The Alabama native grew up in Slapout, just miles from the graveyard memorial to Hank Williams, and his influences speak to the best of the '90s and '00s: from country greats such as Eric Church, Alan Jackson and Keith Urban to singer / songwriters including John Mayer, Ron Pope and Jason Reeves. Following a move to Nashville in 2016, he spent several years committed to his job as a firefighter while building his catalogue and touring. With more than 25 million streams already to his name on Spotify alone, Braden has new music due later this year.

It might be daunting to launch a massive endeavor like a double album, but not for country superstar Cody Johnson, an artist MusicRow predicts “just might be the future of real country music.” For him, it was quite the opposite. “I literally felt like I was just window shopping.  Like I was a millionaire in a diamond shop. I was like, ‘I want that one.  I want that one, I want that one,’” he says. “And then when we added all those songs up, we had 18 that we knew we had to record.”