Kane Brown
If the mixed-race vocalist with the deep tenor that mixes Vern Gosdin’s oak with Randy Travis’
presence didn’t look like an eye-catching model, it would be easy to recognize the resemblance
of his origin story to those of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash. Haggard’s family were dust bowl
immigrants, living in a box car, trying to make ends meet, and Cash’s parents raised him in an
Arkansas’ sharecroppers’ shack as they worked hard to provide for their children.
And like Haggard and Cash, the triple American Music Awards winner is determined to break
ground as he creates a distinctly country music of the moment.
Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Brown’s new album Experiment released November 9.
This follow-up to his Platinum-certified 12-week No. 1 self-titled debut album pushes his kind of
country forward to smooth ballads and brisk midtempos that capture the soul of commitment,
the sweep of desire and the stumble of doubt. But rather than just follow the pack, he reaches
back to embrace elements of the traditional that are missing in so much of today’s modern
pop-centric country.
