KYGO Performance Studio

Bayker Blankenship, a 19-year-old from the small town of Livingston, Tenn., is on the fast track to stardom by way of going viral on TikTok. He swung by 98.5 KYGO’s Performance Studio to perform “Tennessee Sunset,” “Lost Time” and “Maxed Out.”

Blankenship, with over 740,000 followers and 9.8 million likes on TikTok and over 2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, is making preparations to step out of the screen and onto the stage for his first tour. The 10 shows will take place from September 19 through November 9 in cities largely concentrated in the Midwest and East. The string of shows, dubbed “The Tennessee Sunset Tour” will be kicked off by a show in Charleston, S.C., and will wrap up in Opelika, Ala.

Following in the footsteps of his family, Blankenship initially had plans to go into industrial maintenance and was attending school for it. His plans began to shift when, in pursuit of a new hobby, Blankenship first picked up a guitar during his spare time during COVID, the product of which being his first single “Can’t Get Enough” in September of 2021.

He took a brief hiatus from making music until the release of “Maxed Out,” although life came at him fast in the years between once he committed more seriously to the instrument.

Blankenship started to gain some traction when he started posting covers on TikTok late in 2022. He frequently covers two artists he cites as his musical influences: Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers. His first video to make a big splash was a cover he posted of him singing “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi with his younger brother, posted in January 2023, which currently sits at over 3.4 million views. His top video, which celebrates one million streams on “Maxed Out,” sits just under 8 million views. Those aren’t the only accomplishments his rise to fame has brought, though — it also afforded him his first time traveling on an airplane.

After his TikToks started to take off and a future in music became clearer, he quit his job as a pitmaster at a barbecue joint featured in the “Maxed Out” music video and quit school to pursue his newfound career. There’s no blueprint for Blankenship, as he claims he is the only one in his family to ever take a serious interest in music.

The teenager has since released his first EP, “Younger Years,” in July, which has six tracks, one of which being “Maxed Out.” In addition, Blankenship released a single with Waylon Wyatt, entitled “Jailbreak,” earlier this month.

Before opening for friend Sam Hunt at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on Friday, Russell Dickerson made a pit stop at KYGO’s Performance Studio and, taking requests from the intimate audience, performed “Every Little Thing,” “Bones” and “Yours” — two of which have spent some time in the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts.

The 37-year-old is a Tennessee native, born in the small town of Union City to a musical family, and made his way to Nashville in pursuit of a career in music. Before setting out on his own, he studied music and graduated from Belmont University. In the years following, he signed with Creative Artists Agency and released his first music in the form of an EP, “Die to Live Again,” shortly thereafter in 2011.

He was soon rubbing elbows and touring with revered country artists such as David Nail, Canaan Smith and Thomas Rhett in 2015 and 2016. Also in 2015, he released one of his biggest hits to date, “Yours,” which he wrote with Parker Welling and Casey Brown. The song was a sleeper hit and didn’t make the Country Airplay chart until a year and ten months after its release, entering at number 57. Slowly but surely, the song climbed to the number-one spot in January of 2018.

The song became the title track of his second EP, which debuted on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart at number 14 when it was released January of 2016.

Dickerson wasn’t ready with “Yours” just yet. After signing with Triple Tigers Records in late 2016, he repurposed the name for a third time, using it as the title track for his first album. The LP, released October of 2017, premiered at the number one spot on the Billboard Heat Seeker chart and peaked in the fifth spot on the Top Country Albums chart. The album included other hits for the Tennesseean, such as “Blue Tacoma” and “Every Little Thing,” which both peaked at number one on Country Airplay. Yet another “Yours” was released on the album, this time as an acoustic version.

The “Yours” singer didn’t release another album until late 2020, entitled “Second Symphony.” In the interim, he became a father to his first son, Remington, born in September 2020. Dickerson struck gold on “Second Symphony” yet again with its lead single, “Love You Like I Used To,” another number-one hit on Country Airplay. In November of 2022, he released his third album, “Russell Dickerson.” In June of last year, he released his third EP, “Three Months Two Streets Down.” Later in 2023, he welcomed home his second son, Radford.

In 2024 so far, he’s released two singles: “Good Day to Have a Great Day” and, most recently, “Bones.” During Dickerson’s Performance Studio session, he hinted at the release of new music at the end of August.

War Hippies, otherwise known as Scooter Brown and Donnie Reis, visited KYGO’s Performance Studio to perform “Killin’ It,” “Like Father Like Daughter” and “The Hangman.”

Brown and Reis joined forces in 2022 due to their shared experience as both military and music veterans, hence the name of the group. Once both traded in their weapons for microphones, guitars and fiddles, and established themselves separately in the music world, War Hippies was born, which is what they consider to be a “country music duo and lifestyle brand.”

After Brown made the decision to commit to a career in music, in 2009, the Scooter Brown Band was formed and made a name for themselves playing in and around Houston. The modern southern rock band quickly found success, opening for their inspirations including The Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Lee Roy Parnell, Travis Tritt and Dwight Yoakam, among others.

In 2017, Rolling Stone highlighted the band in their “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know: December 2017” rundown, and the group continued their momentum and solidified themselves as a fixture in the country music scene when they made their debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 2019.

Brown may also be a familiar face to music television show fans, as he was a finalist on USA Network’s show “Real Country” in 2018, which featured music legends searching for the next big country artist.

Reis, similarly, is an accomplished vocalist and instrumentalist who has spent years touring and playing a multitude of instruments: fiddle, piano, guitar and, most notably, violin.

Reis is an accomplished veteran as well, having served in the US Army from 2001 to 2009, including a tour in Iraq.

He can truthfully describe himself as a veteran, producer, owner, vocalist, instrumentalist, songwriter and composer. He has written for television/film projects and artists/groups from various genres. His resume includes 26 songs on the Billboard top 10s, two of which were number-one songs. He also owns and is the executive producer of 3 South Recording in Nashville.

In October of 2022, War Hippies released their first album together, self-titled, which reached its peak position of number eight on the iTunes Country Chart. One of their songs from the record, “Make it Out Alive,” earned its way onto American Songwriter’s “Top 24 Songs of 2022” list.

Although their lives of combat may be behind them, on top of their music-related achievements, the two make their commitment to the military community known through fundraising efforts and advocacy work.

The duo is performing throughout the remainder of the year on tour, and, although War Hippies hasn’t released another full-length album since their first, they’ve consistently put out new music: singles “Loot for Good” and “No Friend of Mine” in 2023 and “So Sweet” and “Like Father Like Daughter” in 2024.

Born and raised in western Kentucky, Kelsey Hart is now turning heads in Nashville and worldwide as the singer-songwriter behind the viral TikTok love song, “Life With You.” Influenced by artists such as Blake Shelton and Jake Owen, Hart’s powerhouse vocals and brilliant songwriting have him set up to be a country music star for years to come.

So far in his career, singer-songwriter Drew Parker is perhaps better known for the latter half of the designation, but is hot in his pursuit of making a name for himself as an artist and performer as well.

The 32-year-old swung by and sang “Raised Up Right,” “Love the Leavin'” and “While You’re Gone” for KYGO’s Performance Studio.

Parker, born in Covington, Ga., a town home to less than 15,000 people, grew up listening to country music greats like Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt and Ronnie Dunn. His start can be traced back to age three, when he started singing in church in front of small crowds. When he was 14, he added a notch to his belt and took it upon himself to learn how to play guitar, and a few years later at 18, learned how to play the piano as well.

The Georgia native’s path took a turn when Parker decided to pursue a career in the medical field, which earned him a degree in radiology during college, where he learned to be an X-ray technician. Around the same time, in a career-altering moment, he was booked to open for Luke Combs at a venue in Rome, Ga., where the two met in the green room. As Parker told “Taste of Country,” they “hit it off and have been close friends ever since.” The show only attracted around 80 fans, according to Parker. It was there that Combs urged him to move down to Nashville to write songs with him.

Heeding Combs’ advice, Parker took the leap and moved to Music City in 2015 when he was 24.

His first big success as a songwriter came in 2019 in the form of a number-one hit, “Homemade,” which was released by Jake Owen. The song hit the top of both the Billboard Country Music and US Country Airplay charts.

His lyricism has since caught the attention of some of country’s biggest names, with many hits listing his name among the writing credits in the fine print. He wrote “Forever After All” for Combs, which won the BMI Country Award for Song of the Year in 2022 and was certified 5x platinum. The 2020 single reached number one on three separate U.S. charts: U.S. Country Airplay, U.S. Hot Country Songs and U.S. Rolling Stone Top 100.

The following year, 2021, he toured with Combs and opened for his shows. The two cowrote “Doin’ This” in the same year, which got Parker his first Grammy nomination, of which he learned about when he got a call from Combs.

He intermittently recorded his own songs, releasing a standalone single in 2016 and a four-song collection in 2018, but further embraced the choice to make a name for Drew Parker the singer-songwriter, versus Drew Parker the songwriter, when he then put out his first EP, “While You’re Gone,” in 2020. The highest charting song was the self-titled track, which rose to number 42 on the Country Airplay chart. The single was Parker’s first for country radio. He cut his second EP in 2023, “At the End of the Dirt Road,” and toured after its release.

On June 12, the “While You’re Gone” singer announced across social media platforms that his debut full-length album, “Camouflage Cowboy,” is scheduled for release on July 12 and is available for preorder. In addition, his single “Better on a Boat,” will come out Friday, June 14.

Fresh off the heels of attending the Academy of Country Music Awards, where he was nominated for the first time for New Male Artist of the Year, Kameron Marlowe stopped by KYGO’s Performance Studio to perform “Tennessee Don’t Mind,” “Strangers” and a Colorado favorite, “Girl on Fire.”

The 26-year-old was born and raised in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina — Kannapolis — and, like many artists, credits his interest in music to country radio, played by his grandfather while the two would fish and hunt together.

It was during this time that the North Carolinian was continually uploading videos of his live performances to YouTube. The videos caught the attention of a talent recruiter for “The Voice,” who contacted him, and, he subsequently made his first appearance on the Blind Auditions portion of the show in its 15th season during September of 2018. He initially joined Blake Shelton’s team, but was later stolen by Adam Levine. He was eliminated from the show in the Live Playoffs Top 24 episode.

With the experience of being on “The Voice” under his belt, he made the move to Nashville to pursue a career in music and ended up releasing “Giving You Up,” his debut single, in June 2019. Less than a year later in April 2020, the song had accumulated 15 million streams and was certified Gold by by the RIAA. Shortly thereafter, he signed a management deal with AMG, a songwriting deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and a recording deal with Sony’s Columbia Nashville imprint. In November of 2020, he released his self-titled EP.

After his early-found success, the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic stunted his progress, which forced him to, as he put it, “rebuild.” His rebuilding effort included the release of his first full-length album in August 2022, “We Were Cowboys,” which peaked at the 22nd spot on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

The “Giving You Up” singer is releasing his second album, “Keepin’ the Lights On,” on May 31.

Some artists may use forgetting their guitar as an excuse to play hooky from a KYGO Performance Studio session, but some artists are not Matt Stell. As a solution, Stell simply plucked a guitar signed by Merle Haggard from the walls of the station. He paid homage to his guitar’s signer by starting out with an impromptu performance of Haggard’s 1968 release, “Mama Tried.”

Stell continued with three original songs: “Breakin’ in Boots,” “Everywhere But On” and an unreleased song, “Smooth.”

Arkansas-born Stell started out as an athlete, playing basketball in high school and later on an athletic scholarship for Drury University. His athleticism took a back seat when he pivoted toward music, and in the process he turned down his acceptance to Harvard University’s Extension School part-time pre-med program in 2014. Instead, he signed a deal with Wide Open Music, which coincided with a move to Nashville, Tenn.

Playing as the lead singer of “The Crashers” gave Stell his start in music and performing. He released three solo albums before signing with Wide Open Music: “The Sound & the Story” (2009), “Vestibule Blues” (2011), and “A River Through It” (2013). He added to his resume by opening for artists like Eric Church and Luke Bryan and writing songs for other artists, including “What Cowboys Do” for Casey Donahew, which was played during “Yellowstone” in its third episode.

The Arkansan has released four EPs since, including “Last of the Best” (2018), “Everywhere But On” (2019), “Better Than That” (2020) and “One of Us” (2023). “Everywhere But On” and “Better Than That” peaked on Billboard’s Top Country Albums at the 32nd and 43rd positions, respectively.

One of his breakout moments arrived with the release of “Prayed for You” on his first EP, which was named by Rolling Stone as one of the “10 Best Country Songs to Hear Now” and accumulated 44 million plays in one year. As a result, Stell was signed to the RECORDS label and was named a CMT Discovery artist.

Stell performed at the Grand Ole Opry twice in 2019, once during his debut in April and two months later when accompanying Old Crow Medicine Show and the Del McCoury Band. That same year, RIAA presented him with a Gold certification for “Prayed For You.”

Stell performs at the Grizzly Rose in Denver on Friday, April 5.

“American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent” and most recently, KYGO’s Performance Studio — the path forged by singer-songwriter Drake Milligan, who, during the latter, performed “Over Drinkin’ Under Thinkin,'” Marty Robbins’ “Devil Woman” and “I Got A Problem.”

The 26-year-old, born in Arlington, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth, notes that though his inspirations going up were country greats Merle Haggard, Robbins, George Jones and George Strait, it was Elvis Presley that made a sizable impact on him at age seven. The King not only put into perspective what being an entertainer meant, but also made a career in music doable for Milligan.

He took his love for Presley so far as to try his hand as an Elvis impersonator during his early high school years. He got to be even more intimately intertwined with the “Blue Suede Shoes” singer when he was cast to play a high school-aged Presley in “Nobody,” a film set in Memphis in 1953, which highlighted his formative relationships and his start in show business. Evidently, the Texan did Presley justice in the portrayal because he was picked to play him again in CMT’s “Sun Records,” a 2017 miniseries centered on the inception of rock ‘n’ roll in Memphis at Sun Records recording studio.

Shortly thereafter, Milligan stood in front of judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie on the “American Idol” stage in 2018 and got the Platinum Ticket, affording him the opportunity to advance to the next round in Hollywood. Milligan, only 19 at the time, ultimately decided he wasn’t ready to go forward with the process due to his lack of experience as an artist and dropped out.

Although Milligan originally pursued acting, as he put it, “…this country boy did not last very long in L.A.” “Very long” was defined as longer than three months, which is when he ditched the script and made the choice to fully pursue music in Nashville.

Upon moving to Nashville, he honed in on songwriting, recording and performing live for five years once he was in Music City, and he subsequently signed a recording contract with BBR Music Group and released his first EP in 2021, self-titled.

It didn’t take long before the opportunity came knocking for an audition on “America’s Got Talent” in 2022. He performed an original song, “Sounds Like Something I’d Do” and got a “yes” from each judge and went on to finish third that season. He appeared briefly during the next season’s Results Night to sing “I Got A Problem,” which rose to number 62 on the Billboard Top 100.

Almost immediately after his time on the season concluded, he put out his first full-length album “Dallas/Fort Worth,” the title reflecting the duality of the music on the record.

In 2023, Milligan released two singles: “Honky Tonkin’ About” and “I Got A Problem,” the former released with The Reklaws. In February of this year, a second EP was released entitled “Jukebox Songs.”