Kentucky Band The Creekers ‘Follow the Sound’ as Their Career Rises Alongside a Roots Music Revival: ‘It Gives Us Hope We Can Make a Living at This’
Categoria: Musica
Following their viral hit “Tennessee,” this Kentucky band continues evolving its sound and picking up new accolades.
Por Billboard | 30/10/2026
Just a couple of years ago, the members of six-member Kentucky band The Creekers were balancing gigs in tiny Kentucky clubs with day jobs, as the group’s Tanner Horton (vocals and lead guitar), Anna Blanton (fiddle), Scott Sutton (vocals and banjo), Allen Hacker (vocals and rhythm guitar), and brothers Ashton and Jagger Bowling (bass/vocals/cajon) held down jobs ranging from work at a distribution center and furniture factory, to forestry, music and shoeing horses. But over the past year, thanks to their viral bluegrass-drenched hit “Tennessee,” they’ve checked off several bucket list performances, including performing at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and making their Grand Ole Opry debut. “If you would’ve told us that when we were in Pat’s Snack Bar in Manchester, Kentucky, that we would play the Grand Ole Opry in two years, I’d probably say, ‘Give me what you’re drinking,’” quips Hacker. “That was a special moment for us to be able to share that with people we love and play the holy grail of country stages,” adds Horton. Blanton says, “I don’t know if any of us ever thought we would play that.” On Friday (Oct. 30), The Creekers released their sophomore album Follow the Sound , which also marks another first— their initial Warner Records Nashville full-length release. They began playing together in 2022, forming in Leslie County, Kentucky and taking the band’s name from their shared rural roots — and a bit of inspiration from a Tyler Childers tune. “Tanner had said Tyler had a song called ‘Creeker.’ He had been listening to it, and it came to mind that we’re almost all from a creek area there in Eastern Kentucky. That was the first name that we thought of and it stuck,” Hacker says. Their first show was at a tiny Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, bar called Caboose Saloon. “Tanner had a solo act and said, ‘I have some shows there if you want to play them.’ We were there as Tanner Horton and friends, and I think we dodged nine bar fights, but it was a fun time,” Hacker continues. They released the 2024 album Pour It in the Creek , followed by the 2025 EP River Rat, but it was “Tennessee” introduced fans to what the band simply calls “creekergrass,” their hodgepodge brand of alt-bluegrass, encompassing elements of country, pop, blues and soulful Gospel. “It’s kind of hard to put a label on it because there’s so many elements of different types of music in it–bluegrass, pop, we used to do a rap song. It’s just kind of a big mud of music,” Ashton Bowling says. “Tennessee” put the group’s career into a surging trajectory, when a video clip they posted in 2025 earned hundreds of thousands of views overnight. “It was crazy,” Hacker says. “Tanner called [the band’s manager] Tim [Parks] and said, ‘We went viral,’ and I think Tim said something funny like, ‘They make medicine for that.’ But we had over like 300 emails from labels and industry people, booking agencies, just piling on. But i