I’ve got a feeling that a lot of people are being introduced to Stephen Wilson Jr. tonight at the 2025 CMA Awards… and it’s a beautiful thing.
The “Holler from the Holler” singer has lived a couple of different lives in his lifetime. Hailing from Southern Indiana, Wilson Jr. has certainly made waves in country music over the past couple of years. Wilson Jr. first introduced himself with his EP Bon Aqua in 2023, and then really established himself with his masterful Son of Dad album he released later that same year.
And he was finally being recognized for his musical contributions, as the CMA Awards announced him as a “New Artist of the Year” nominee, alongside Ella Langley, Shaboozey, Zach Top, and Tucker Wetmore. He ended up losing the category to Zach Top, but Wilson Jr. has no reason to hang his head.
He had a couple of really powerful live performances during the CMAs, with his emotional cover of “Stand By Me” and his help with Shaboozey’s “Take A Walk,” where he completely stole the show. Besides Stephen’s signature look, or unique-as-ever vocals, I’m sure a lot of people noticed the country artist’s beat-up guitar. As it turns out, his ragged, old acoustic is a bit of a tip of the cap to Willie Nelson’s “Trigger.” He actually talked about his six-string not too long ago when he sat down for an interview on The Dan Patrick Show.
Stephen Wilson spoke about his newest album, Son Of Dad, and even played a couple of his songs for the sports talk show host. Right before he got into one of songs, Patrick asked Stephen if his visibly beat up guitar would be able to take playing another song.
Wilson Jr. responded with:
“It might or it might not. It’s held together by the bonds of masking tape and drawings.”
Dan Patrick then flexed some of his country music knowledge and likened Wilson Jr’s guitar to Willie Nelson’s famous “Trigger,” which is a modified Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic. Much of Nelson’s signature sound is attributed to his tried-and-true guitar, and Stephen Wilson Jr. admires that – among other things about Willie:
“Willie Nelson is my hero – as a guitar player, singer and songwriter. He’s the greatest of all time. I learned how to play a lot of guitar from him, because he plays classical nylons. Or we call them ‘gut strings,’ with a pick, which is not very common. And he plays through an amp, not very common either. I basically steal everything from Willie.”
Wilson Jr. went on to explain to those that were listening to the program (rather than watching it) what the guitar looked like, and how it got into the condition that it’s now in:
“This guitar, because I play with a pick, it just destroys it. These are meant to be played with your fingers and they’re designed to be played like that. Not like this (with a pick). This (pick) just shovels away and there’s piles of sawdust on the floor after each show. I literally leave my guitar behind every show. There are pieces of its DNA on stage every night.”
Some might view the way the country artist treats his guitar as a lack of TLC, but in Stephen’s mind, he’s just helping the guitar to fulfill its purpose. Sure, it’s not the shiniest or smoothest looking guitar. Wilson Jr. admits that – and insists that’s not how guitars are supposed to exist anyways:
“Personally I like that better than preserving this guitar forever. I think guitars are meant to be played, not hung up on a wall and treasured. I think this is what this guitar is meant to be doing… shedding itself on stage every night. And this is what it looks like after.”
That’s actually a really poignant sentiment to carry about guitars, and something tells me Wilson Jr.’s view on an instrument’s purpose is yet another thing that he and Willie Nelson would have in common. And I’m glad that it got to take center stage at the 2025 CMA Awards.
