2015 was a very good year for country music. We saw several artist including some of our favorite locals take over the spotlight. Artists like Kelsea Ballerini, Cam, Chris Janson, A Thousand Horses, and of course Chris Stapleton who we first saw at Pilgrimage but who took the attention of the whole country after his performance at the CMA Awards with Justin Timberlake.
As we look forward to 2016, here are some country artisst that you need to put on your play list now. Spotify has identified these 15 artists as the ones to watch in 2016. Spotlight on 2016 list was compiled by Spotify’s team of in-house music experts along with analytics of streaming data from users, including the artists whose music appears in Spotify’s viral charts.
• Maren Morris, has a self-titled EP with more than 2.5 million streams.
• Ryan Kinder, a self-taught guitarist who played for Brett Eldredge and Zac Brown.
• LANco (Brandon Lancaster, Tripp Howell, Eric Steedly, Jared Hampton and Chandler Baldwin) released an EP on Spotify that includes the tracks “Trouble Maker,” “We Do,” “American Love Story” and “High”;
• Brooke Eden, songwriter who has opened for Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn;
• Lauren Alaina, who appeared on Season 10 of “American Idol” and released the album “Wildflower” and a self-titled EP, is garnering attention for the single “Next Boyfriend” and the ESPN exclusive track “History,”;
• Lucie Silvas, who was 17 when she went out on the road as a backing singer for British singer/songwriter Judie Tzuke, has released the album, “Letters To Ghosts”;
• Aubrie Sellers, Sellers is from a musical family- her father, songwriter, Jason Sellers. Her mother is singer Lee Ann Womack.
• LoCash — the duo of Preston Brust and Chris Lucas with the latest single “I Love This Life.”
• Haley Georgia, recently toured with Chase Rise in 2015. Her latest track “Ridiculous has reached more than 1 million streams.
• Russel Dickerson has shared stages with Florida Georgia Line, Billy Currington, Kip Moore, Darius Rucker and Kelly Pickler.
• High Valley -Canadian brothers who call Spring Hill home. They have a top 10 Canadian hit with song “Country Line” a song about the line between Williamson/Maury County.
• Jon Langston, songwriter
• Dylan Scott – embracing the grassroots movement by reaching new fans traveling & performing across the country in venues.
• Tara Thomas, recently penned a deal with Big Machine records as a songwriter. Watch Chris Stapleton and Justin Timberlake Perform
