WYATT FLORES

WYATT FLORES CAN pinpoint the exact moment he says the party ended in country music. After a decade-plus of tailgating, beer-drinking songs clogging up playlists, the pandemic struck and forced artists and fans alike indoors with their thoughts. And shit got real, fast.

“They got trapped inside of wherever they were and they had a lot of time to sit down and think, and that ¦lustered up their minds,” Flores says. “People felt emotions that they hadn’t felt before.” Emotional songwriting just happened to be Flores’ bread-and-butter. A 22-year-old Oklahoman who often sings about subjects like addiction and suicide, he quickly found an audience for the songs he was posting on TikTok, rich in substance and naked in vulnerability. “Please Don’t Go,” a desperate plea to a loved one not to take their own life, exploded.

Now, he’s at the forefront of a movement in country music, alongside emo-country kingpins like Zach Bryan and Charles Wesley Godwin, whose emotional lyrics sung over acoustic guitars are packing more of a punch than bro-branded whiskey. At Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last December, Flores opened for Godwin and had fans’ rapt attention when he spoke candidly about his own battles with anxiety. (In February, he canceled a string of his own concerts, citing the stress of nonstop touring.) “If I don’t talk about it with the crowd, and I don’t share my feelings, how can I expect them to share theirs with someone else?” Flores says. “I’m trying to lead by example the best I can.”¨