TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. One of the more distinctive, recent sounds in country music comes from Stephen Wilson Jr., according to our rock critic Ken Tucker. Recently nominated as best new artist by the Country Music Awards, Wilson is a former microbiologist who is also a Golden Gloves boxer, who's also, says Ken, writing some of the most intricate and compelling songs around these days. And he's broken through not with huge record sales, but viral clips on social media. Here's Ken's take on Wilson and his growing career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRIEF IS ONLY LOVE")
STEPHEN WILSON JR: (Singing) Life is a battlefield, and it'll drag you right through hell. Bites like a rattlesnake, the kind that you just don't see on the trail. I miss my father every day. The kind of pain I pray don't fade away. And the ones above guide me down the road. Yeah, grief is only love that's got no place to go. From my great granddad...
KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Stephen Wilson Jr. has a deep, rumbling voice. He delivers his lyrics through a clenched jaw as if he almost regrets having to articulate his feelings. It's a self-conscious style, at once forceful and diffident, which only makes his music that much more intimate. He's created a sound in which an increasingly large number of listeners find comfort and strength.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAND BY ME")
WILSON: (Singing) When the night, the night has come and all the land is dark and the moon is the only light we'll see, no, I won't be afraid. No, I won't shed a single tear just as long as you, just as long as you stand by me. So won't you stand by me? Won't you, won't you, stand by me? Stand by me. Won't you stand by me? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
TUCKER: That's Wilson's version of the great Ben E. King song "Stand By Me." It takes a serene, lovely ballad and roughs up its edges. When he performed it as a best new artist nominee during the televised Country Music Awards in November, it stopped the show. The camera panned across the faces of stars a hundred times more famous than Stephen Wilson Jr. They seem startled and elated by this moment free of glamour and self-congratulation. Wilson's own compositions burst with images of his working-class upbringing in rural southern Indiana, songs densely packed with adjectives rhymed in the rhythms of hip-hop, as when he describes himself as a torn cigarette, wet book of matches in this song called "Patches."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PATCHES")
WILSON: (Singing) Got a crack in my windshield, a crack in my skull, a crack-of-dawn coffee, and I love you all. And it's good to be grateful. Grateful is good. Hell, one of these days, I won't behave like I should. 'Cause I got scratches from catches on all my rusty old latches. I got rent that ain't spent yet hiding out in my mattress. I got rods that won't reel. I got scars that won't heal. I'm a torn cigarette, wet book of matches. My patches got patches.
TUCKER: Wilson is in his mid-40s, and he's been around for a while. But it's mostly in the past year that he's come to prominence, and he's done it in that 21st century way - online, where a viral clip of his performance of the national anthem at the 2025 National Football League draft got a lot of attention, as have snippets of him playing and talking on various podcasts. The talking is key to his appeal. He bills himself Stephen Wilson Jr., and that junior is crucial. To hear him tell it, his father, who died while only in his 50s, was the most important influence on Stephen. His dad taught him to box, and for a while there, young Wilson was a Golden Gloves-level boxer. Wilson titled his one album to date "Son Of Dad." He sang I miss my father every day in the song that started this review, and in another tune called "Father's Son," he goes deeper into that relationship.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FATHER'S SON")
WILSON: (Singing) He was named by my grandma. She got it from the Bible. And he passed it on to me, like granddaddy's rifle. Raised me up like sweet corn, created a disciple. Yeah, I fought it like hell. Hell, he became a rival. Yeah, I tried to be different, tried to go against the grain. Didn't make no difference. I just ended up the same. I've never known better, yeah, 'cause every bone's tethered. You want to change my name? Got to drain my blood. I am my father's son.
TUCKER: Musicians break through on social media just as much as they might on the radio, but social media, unlike radio, isn't mass media. Whether it's TikTok or Instagram or whatever you use to be exposed to music, it's a platform in which information is fed to you based on other similar things you've sought out. As a result, building a broad audience this way takes time. It has for Wilson. He's starting 2026 by going out on an extensive cross-country tour, and he's selling out bigger markets like Los Angeles and New York, where media buzz builds. Which means Stephen Wilson Jr. now faces his next test in this new year - whether public interest in his low-key, organically built career can translate into a popularity that accommodates rather than smooths over his rough and intricate artistry.
MOSLEY: Ken Tucker is FRESH AIR's rock critic. Stephen Wilson Jr.'s most recent release includes the EP "Blankets" and a new edition of the debut album "Son Of Dad." If you'd like to catch up on interviews you've missed, like our conversation with historian Heather Ann Thompson about how the 1984 subway shooting of four Black teenagers by a white man tells the story of how fear is weaponized in America, or with Jason Zengerle about how Tucker Carlson became one of the most influential people on the far right, check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews. And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations on what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair.
FRESH AIR's executive producers are Danny Miller and Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. With Terry Gross, I'm Tonya Mosley.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDGAR MEYER, MIKE MARSHALL AND BELA FLECK'S "SLIDING DOWN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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