Waylon Wyatt Debut Album "Dustpiles"

Three years ago, I attended Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles, Iowa, for the first time, and there’s one memory and one artist that has stuck with me ever since.

It wasn’t on the main stage. It was tucked away deep in the woods at the Campfire Stage, where I watched Waylon Wyatt perform at just 15 years old to a crowd of maybe 50 to 100 people.

I remember him telling the audience that he doesn’t make upbeat music. His songs are slower, more personal, and deeply reflective and that’s a theme that still defines the music he creates today.

Now, Waylon has released his debut album, Dustpiles, a 16-track collection that gives listeners an intimate look into his world. The album explores love, loss, and growing up, revealing Waylon at his most introspective and vulnerable.

Waylon’s story is one of resilience. After losing his older brother at a young age, he turned to songwriting as an outlet. The 19-year-old folk-country artist from Hackett, Arkansas, has built a name for himself with his raw, red-dirt take on Americana. He began writing songs as a kid, often after long days working construction with his father, and has since gone from playing to a small festival crowd to touring the world performing his original music.

If there’s one album you should carve out time for this week, make it Dustpiles. It’s the kind of record that pulls you in from the very first song and by the time it’s over, you’ll be wishing there were 16 more tracks.

This year, Waylon Wyatt returns to Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles, Iowa not to the Campfire Stage where I first discovered him, but to the festival’s Main Stage. It’s a full-circle moment and a powerful example of just how much he’s grown as an artist over the past four years. Watching that journey unfold has been incredibly special, and I have no doubt this is only the beginning.