reaching Bieber-level fame, one hopes this support system will help him stay grounded. Big-name artists like Parker McCollum have left words of encouragement on his Instagram posts, and a video from this past weekend shows him exchanging compliments with Jelly Roll.
Another video finds Batson performing a Nashville pop-up concert in the bed of a pickup truck, a crowd of tween-age girls huddling around. They proffer phone cases and Nike blazers for him to sign, the CDs and band-tees of the TikTok generation.
Leave it to Spotify to give me another real-time story to follow –– in this case, a career that’s just beginning. In “Tears in the River,” Batson invites us along for the ride: “Come on hop up in this truck now / Drive to Nashville chasing luck now / Watch the memories wash away in that rear view.” Like countless young people before him, Batson’s sights are set on Music City. Let’s just hope one of his parents is at the wheel.
But wait, there’s more:
A hit:
On the topic of 2010s heartthrobs and country music, I have to include this cover of One Direction’s 2014 song “Steal My Girl,” which I discovered last week. With his deep drawl and fiddle backing, Jade Eagleson turns it into a proper country dancing tune. The themes of jealousy and blue jeans make it sound like it’s been country from the get-go.
A miss:
The famously sonorous Josh Turner released a new song last week called “Heatin’ Things Up.” Known for his singular voice (and his appreciation for Confederate generals), Turner has some undeniable hits, though this is not one of them. It’s about being at a party and being really horny for his partner: “I try to stay in conversation and follow what friends are saying / My eyes catch your eyes and my mind goes off on us.” It’s a bit of a mouthful to get us to the not-so-satisfying rhyme: “It’s hard to keep it cool with you heatin’ things up.” For a better execution of the let’s-get-outta-here premise, instead try Chris Young’s “Gettin’ You Home.”
Personal links:
I wrote two more recent culture round-ups for Vogue.com, one on actually helpful self-help books and another on not-to-be-missed autobiographies. You can check them out here and here.
That’s it for now, folks!