Austin Snell: Grand Junction, CO

Armed with a pen like a nerve ending and the warm metallic buzz of a rip-saw vocal, River House Artists / Warner Records Nashville’s Austin Snell is a rising country renegade whose work presents anguish and ecstasy in harrowing high definition. A 28-year-old, Georgia-born veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Snell’s musical education was formed on a bedrock of artists ranging from Nickelback to Three Doors Down, Alan Jackson to Keith Whitley. Weaving country, rock, and hip-hop influences into an addictive catalog of his own originals, the emerging hitmaker boasts nearly half a billion global career streams and an exponentially growing fanbase, a series of skyrocketing digital hits and a debut album to his credit.

Cutting through the noise with a series of deeply personal, self-penned songs that caught fire online during the COVID-19 pandemic, Snell’s signature features heavily distorted guitars, thundering drums, x-ray like transparency in his songcraft and a wounded vocal at the end of its rope. Dropping his full-length album debut Still Bleeding in 2024 and most-recent EP Home Sweet Hell, Snell unveiled sets of songs filled with inner conflict amidst a cycle of blackouts, breakdowns, and redemption – classic themes wrapped in new school sonics. A SiriusXM Highway Find and the network’s first-ever Artist Accelerator Program selection, Snell has toured with Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Warren Zeiders, Kolby Cooper, and more,