Graham Barham Teams Up With Lauren Watkins On “Straight To My Heart”

Author Lauren Hoffman

March 29th 10:51 AM

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.

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The Louisiana native co-wrote “Straight To My Heart” alongside Watkins, Lydia Vaughan, and Will Bundy. It follows Barham’s previously released tracks in 2024, including the autobiographical “Bayou Boy” and “Lights On Nobody’s Home.”

“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.

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HARDY - 33
HARDY has made quite a name for himself in country music as one of the most successful songwriters in Nashville, later becoming a headliner. In 2023, his opener was Lainey Wilson, who will kick off her headling “Country’s Cool Again” Tour this summer. HARDY’s “Wait In The Truck,” which won numerous awards in country music in 2022 and 2023, catapulted him to stardom.

Before his star rose as an artist, he was best known for writing hit songs for Blake Shelton (“God’s Country”) and Morgan Wallen (“Sand In My Boots”).
Lainey Wilson - 31
Lainey is country music’s biggest star right now, having won the CMA’s Entertainer of the Year award in November, with the likelihood she will win the same honor from the ACM in 2024. He star shot straight up as her hit songs started to pour out of her with the release of her album Bell Bottom Country. That album was named Album of the Year by the CMA and the ACM and a GRAMMY for Best Country Album.

Wilson can do no wrong as she readies her 2024 headlining tour, “Country’s Cool Again.” Recently, she has appeared on every national talk show, late-night show, and many TV tapings, including an Elvis Presley Christmas special in December from Graceland and a recent Pet fashion show on NBC with Dolly Parton to raise money for pets.

Lainey moved to Nashville before she was out of her teens and worked hard for eleven years before her country music dreams started to come true.
Morgan Wallen - 30
It’s hard to believe how much success this guy has had since he did NOT win or even make the finals on NBC’s The Voice (he only made the Top 20). Even with some controversy, Morgan managed to top record charts and break records at Billboard.

Wallen embarked on a stadium tour in 2023, and even though he had to cancel many shows because of vocal problems, fans still came out to fill stadiums after he returned to the road and to the stage.

In 2024, he has set his sights on playing Hyde Park In London after a successful run in Great Britain in December of 2023. That same month, he recorded songs at the famous Abbey Road Studios, which he had just released to rave reviews.
Kane Brown - 30
Kane is a young father of two with a baby boy on the way. Making his way to Nashville for Chattanooga a few years ago, he quickly became a superstar and is headlining the “In The Air” tour in 2024. One of the tour’s openers is Tyler Hubbard, a guy Brown opened for early in his career for Florida Georgia Line.

Tyler told us, “It was incredible to watch him take on the challenge and grow a ton on that tour. Now, it’s full circle. Now I’m getting to open up for him, and I watch him play, and I’m just like, ‘Wow, he’s really grown into something special.’ He’s just an awesome dude; he’s a great artist. I think he has really found himself and knows who he is and what he wants to be.”

Brown is working on new music, and a new album is coming soon. There is no stopping this guy from continuing to rise in country music and beyond.
Kelsea Ballerini - 30
Kelsea has had a few amazing years, including 2023, when she released her album Rolling Up The Welcome Mat after her divorce from fellow country singer Morgan Evans. That album, which she didn’t tell her record label about until just weeks before she released it, was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2024 for Best Country Album.

She has become one of CMT’s favorite hosts, signing on to host the popular award show again this year, making it the fourth time she has hosted the show in a row.

Ballerini also played her first headlining arena tour in Knoxville, her hometown, late last year, proving herself to be quite the performer. In 2023, she was also named in Time Magazine’s 100 Next list. She has graced the cover of many fashion magazines in the last few years and even started her own makeup line at Cover Girl.