B AYO U B E AT S
Louisiana Girl
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. Vanelis Rivera OPPOSITE PAGE CeCe Dawson
ARTICLE BY PHOTO
COTTON FIELDS TO NASHVILLE
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.
22 FEBRUARY 2022 | WWW.BAYOULIFEMAG.COM
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ainey 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
