SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Lainey Wilson isn't exaggerating when she says her life lately has been busy.
LAINEY WILSON: We have a lot to celebrate right now, like this record, "Whirlwind." We decided to name the record "Whirlwind" because, well, that's what my life has been (laughter) since we put out my last record, "Bell Bottom Country."
DETROW: The last record was Wilson's fourth, released after a full decade spent writing songs, playing gigs and recording in Nashville, working hard and waiting for her big break. And when that break finally arrived, success hit like a freight train. "Bell Bottom Country" won, well, just about everything. So this new album, "Whirlwind," coming out less than two years later, the title made a lot of sense.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: All right, y'all, we're going to have some fun. Y'all ready?
DETROW: Lainey Wilson and her band recently stepped away from their big tour of amphitheaters and arenas to play NPR's Tiny Desk. And when we sat down to talk after the show, it crossed my mind the crowd was big for NPR, but it's called Tiny Desk for a reason. And it wasn't too long ago that that was the typical size of the audience she was singing for.
WILSON: Top of last year we were on a club tour, which was, I mean, it kind of varied 600 to 1,000 people, but now we're playing to a lot more than that.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: (Singing) Hang tight, honey. I'm a white line running down a dream on long lost highway. Me and this band playing one-night stands with some fans getting straight up sideways.
DETROW: The first song you sang, "Hang Tight Honey," which is...
WILSON: Yeah.
DETROW: ...A song about a character who's out there on the road...
WILSON: Yep.
DETROW: ...I feel like that was probably something that was easy for you to tap into, into that experience, thinking about that character.
WILSON: For sure. I write what I know, and I write what I live. And right now I am living my life on the road. But it's so much fun. I'm getting to meet so many different types of people. The more I do that, the more I realize that we're actually a lot more alike than you think.
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: And that brings me a lot of peace. And honestly, I think it makes me a better storyteller, maybe a little more empathetic.
DETROW: And I love how open you are about how doing this is exactly what you always wanted to do...
WILSON: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Going back to when you were 5 or 6 or something like that. What - when you think back of your first memories of country, what do you think about? What do you hear in your mind?
WILSON: Oh, my goodness, I mean, those voices, I felt like I knew them. I felt like it was Uncle George Strait and...
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: ...Aunt Dolly Parton. Like, that's how I felt. I felt like the voices coming through the radio, they were just, like, parts of my family. And it was more than a genre. It was a way of life. I'm from a town of 180 people. And we eat, sleep and breathe country music. I am who I am because of the place and the town that raised me, and there was no escaping country music.
DETROW: When did you start songwriting?
WILSON: When I was 9 years old...
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: ...I wrote my first song, and...
DETROW: Do you still stand by that song?
WILSON: I'll tell you, it's actually not that bad. It's kind of better than some of the stuff I wrote a few years ago that I'm playing. But yeah, I got bit by the bug. And I think that that storytelling - the reason I wanted to be a storyteller is because I am from such a small town that truth is, there's not a lot to do except sit around the kitchen table and hear the same old stories you've been hearing for years. They made me feel something. The songs on the radio made me feel something, and I think I just wanted to make other people feel something too.
DETROW: So you set this goal. You work really hard. You get to Nashville. You keep working hard - years and years and years. And now you have this moment where you've broken through, and you're talking about this whirlwind that you're living in right now. You said something during the show about trying to keep one foot on the ground and working very hard to do that. What does that look like for you? How do you try to do that?
WILSON: Keeping my people close, making sure that I call Mom and Daddy and my two little nephews back at home - they'll keep you real humble. They don't think you're cool at all. So I think it's about, like, surrounding yourself with the people that, like, knew you, the ones that ate dirt with you. And thankfully, even a lot of people in my crew, we've been at this together for a long time. And so I think it's just important to keep those people close and make sure that you're taking time to fill your cup so you can pour into other people.
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: Yep.
DETROW: That kind of gets into the second song you sang, "4x4xU"...
WILSON: Yeah.
DETROW: ...That kind of approach, that kind of stepping back, slowing down...
WILSON: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Being with - being in your own world, with your own people.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: (Singing) Parked out in the driveway, backed up to a fire on a tailgate, feet on the dashboard - oh, nothing I love more.
That's right. It's so important - whatever your version, you know, is. And for me, that's just, like, doing all the things that just make me, like, kind of connect to, like, that inner child, I guess you could say.
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: So whether it's riding horses or, like, putting my feet in the dirt or anything that just kind of, like, brings me back home.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: (Singing) In a 4x4xU, babe, from the bayou to Kentucky, city to the country, from here to Timbuktu.
I don't actually have to be at home to find that. I can do that wherever I'm at. And I'm kind of finding pieces of home everywhere that I travel.
DETROW: I wanted to talk about "Ring Finger," which is a great song.
WILSON: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: (Singing) I saw a long black hair on a short bench seat. I said, that there hair don't belong to me. I hollered, tell me who. He said, babe, it ain't like that. I said, read between the lines - kept the cash and left his a**. I got the ring. He got the finger.
DETROW: It's great songwriting. It's great performance. We were all thinking about an earlier song of yours, "Middle Finger."
WILSON: Yeah (laughter).
DETROW: Is there a continuum there? Is there a (laughter)...
WILSON: Hey, we're going to have to do pinky next, and then it's going to be thumb. No. It's so funny because I feel like everybody brings, like, some kind of version of a middle finger idea to me.
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: I'm like, what are y'all trying to say? But the truth is, you got to use your middle finger every now and then.
DETROW: (Laughter) Yeah.
WILSON: It's like, God bless you. But it was just so fun for us to be able to write this song. Like I said during the show, I thought I was stepping into the shoes of another character in writing, and then I realized pretty quick, oh shoot, this is me. I am her. She is me.
DETROW: Did that make you want to step away or step into the song when you realized that?
WILSON: Oh, no, I stepped into it.
DETROW: Yeah.
WILSON: I was like, I'm going to own it. I'm going to own the crazy 'cause I think we all have - we all got a little bit crazy.
DETROW: The thing that's great about country music that I feel like - I wonder if it's a challenge as a songwriter - is there's so many themes that you hear in so many different songs, and that's why...
WILSON: Yeah.
DETROW: ...People - you know, it's, like, a comfort. It's, like, an archetype almost. But it might be - like, it must be hard to take that on, but also carve your own lane out and also make it a you song. Like, how do you...
WILSON: That's right.
DETROW: ...Go back and forth with that when you're writing?
WILSON: I mean, the truth is that it is very hard trying to rewrite everything that's already been written. Like, how many times or how many different ways can you say, I love you? Or how many different ways can you say, kiss my butt, you know? So it's just about getting creative and, like, having more conversations with people and listening to people's stories. And I have what I call my hook book in my phone, and I write down my ideas. And I write down next to it where was I whenever I heard this idea or found this idea or thought of it. And songwriting can be - can keep you on your toes, and that's why I love it. It's pretty much just like putting a big puzzle together.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: (Singing) It's got a lead foot down when it's leaving. Lord knows it's taking a hell of a beating. A little bit of love is all that it's needing.
DETROW: Well, Lainey Wilson, thank you for coming by the Tiny Desk. Thank you for coming by ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
WILSON: Thank you. I appreciate you.
DETROW: We appreciate you. Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINY DESK CONCERT)
WILSON: Y'all, give it up for the band one time. Come on.
(APPLAUSE)
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
That was our cohost Scott Detrow with Lainey Wilson just after she played the Tiny Desk. That performance is out now. Just go to npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEART LIKE A TRUCK")
WILSON: (Singing) ...A high riding off into the sun... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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