Graham Barham Teams Up With Lauren Watkins On “Straight To My Heart”
Photo Credit: Angelea Presti
Graham Barham teams up with Lauren Watkins for a new track titled “Straight To My Heart.” Together the country singers deliver a striking yet heartbreaking country duet.
“The title was Lydia Vaughan’s idea, and I’ve been wanting to write a song with Lauren for a long time. It worked out well that Will Bundy, my best friend and producer, is her fiancé, and they were counseling me through a relationship at the time,” shared Barham. “Lauren was such an important part of writing this song, and of course, she and Will knew what was happening in my life. She took the reins, and we wrote the song and cut it all within 36 hours.”
“When Lydia brought the title, Graham was immediately like, ‘That clicks with me,’ so from there, we just ran with it,” added Watkins, who is opening stadium dates with Morgan Wallen this summer. “Lydia and Will are both such amazing writers, and we all found how we could each relate to the song, so we really dove into helping Graham say what he wanted to say. It just came naturally.”
Barham released his debut single, “Preachers Need People,” in 2022 and has continued to drop one infectious hit after the next, such as “Break It In A Bar,” “Two Broke Hearts,” and “Beer By My Bed.”
Fans can catch Barham out on the road this summer as a supporting act on Dierks Bentley’s ‘Gravel & Gold Tour’ and find Watkins on select dates for Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Night At A Time Tour.’
Listen to Graham Barham’s “Listen To My Heart” featuring Lauren Watkins below.
The Youngest Superstars in Country Music Today
Over the years, we’ve seen some really young country stars like LeAnn Rimes, who was just twelve when she hit country music stardom. Tanya Tucker, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2023, was just 13 when her country music star began to rise, and she sang adult-themed songs that would make a trucker blush. Billy Gilman enjoyed country music stardom in the 1990s and he was just a teenager.
So Young
Maybe the most recent young country star was Mason Ramsey, who, at 12 years old In 2018, gained internet fame from a viral video of him yodeling “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams at a Walmart. Ramsey was later signed to Big Loud Records, the home of Morgan Wallen and HARDY.
Miranda and Carrie
Miranda Lambert was just twenty when she signed her record deal with Sony Nashville and began her rise to stardom. Carrie Underwood was just 22 when she won American Idol in 2005.
Taylor
And, of course, there’s Taylor Swift. She was just 16 when her debut album came out. Now, she is arguably the biggest pop star in the world, and she’s only 34. Swift was signed on to Toby Keith’s record label when she was only 13. Taylor is like a prodigy, and let’s face it, even before her teens, she was readying her musical career, and no one could imagine how far she would go.
In 2024, we don’t have any teenagers making waves in country music headed for stardom just yet, we do have a handful of country music superstars who just recently completed their twenties, making them the youngest superstars in country music today. One of them is the current CMA Entertainer of the Year, who was only nine years old when she knew she would be a country star one day. A few more of them are major headliners selling out stadium shows almost every weekend all over the country.
