For a decade, Ellis Bullard has been turning heads across Texas. His authentic songwriting and mix of cutting-edge rock with old-fashioned, swinging country music has caught on — in a big way. In the midst of a breakout stretch, he’s inviting fans old and new to join in his journey. “I’m just a person, just a guy out there having a good time and trying to make sure other people are too,” Bullard says. “I give my time to people, and I think that means a lot to them. I’m genuinely trying to forge relationships and have meaningful interactions with all the fans I meet on the road.”

In the wake of 2024’s Honky Tonk Ain’t Noise Pollution, his second LP, Bullard has left no doubt that country music is still yearning for the true-blue honky-tonk experience he brings to the stage and studio. Listen to Bullard, and you’re listening to a life of barnstorming, hard living, and layers of musical influences. “I just grew up in a musical household. It was always there,” Bullard says of roots that were in place before he was born. His mother was a studio artist in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, often recording at the iconic FAME Studios throughout the 1970s. His father played in a handful of dance hall bands during Bullard’s youth. For most of his life, the stage called out to him. “I wasn’t good at anything else,” he says. “I was an OK student, and I wasn’t the best athlete, but I always knew my way around a song.”

While attending college at Texas State in San Marcos, Bullard strolled into a local bar to watch a friend perform, when he got called on stage during a set break. He played a few originals, and a fan tipped him $100 and asked when he would be playing more shows. Bullard never looked back. He put a band together and hit the Austin scene hard, landing an opening spot for Whiskey Myers for one of their 2017-18 tour dates, and frontman Cody Cannon offered some early words of support. Bullard’s momentum culminated at Austin’s White Horse honky tonk in early 2022 when Joe Rogan strolled in and was blown away by Bullard’s sound. Rogan shared a clip of Bullard’s performance that night with his 14 million Instagram followers, and a buzz ensued that really has not slowed since. His debut album, Piss-Hot Freightlining Country Music, was released a few months later and cemented Bullard as a rising star at a time when authentic artists were regaining a foothold in country music. “You keep after it, and it’s something that you do because you love to,” Bullard says. “There’s no endgame. This is just what I do. You stay confident by doing the work and putting in the practice, making sure you get better.”

Some of the biggest names in Texas Music took note. Kevin Russell (Shinyribs) became a mentor and friend. He found himself sharing the stage with major acts like Kevin Fowler, Reckless Kelly, Cody Jinks and Randy Rogers. These days, he’s finding himself headlining bigger stages, and beyond Texas. His 2024 itinerary includes headlining shows in dance halls and clubs from coast to coast and top billing at the historic Festival Country De Crappone in France. For his part, Bullard knows he’s on to something, and he’s enjoying the ride. “I’m pretty confident that, over the past ten or so years of coming into myself as an artist, that I’ve seen and done a lot,” Bullard says. “I’m just ready to keep it going, you know?”

Just as the marbled salamanders emerge from under damp logs and leaves, the mushrooms—smooth, pearlescent ones and spongy morels—turn on like night lights glowing in the dark, and the long-horned beetles and regal moths begin buzzing. The fiddlehead ferns and trout lilies curl inward, a copperhead slowly swerves, and a fox steps into the moonlight looking for prey. It is here, in that restless middle of the night, under cover of darkness, where Caleb Caudle’s sixth studio LP Sweet Critters is nestled.

Through sometimes shadowy arrangements that creep and lurk, Caudle continues to mine both the brightest and murkiest corners of his imagination, finding that purest of points where tenderness and grit collide, inspired by musical heroes like Buddy Miller and Guy Clark, and mentors like Elizabeth Cook and John Paul White. It was White who Caudle tapped to produce Sweet Critters, along with Ben Tanner, at the duo’s Florence, Alabama studio Sun Drop Sound. "I was very excited to work with Caleb on this record. Iʼve been a fan for years and count him as a friend,” White says of working with Caudle. “Heʼs a stellar songwriter, so I knew heʼd bring the goods. And he did.” The album features Allison Russell, Aoife OʼDonovan, John Paul White, and Caudleʼs own touring band.

These songs are a showcase of Caudle’s singular command of language. He sees the world through a hyperreal lens wholly unique to him, one that renders dank humidity “horsefly heat,” a moody sky “cast iron skillet” dark, or a loved one’s “wind chime of a smile.” For Caudle, details are the last frontier in a world where thousands of new songs are created every day. As such, he weaves his intricate tales of redemption, sacrifice, forgiveness, and loss with the colorful threads of living, breathing characters and all the rich idiosyncrasies and ephemera that fill out their worlds.

Caudle and his band have played Stagecoach, Cayamo, Luck Reunion, Mountain Stage, Merlefest, Americanafest, The Long Road (UK), AMAUK (UK), and recently supported Marty Stuart, Steve Earle, Hayes Carll, Elizabeth Cook, Brent Cobb, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and many more.