Lauren Watkins. Photo: Courtesy of MusicRow

Music has followed rising singer-songwriter Lauren Watkins everywhere life has taken her. The Nashville native combines her clever songwriting style, guitars skills and hazy yet silky vocals to create a soothing, southern blend.

Watkins officially signed a record deal with Big Loud Records and Songs & Daughters, the label helmed by hit songwriter and artist Nicolle Galyon, and released her debut EP Introducing Lauren Watkins in April. Spring continued to be a big season for Watkins, as she was named SiriusXM The Highway’s newest “Highway Find” in May. She’s not slowing down this summer as she has been on the bill for festivals including CMA Fest and Carolina Country Fest and is slated for more in the coming weeks.

Watkins recently stopped by MusicRow to tell her story and share a little of her latest project and recent work.

Growing up in Music City, she and her older sister—SMACKSongs writer Caroline Watkins—played at various spots around town. The first gig they booked was at the sports bar Corner Pub, which didn’t typically have live music. As they got older, the sisters started playing downtown at the Broadway bars as well as Puckett’s locations.

Photo: Claire Schaper/Courtesy of Big Loud Records / Songs & Daughters

Watkins then left Nashville to attend the University of Mississippi—known as Ole Miss—and study marketing.

“I was still doing music, because I could never fully [stop]. I wasn’t playing shows, but I always had my guitar with me in every place I lived in college and would [play] for my roommates and [post] little cover videos on Instagram. I just couldn’t ever not do music,” she shares.

It wasn’t until Caroline, who was still playing live shows, came to perform in Oxford, Mississippi and pulled her up on stage that Watkins remembered how much she loved performing live.

“That was the turning point where I [decided], ‘I’m going to come home and [pursue] music.'”

Watkins notes that she wanted to stay and finish school with her best friends, having developed special bonds and a deep affinity for Ole Miss. She began writing songs while still in college to give herself every opportunity to flourish musically once she returned home. Watkins also got to know a local cover band and started to play gigs with them.

“Ole Miss,” one of the tracks on the project, is dedicated to her alma mater and has an accompanying video that was filmed in Oxford along with the video for track “Anybody But You.”

After graduating in May of 2021, she moved back to Nashville and signed a publishing deal with Songs & Daughters later that year. As a newly-signed artist, Watkins is introducing herself and her talents to the country music space with her seven-song collection. Inspired by stars such as Kacey Musgraves, she creates clever tunes that utilize traditional country elements.

Produced by Joey Moi, Introducing Lauren Watkins includes the cleverly sugared single “Shirley Temple,” which Watkins wrote alongside Galyon and Meg McRee.

“It is my favorite song from [the EP] and it seems to have gotten a pretty good response,” she shares. “I’m just really proud it.”

The EP also features single “Camel Blues,” which was one of the first Introducing Lauren Watkins releases along with “Shirley Temple,” and rowdy track “Sleeping In My Makeup,” written by Watkins, McRee, Tofer Brown and Lauren Hungate.

During her MusicRow visit, Watkins shared an unreleased tune called “Cowboys on Music Row.” She wrote the song while on a retreat with her sister and a few of their friends/collaborators. Watkins notes the song came to be after the group had binged music documentaries such as Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus, among others, leaving them inspired to write a tribute to the country music greats.

Next weekend, she will perform as a part of the Faster Horses Festival lineup at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, before taking the Next From Nashville stages at both the Watershed Music & Camping Festival in George, Washington and  TidalWave Music Festival in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Ashley Gorley

Ashley Gorley sits atop the MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart for the ninth consecutive week this week. He is a co-writer on Chris Janson’s “All I Need Is You,” Parmalee’s “Girl In Mine,” Russell Dickerson’s “God Gave Me A Girl,” Hardy’s “Truck Bed” and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night,” “Cowgirls,” “Everything I Love,” “Thinkin’ Bout Me” and “You Proof.”

Tracy Chapman remains at No. 2 this week as Luke Combs’ cover of her solely-written “Fast Car” rises on the country charts. Zach Bryan keeps his position at No. 3 as his solely-written “Something In The Orange” continues to rack up streams.

The weekly MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart uses algorithms based upon song activity according to airplay, digital download track sales and streams. This unique and exclusive addition to the MusicRow portfolio is the only songwriter chart of its kind.

Click here to view the full MusicRow Top Songwriter Chart.

Nanci Griffith

The legacy and 70th birthday of the late Texas singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith will be honored through two new special collections arriving in September.

The  first collection, titled Working in Corners, reissues Griffith’s earliest—and long out-of-print—albums, including her 1978 debut, There’s a Light Beyond These Woods, 1982’s Poet in My Window, 1984’s Once in a Very Blue Moon and 1986’s Grammy-nominated The Last of the True Believers (featuring “Love at the Five and Dime” and “Goin’ Gone”).

Set for release on Sept. 8 via Craft Recordings, the collection also features rare photos and ephemera and liner notes by Holly Gleason and producer Jim Rooney, who worked closely with Griffith during the period. Rooney, who co-produced the box set, also weaves in memories from a myriad of Griffith’s friends, peers, and collaborators. Working in Corners will be available as four-CD and four-LP vinyl box sets, while There’s a Light Beyond These Woods, Poet in My Window and Once in a Very Blue Moon will make their long-awaited return to digital platforms.

Griffith’s music will also be celebrated through an all-star tribute, More Than a Whisper: Celebrating The Music of Nanci Griffith. Arriving Sept. 22 via Rounder Records on vinyl, CD and digitally, the album features Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Kathy Mattea, Shawn Colvin, John Prine, Kelsey Waldon, Sarah Jarosz, Steve Earle and Mary Gauthier interpreting Griffith’s most-beloved songs.

Recorded over several years, More Than a Whisper also includes stirring contributions from Brandy Clark, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Iris DeMent, Todd Snider and Aaron Lee Tasjan, while Ida Mae and The War and Treaty both appear exclusively on the expanded CD, digital and HD versions of the album. All proceeds from More Than a Whisper will benefit Nashville’s Cumberland Heights, a non-profit treatment facility offering hope and healing to those affected by drug and alcohol addiction.