The Next Best in Country: Luke Combs

In an upstairs conference room at Thirty Tigers main office, a new-coming artist stares at a vinyl copy of a Wheeler Walker, Jr. release; holding the vinyl in his hands, he asks “Have you heard this guy? He’s incredible.” Placing the record down and retrieving a can of dipping tobacco from his pockets, he glances over and politely asks, “Do you mind? Just trying to make myself comfortable but I don’t mean to be rude.” Ladies and gentlemen, may we introduce the unabashedly humble yet confident Luke Combs.

The Asheville, NC native is a recent transplant to Music City but the foundation for music was set from near infancy. “I’ve been singing since I could talk,” Combs laughs, accounting for how the diverse range of music in Western North Carolina, from bluegrass to Led Zepplin to Patsy Cline, helped impact his early years. “I feel like I’m nestled in the hills kind of thing and that kind of mountain music for me – it really has had an effect on me.” Noticing their son’s budding talent, his parents gave him his first guitar when he was in seventh grade. Unfortunately for the left-handed Combs, he didn’t take to it easily, giving up after only one lesson. The instrument then sat collecting dust in the back of Comb’s closet for roughly eight years until a lonesome summer came around.

Studying at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, Combs would make his way back to Asheville during summer breaks to work and hang out with old friends from home. Unbeknownst to him, the latter were all spending their summers in the larger cities of Charlotte and Raleigh. Unhappy with his job and bored from lack of social engagement, it was his mother’s tidbit on a country megastar that inspired him to give it another chance. “My mom was like ‘You know, Kenny Chesney didn’t learn guitar until he was 21.’ And I was 21. And I was like ‘Well, I got this then.’ So I went in the closest and dug this old thing out and I didn’t put it down for – I never put it down since then.”

Now at 26 years old, Combs and his guitar are making beautiful music and touring the country. He has already garnered himself a well-founded and stable following, finding himself playing over 200 shows a year, including a slot opening for Justin Moore and Clare Dunn during this year’s popular Toadlick Festival in Dothan, Alabama. His socials accumulate over 100,000 followers while his music has over 15 million online streams. And it’s no surprise country music fans love him – his smooth tenor delivers undeniably home-hitting lyrics, while his honest demeanor is utterly appealing. Combs is just himself, in both person and song.

And naturally, Nashville has taken notice. Gearing up to release his debut album, This One’s For You, via River House Artists and Thirty Tigers, Combs is in every facet of the catalog he has composed to share with the world. That’s right, composed – Combs has co-penned all of the twelve tracks on the anticipated release. A bit traditional, a bit contemporary, a bit outlaw, Combs encompasses himself and all that is good about country in one package – “I think my goal as an artist is to just be honest, not only to myself but to other people,” Combs states. “I’ve never been afraid to go in and say what I think needs to be said because I know that if I’m going through something, or someone I’m in the room with is going through something, there’s a million other people going through that that don’t know how to say it or are afraid to say it. It’s really helping people through things in their life, whether it be good or bad. It’s really what I try to accomplish when I’m in a room writing a song.”

 

With his debut single “Hurricane” in rotation on SiriusXMs The Highway #OnTheHorizon, and ten gravitating songs such as “Out There” and “Used To You” on This One’s For You, it’s only a matter of time before Combs begins domination of all other country radio markets.

To learn more on what the buzz is all about, connect with Luke via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.