Tanner Usrey Hits the Road & Takes it Home

By Dan England | BandWagon Magazine

Tanner Usrey swears he’s excited to be on the road and enjoying the fruits of being an up-and-coming artist.

It’s just that the road is tough, with its dingy truck-stop bathrooms, road signs that somehow qualify as scenery and a bitter loneliness hard enough to bite Bob Seger. It’s no surprise, then, that “Take Me Home,” what Usrey calls his breakthrough hit, is about that gnawing loneliness brought on by the road and touring.

But like a loaded big rig on a downhill slope, Usrey didn't st op once that hit broke out: his latest, “Pick Up Your Phone,” also deals with the road blues, employing a dark and painful country lamentation that didn’t seem to go away in the time between releases. “Take Me Home” was released in August of last year; “Pick Up Your Phone,” hit in November.

Those two are two of his bigger hits on streaming services, although “Come Back Down” and “Beautiful Lies” surpass both by about 10 million listens a piece on Spotify. Funny thing is, the song that’s gotten him the most attention lately was one he recorded two years ago, and he didn’t have to do much to get it out there.

That one’s called “The Light,” and the song, released in 2020, wound up on the season four finale of the TV show Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner, keeping company with the likes of Dolly Parton, Zach Bryan and Lainey Wilson.

He allegedly wasn’t even going to record that one, but his bass player convinced him to do it.

“I thought it was too different,” Usrey said in an interview with BandWagon. “At the time it just seemed … off. But it’s definitely big live now – and a fun song to sing.”

Lots of songs are hitting now for Usrey, who is considered one of most up-and-coming country acts of the year. The country-focused blog Whiskey Riff named “Beautiful Lies,” Usrey’s re-worked duet with Graycie York, the Best Collaboration of the Year, and The Ranch, a top Texas country station, named “Take Me Home” the Song of the Year as well as Usrey himself the Emerging Artist of the Year.

But somehow, Usrey doesn’t sound like pure country. He grew up in Prosper, Texas but loves Skynyrd and the Stones and doesn’t sing with too much twang: His voice brings to mind just as many soulful and sorrowful AM Gold acts such as Dan Fogelberg. His “natural” sounding voice came, well, naturally to him, he claims. And he says he doesn’t try to sound like anyone or force it into a genre. He simply writes and sings from the heart with wider-spread influences than one might expect.

“There’s a little bit of something in there for everyone,” Usrey said. And that little bit is a sincerity; an x-factor which is no doubt the grounds for his growing appeal and recent attention. And the time is now to harness that attention and keep the wheels turning.

He remains on the road, and he admits he gets tired at times, but he’s also looking forward to his upcoming tour dates in the region. He will play a string of shows across Colorado in Colorado Springs, Greeley and Denver as well as an appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming.And though he sings a passionate blues about the dark solitude of the road, Usrey plans to reign in the inspiration and to keep on truckin’. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said.

BandWagon Presents the Tanner Usrey Mountain Tour ‘23:

Thursday, Feb 23 at Vultures in Colorado Springs, CO

Friday, Feb 24 at The Moxi Theater in Greeley, CO

Saturday, Feb 25 at The Outlaw Saloon in Cheyenne, WY

Sunday, Feb 26 at The Black Buzzard in Denver, CO

Get Tickets Online at www.bandwagonpresents.com

BandWagon Magazine - February 2023: Tanner Usrey

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