Wyatt Flores

Hailing from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Wyatt Flores is one of Americana music’s most exciting up-and-comers, finding no shortage of inspiration in his red-dirt roots and Mexican American heritage. The singer-songwriter first broke onto the roots music scene with 2022’s The Hutson Sessions EP, whose track “Please Don’t Go” found viral success, cracking the top 50 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart the following year. Flores followed that project with 2023’s Life Lessons, another EP that showcased his grit, vulnerability, and singular perspective, from which he writes evocatively of his home (“West of Tulsa”), family history (“Life Lessons”), and brushes with heartbreak (“3/13”). Flores is also well-known for his mental health advocacy, as he frequently writes about his own struggles and has been candid about taking time away from music to care for himself. He documented some of these struggles on 2024’s Half Life EP, a bruised but bright roots-rock collection with no shortage of sonic influences from his Mexican heritage. That EP is a fitting preview for Flores’ full-length debut album Welcome to the Plains, the fullest encapsulation of his sprawling vision thus far. Songs like the title track and “Stillwater” grapple unflinchingly with the complicated history of Flores’ home state, with rough-hewn production that would make one of his primary influences, the Turnpike Troubadours, proud.