South by Southwest is getting some more country firepower among its showcasing artists this year, as Lainey Wilson and Charley Crockett are joining the festival’s lineup, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal.
Wilson and Crockett, who both have documentaries on SXSW‘s lineup this year as well, have been added to the music lineup alongside Los Lobos, Passion Pit and Money Mark. On the more upcoming artist front, Ink, the country-pop-hip-hop phenom songwriter whose credits include Kendrick Lamar’s “Luther” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” joins the bill along with Miss Bashful and Kairo Keyz.
Wilson and Crockett’s SXSW shows come as country music has become one of the hottest genres in the United States. In an interview with THR, Brian Hobbs, VP of music at SXSW, called the bookings a sort of SXSW take on a genre it hasn’t always put its focus on, even as the festival has been housed in the heart of Texas.
“The bigger story outside of just Lainey herself is that country music is really going to have a big presence at South by Southwest this year, and it really hasn’t in the past,” Hobbs says. “We’ve had some here and there, Garth Brooks in 2017, a Keith Urban concert before, but there hasn’t been a ton. Our programming always mirrors the overall music business trends. The past couple years, regional Mexican music was exploding at South By as it was in broader pop culture. And it’s going to be a lot of new country music doing that this year.”
Hobbs says Wilson and Crockett reflect “a lot of what’s cool about current country music right now.” He alluded to Crockett’s recent comments in defense of Bad Bunny’s recent Super Bowl halftime show, with the singer saying that “The country music establishment should be taking notes on a Puerto Rican American who hasn’t forgotten his heritage and brought his culture’s traditional music back to the front.”
“It’s a little dangerous for country music artists to say some of the stuff that Charlie’s been saying,” Hobbs says. “It feels right for him to have a big presence at South by Southwest this year.”
Country music’s explosion comes mainly as the genre came to fully embrace streaming in the past several years, with that bump coming a bit later than earlier-adopting genres like pop and hip-hop. Dev Sherlock, director of the SXSW Festival and conference, says their programming this year reflects the widened country landscape.
“Country radio, more than any other genre, had the format in its grip,” Sherlock says. “With the sort of dispersion of how people listen to and discover stuff. I think that’s allowed it to open up to the new audience, to the new sounds, all those different things.”
Aside from country, Latin will continue to have a notable presence at this year’s festival, with Junior H a headliner at Billboard’s Stage showcase, alongside Don Toliver and Mau P. Meanwhile, Fuerza Regida is headlining Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase at the festival, along with BigXThaPlug and Lola Young.
Editorial Note: SXSW is owned by Penske Media Corporation, the same parent company to The Hollywood Reporter.
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