As introspective, detailed singer-songwriters like Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers have risen to the top. Bulletin board charts and sold out auditoriums and stadiums recently, Stillwater, Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores is set to step up their ranks with his debut full-length album Welcome to the Plainswhich was released last Friday (October 18) via Island Records.
The album follows a trio of EPs: 2022 The Hutson Sessionsof 2023 Life Lessonsand this year's Half Life that led to Flores' rise to the public consciousness thanks to a blend of his sophisticated, folksy sound and unflinchingly honest lyricism. It made him the latest in a strong lineage of musicians like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours and other architects of the Red Dirt sound that emerged from Oklahoma since the 1970s.
Flores, 23, began releasing songs in 2021, but it was “Please Don't Go,” a raw, emotional plea for a loved one to avoid killing themselves, that gained traction just over a year ago, and finally won over 154 million streams on Spotify alone. This was followed by resonant songs such as 'Break My Bones' and 'Losing Sleep'.
The songs' success sent Flores on a high, along with being on the road, playing shows with 49 Winchester and headlining his own fast-growing concerts.
“We just played a 3,300-capacity stadium in Oklahoma City,” he notes. Bulletin board. “The last time we played OKC, it was like a 500-capacity room. It's crazy.”
He made his Grand Ole Opry debut seven months ago and played Stagecoach and the venerable venue Red Rocks Amphitheater for the first time this year. She also earned a nomination for Emerging Act of the Year at this year's Americana Music Honors & Awards. But when it came time to record Welcome to the Plainssays Flores Bulletin board he was “so scared, honestly.”
“I sat there in Asheville and just went over the lyrics,” he recalls recording at Echo Mountain Studios there, as well as in Los Angeles and Nashville. “I was like, 'I don't think I'm good enough for an album yet.' But I got to a point where I thought, “Just let the songs be what they are and capture the moments where I was without overthinking it.”
Welcome to the Plains was born during what Flores calls “a really dark point in my life,” as he juggled the demands of his career while struggling with anxiety and impostor syndrome, as well as struggling to process and grieve the loss of a few close ones people. including Flores' maternal grandfather, who committed suicide in 2023.
In song and in conversation, Flores does not hide that his greatest motivation is not in huge sold-out shows, but in helping listeners in difficult times. Releasing songs like “Please Don't Go,” Flores also had to navigate the emotional weight of realizing that while his songs can be a balm and a healing agent for some, music can't always be a savior. He delves into that new album's “Oh Susannah” feeling, particularly in lyrics like “Why did I believe I could save you, my love/ Without killing me?”
He had previously included a version of The Fray's 'How to Save a Life' on his Half Life EP, but in February, Flores had his own emotional moment on stage, breaking down during a show in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is the only thing I've ever cared about and for some reason I can't understand, I don't feel anything,” she told fans in a vulnerable moment on that show. “I struggle with it. I'm sorry, guys. I have to tell my truth. I don't know why… I'm sorry I can't give you all what you deserve. And I love you all and I'm so grateful that you're all here.”
Flores took a four-week hiatus from recording and touring, canceling a series of shows and seeking help at an Onsite mental health counseling facility near Nashville.
“I learned so much because, honestly, people don't go through this phase in their lives until they're in their 30s,” says Flores. “I went onsite when I left the tour and I looked around the room and there were maybe three other people my age and the rest were mostly in their 60s. I felt like the last thing I want to do in this life is be this age and look back and say, “How was I unhappy all this time?” I started doing a lot of personal work and I still work on myself.
“I knew I had to become a better leader than I was,” he continues. “I wasn't taking the time to process things I needed to and I wasn't putting boundaries in my life between me and the fans. It just crippled me to the point where I couldn't do it anymore. I was like, 'I don't even know if I like music'—and that's the only thing I've ever loved.”
Unlike the mostly acoustic-based songs on his previous releases, Welcome to the Plains it's a harder work, full band. Songs on the new album that have flown since that time away from the spotlight are often anything but dark, like the sultry rock and nod to Red Dirt on the album's title track, which he co-wrote with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show. Elsewhere, on the pulsating 'Don't Wanna Say Goodnight', he longs to spend his last few minutes with a lover before they part ways.
“You'd think I would have written some of the more depressing songs, but I had this weird way of dreaming about a better time, I guess. That's where it all came from, I just wanted to get out of that dark place,” he says. However, several songs, such as “The Good Ones” and “Angels Over You,” touch on mortality, as does “When I Die,” a song Flores calls “the weirdest love song I've ever written.” The song brings levity to lines like “When I'm on the ground, if I hear you talkin' s—t/ I hope I get a chance to be a ghost and scare your kids,” while also weaving in heartfelt sentiment.
“I get that humor from my dad,” he says. “I've written so many songs about living and dying because I've lost a lot of people in my life, so that's where my head was. I'm sure people will listen to it when they're grieving and I hope it gives them a little smile instead of sobs.”
Flores' father is a retired welder and former drummer, and Flores' family is also in the cattle business. Growing up in Oklahoma, Flores credits his family's hard-working lifestyle with instilling the discipline that has served him well on the road.
“Without this life, I don't know that I would be responsible enough to do this,” he says. “You wake up at 5:30 in the morning when you're 12, you go out to the barn, you work in the freezing cold, then you do your homework and then you go to school. Hard work and dedication is where it's at.”
Flores grew up in a household filled with a mix of country and blues. He briefly attended the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before realizing that the time he spent sneaking into local clubs to play music was more valuable to him. He eventually moved to Nashville and immersed himself in folk music and Americana, including the works of Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.
“I became obsessed with this music. It's a huge influence,” he says. His new album offers a sampling of sounds, with deep emotional digs sitting alongside flashes of sharp intelligence. (“I'm still figuring out what I like [own] the sound is,” he explains.)
“I also want to be a motivational speaker,” he adds. “I always wanted to give speeches. I want to be good enough to be able to do this part time. I'm also working on a list of starting my own cattle company, branching out from what my parents have. We are just waiting to buy land right now. We had 80 head back in the day. I want to get back into the world of show cattle, give kids a chance to show cattle, those who don't really have the money to do it, let them learn from it.”
Eight months removed from that pivotal moment on stage in Missouri, Flores says he's learning how to just be himself amid growing recognition, but he knows he can always find refuge in Stillwater.
“It's a strange feeling. I really feel like I can just come back here and be myself, although I do take pictures [with fans] every time I go to town. It's a strange feeling because I went from being a nobody to being known to everyone. It's a feeling of being able to hide in plain sight and then not being able to hide anywhere. I don't like hiding from people. I just keep going out and showing people that I'm a normal person.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/wyatt-flores-debut-album-welcome-to-the-plains-1235808524/