Luke Combs

Luke Combs’ rough-around-the-edges brand of country music provides a welcome foil to Music City’s polished radio fare, mixing versatile songwriting with hard-rock dynamics while always staying true to the genre’s established values. While new artists usually get a cold reception from country radio, Combs (born in 1990 and raised in North Carolina) barged right through any obstacles. His 2016 debut single, “Hurricane”, went to No. 1 on the U.S. country charts. The following year, his second single, “When It Rains It Pours”, went to No. 1. By 2019, Combs was the first country artist in history whose first seven singles went to No. 1—a streak he extended to a lucky 13—and he was soon headlining arenas. It seemed like overnight success, but it wasn’t. Combs moulded his signature sound—a bold, yearning tenor, Southern rock guitars, hip-hop-imbued beats—and released three independent EPs before a major label signed him. It doesn’t hurt that he has an Everyman appeal, looking, he’s said, not like a star but like a typical country fan. In a sea of styled and coiffed Nashville stars, Combs' unkempt manner is a statement of rural masculinity. That attitude is reflected in his thick, raucous sound, but he’s also a diverse songwriter who can toggle from rowdy and loose to sweet and devoted, funny to sentimental. Case in point is the faithful and impassioned 2023 rendition of Tracy Chapman’s classic 1988 track “Fast Car”—Combs’ self-proclaimed favourite song—from his fourth record, Gettin’ Old. In the ’90s, Garth Brooks gave country music the scope of arena rock; Combs has taken up that mantle, shaping it anew for his own generation while keeping the roots of tradition intact.