Photo: Getty Images
Lainey Wilson wore a stunning Western-inspired look as she serenaded TikTok followers with her dreamy, Wizard of Oz-inspired single.
Commenters gushed over Wilson’s cowgirl outfit — complete with fringe and a cowgirl hat — as the reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year played “Somewhere Over Laredo” in her TikTok on Tuesday (August 26). Wilson debuted the ballad earlier this year as she got ready to release the deluxe edition of her latest studio album, Whirlwind. Wilson also fell “through a rabbit hole of nostalgia” in the cinematic music video she premiered in June. Wilson wrote “Somewhere Over Laredo” with Trannie Anderson, Dallas Wilson and Andy Albert.
“I’m very proud of this song,” Wilson said in an interview with iHeartCountry while talking about the song that nods to “the timeless classic ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’” Actress Judy Garland famously performed the song when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 1939. “I spend a lot of my time in the air on a plane, headed to the next town, to the next show, and I catch myself just looking out the window and dreaming, and thinking, and reminiscing, talking to God, (and) writing songs. And I feel like this song right here, it gave me an opportunity to step back into a pair of shoes that I wore years ago, and I got to tell a story from that perspective. So, and that’s what country music is, you know? It’s about taking you back to a certain time and place, and memory and feeling, and that’s what we wanted to capture in this song right here. And it was cool to be able to tip our hat at the same time to one of the most classic songs of all time.”
“Somewhere Over Laredo” is one of several new tracks on the extended version of Whirlwind, along with “Bell Bottoms Up” (nodding to her bar of the same name in Nashville, Tennessee), “King Ranch, King George, King James,” “Yesterday, All Day, Every Day” (which Wilson's fiancé, Devlin “Duck” Hodges, said is a “song on how we met”), and “Peace, Love, and Cowboys.”
WHIRLWIND DELUXE TRACK LIST
1. Keep Up With Jones
2. Country’s Cool Again
3. Good Horses (feat. Miranda Lambert)
4. Broken Hearts Still Beat
5. Whirlwind
6. Call A Cowboy
7. Hang Tight Honey
8. Bar In Baton Rouge
9. Counting Chickens
10. 4x4xU
11. Ring Finger
12. Middle Of It
13. Devil Don’t Go There
14. Whiskey Colored Crayon
15. Somewhere Over Laredo
16. King Ranch, King George, King James
17. Yesterday, All Day, Every Day
18. Bell Bottoms Up
19. Peace, Love and Cowboys
“These songs that are gonna be on the deluxe, they were all written after Whirlwind was out, so it was kind of like the next step, or what life I lived right after Whirlwind was released,” Wilson said in her previous interview with iHeartCountry. “And so, it was cool to be able to tap into that, and also, it’s cool to be able to share that side, too, with the fans. And I’m really, really proud of this. I mean, I’m partial, but somehow, I feel like we continue to push it and level up, and I feel like even the people that I write songs with, they’re feeling the same way. We’re like, ‘OK, we really did it with this one,’ and we’re like, ‘OK, well how does it get better than this?’ And then it somehow does. But that’s a good place. That’s a very good place to be in.”
See Wilson’s upcoming tour dates below.
LAINEY WILSON TOUR DATES
August 28—Calgary, AB—Scotiabank Saddledome*
August 29—Edmonton, AB—Rogers Place*
August 30—Saskatoon, SK—SaskTel Centre*
September 11—Baton Rouge, LA—Raising Cane’s River Center†
September 12—Baton Rouge, LA—Raising Cane’s River Center†
September 13—Bossier City, LA—Brookshire Grocery Arena†
September 18—Austin, TX—Moody Center‡
September 19—Fort Worth, TX—Dickies Arena‡
September 20—Houston, TX—The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman ‡
September 25—Toronto, ON—Budweiser Stage§
September 26—Clarkston, MI—Pine Knob Music Theatre§
September 27—Grand Rapids, MI—Van Andel Arena§
October 2—Nashville, TN—Bridgestone Arena||
October 3—Noblesville, IN—Ruoff Music Center§
October 4—Cleveland, OH—Blossom Music Center§
October 9—Columbia, MD—Merriweather Post Pavilion§
October 10—New York, NY—Madison Square Garden§
October 11—Mansfield, MA—Xfinity Center§
October 16—St. Louis, MO—Hollywood Casio Amphitheatre||
October 17—Rosemont, IL—Allstate Arena||
October 18—Saint Paul, MN—Xcel Energy Center||
October 24—Knoxville, TN—Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center#
October 25—Charlotte, NC—Spectrum Center#
November 7—Tampa, FL—Amalie Arena#
November 8—Orlando, FL—Kia Center#
December 7—Las Vegas, NV—Lainey Wilson: Wildflowers & Wild Horses
February 6—Auckland, New Zealand—Spark Arena~
February 8—Christchurch, New Zealand—Wolfbrook Arena~
February 11—Brisbane, Australia—Brisbane Entertainment Centre~
February 12—Brisbane, Australia—Brisbane Entertainment Centre~
February 14—Newcastle, Australia—Howlin’ Country~
February 16—Sydney, Australia—Qudos Bank Arena~
February 19—Melbourne, Australia—Rod Laver Arena~
February 20—Melbourne, Australia—Rod Laver Arena~
February 22—Adelaide, Australia—Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena~
February 26—Perth, Australia—RAC Center~
*with special guests ERNEST and Kaitlin Butts
†with special guests ERNEST and Maddox Batson
‡with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Drake Milligan
§with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Lauren Watkins
||with special guests Muscadine Bloodline and Maddox Batson
#with special guests ERNEST and Drake Milligan
~with special guests Flatland Cavalry and Kaitlin Butts