I think I love this one just as much, if not even more than, the album cut.
Over the weekend, Lainey Wilson scored her seventh career #1 hit at country radio with “Wildflowers and Wild Horses,” which peaked a the top of the Mediabase chart (one of two charts that labels use to officially track their songs performance, along with the U.S. Country Airplay chart).
She penned the tune alongside Trannie Anderson and Paul Sikes, and it was included as the third single from her 2022 Grammy-winning Bell Bottom Country album.
Of course, both the sound and concept definitely lean into Lainey’s Western roots and upbringing in rural Louisiana. She is the fifth-generation daughter of a farmer, which she notes in the lyrics, and it has a cool, sort of brooding melody that gives it a really unique spin.
And to celebrate the massive accomplishment of scoring a #1 song, one of the writers, the aforementioned Paul Sikes, shared the original demo of the song on Instagram they wrote four years ago, back in 2020… and it’s so damn cool.
Lainey reposted the video on her instagram stories, saying:
“I still love this original demo so much.”
And obviously, studio cuts rarely end up sounding exactly like the demo, because demos are usually a much more stripped-back, simplified version of she song with vocals that typically haven’t even been recorded in the studio yet.
Really, it’s just a blueprint for what the artist or writers want to do in the studio, along with all those extra bells and whistles…
But there’s just something so haunting and cool about the way they did this demo… it’s so haunting, and almost dark, and also has some really cool guitar that almost has a latin flair to it at points. In addition, Lainey’s untouched voice is so strong and impressive here.
Do yourself a favor and check it out:
And for comparison’s sake, here’s the version that just went #1:
