Being country is being yourself, with Scotty McCreery, Tenille Arts, Matt Stell and Hailey Whitters

Country music stars Scotty McCreery, Tenille Arts, Matt Stell and Hailey Whitters discuss scrapping all of their work after the pandemic, trying to fit in to country radio, relating to fans who go through the same struggles, and being true to yourself in your writing.

Scotty McCreery is a singer-songwriter from North Carolina, USA, and he loves those mountains. And his truck. He started playing guitar at the age of 9 or 10, and sang at school and at church. At 16 he auditioned for American Idol, and went on to win the competition in 2011. Tenille Arts is orignally from Saskatchewan, Canada, but now based in Nashville. Her single Somebody Like That made history in 2021 as the first song written, performed, and produced by an all-female team to top the country charts. Matt Stell is a singer and guitarist from Arkansas, USA, whose massive hit Prayed For You spent two weeks at the number one spot in 2019 and catapulted him to the country big leagues. Hailey Whitters is one of Nashville’s most in-demand songwriters. Born into a musical family in Iowa, she’s worked with the likes of Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, and Keith Urban.