It’s not every day that you hear the word “grunge” a part of discussions within the Country community — next to already highly-popular new sounds like “bro country” or “country rap” (thanks to prior artists like Thomas Rhett, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean)— and it’s because of newcomer Austin Snell’s arrival is bringing “grunge country” into the limelight of mainstream Country music. It’s his young edgy, modern artistry and his love for the new “grunge” sound that has quickly captivated his fans and helped catapult Snell into the new flavor of what is being considered Country Music.
Austin originates from Dudley, Georgia where his musical influences included outside-Country favorites Three Doors Down, Creed, & Nickelback, to name a few. Snell later spent nearly a decade serving in our U.S. Air Force. After a number of personal trials, he made the decision to make the big move to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue his music dreams in 2022, where he later released “Excuse the Mess” September of that same year. Austin shares from his interview with MusicMayhem, “I knew I was always interested in music and loved it, but I didn’t really play it until I got in the Air Force in 2020. It would’ve been 2017 when I bought a guitar and kind of taught myself how to play covers and got bored playing covers and started writing songs and got bored writing songs. So I started playing ’em out in front of people and one thing led to another and ended up in Nashville.”
Let’s jump to his debut EP “Muddy Water Rockstar”, that released a year later on September 8th, 2023. Songs off the EP are “Wasting All These Tears”, “Get There First”, “Send You The Bill”, and “Pray All the Way Home”. Snell goes into the small backstory behind “Pray All the Way Home”, stating to MusicMayhem, “It’s about making the same mistakes over and over and again, kind of expecting things to be different, but why would they be different if you keep doing the same things over and over again, and somehow thinking that ‘praying on the way’ after making all these mistakes makes things better, which it kind of doesn’t?”. The single was written by Snell, alongside Andrew Baylis, Cam Walker, & Michael Whitworth.
With his debut EP Muddy Water Rockstar Austin further pushes the country genre, continuing to blend his grunge influence with his homestead country roots. There’s no doubt that this EP showcases Austin’s diversity and uniqueness as an artist through each song; which I believe, makes him one of the more standouts peers within the next generation of Country contenders. Ironically, earlier this year Snell was recognized as a “Highway Find” on SirisXM’s The Highway and, by SirisXM for their Artist Acceleration program, panning out over 9+ million global career streams for his already previously-released songs “Excuse the Mess”, “Pray all the Way Home”, and the Cassadee Pope-cover song “Wasting All These Tears”.
In conclusion, I personally where Austin Snell is already headed with his rising Country Music career, and how his style and sound is rapidly being embraced within Nashville. Download or purchase a copy of Snell’s debut Muddy Water Rockstar anywhere you stream music today.
The Neiman Cruse Report 
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