A maturing Mitchell Tenpenny seeks consistent country music success

On Feb. 3-4, country performer Mitchell Tenpenny is headlining the Ryman Auditorium for two nights.

The 33-year-old Nashville native is the grandson of former Sony/ATV Music Publishing CEO, Nashville radio industry legend and Alabama Music Hall of Famer Donna Hilley. He's also the co-founder and flagship artist for Sony-distributed Riser House, a full-service label, artist-management and music-publishing company.

His September 2021-released Chris Young collaboration "At the End of a Bar" reached the top of Billboard's Country Airplay charts five months ago and adds to his considerable pedigree.

It also aids his growth into comfort as a No. 1 hitmaker in the genre.

"You go to enough No. 1 parties and see your friends getting those plaques, you want to be as cool as they are," Tenpenny told The Tennessean while taking a break at a Nashville soundstage and preparing for the forthcoming run of 27 tour dates from January-March.

"When it was my time to be that cool, I had to pinch myself. It's like sitting in a boat and fishing all day long. Then, finally, you're ready to leave, and then feel a bite on the line. It's cool once you reel it in, but you want another one. There's never any peace of mind."

COVID-19 placed doubt in Tenpenny's mind as to whether he could succeed in the arbitrary, decadelong timeline mainstream country artists often place on themselves to rise through Music City's creative ranks.

He recalls flying home from London in March 2020 and expecting a two-week delay in expanding his career's reach on national and global levels. But, in what instead became two years, he began to question his career aspirations. From the cusp of unprecedented success to staring at the walls of his home, he had no choice but to evolve as both an artist and a man.

For Tenpenny, two shows at the Ryman are as much a showcase of his craft at country music's "Mother Church" as they are a hometown show reunion for Lipscomb Academy Class of 2008 graduates, people who saw him attempt success as a hopeful college football player at Middle Tennessee State University, plus those whose garage guitar jams spurred his country stardom.

"I'm going to be riffing on new songs. It's gonna be so fun."

Tenpenny is genuinely likable and charming. He's the type of person who could quickly turn the heart of the most hardened skeptic who thinks that the era of good feeling surrounding much of Nashville's pop and radio-ready mainstream country music scene is more driven by half-hearted PR copy and less by people working tirelessly while maintaining a joyous demeanor.

That scene now features artists local to Nashville's metropolitan area like Tenpenny — as well as ERNEST, Jelly Roll and Young — achieving chart-topping moments as pop-adored country singer-songwriters. Alongside the perpetual stream of national and global artists coming to Music City, the city's native creatives achieving acclaim is essential.

Tenpenny recalls being signed as a duo with ERNEST early in their careers. He counts veteran Jelly Roll as a mentor whose independent rise paved the road for his success.

"As Nashville artists, we're united as a team for this moment," Tenpenny says. "Figuring out the balance of retaining our roots while embracing change is going to create a special moment that's going to last for a while."

Given his roots in the genre, Tenpenny's desire to master the craft of songwriting has been vital to watching his career progression. The No. 1 hit with Young joins 2018's "Drunk Me" and 2021's "Truth About You" as ringing the bell as country music chart-toppers.

For the past decade, the genre has insisted on placing what Tenpenny calls the "teenage and early 20s angst" of its male stars' lives at the forefront. Finally, however, a new movement is developing. Performers are becoming mature enough to step back and allow scenes at dive bars that country music culture creates to speak louder than their own lives showing tremendous staying power for fans.

To wit, Cole Swindell's tale of a lovelorn night at a karaoke bar in "She Had Me at Heads Carolina" has spent six consecutive months in the Top 5 on Billboard's Country Airplay charts.

"So many of us as singer-songwriters are different people these days than when we wrote so many of our songs," says Tenpenny.

In his case, he's three months married to fellow country singer Meghan Patrick. Now, instead of focusing so much on himself, he's more centered on what he calls "concepts and ideas based on emotional stories I've seen and heard."

A songwriting process now recalling his teenage years of newly having a driver's license and spending time on the open road, imagining himself as the protagonist or antagonist of late '90s and early 2000s country and pop songs as the cinematic inspiration for his current material.

Like Swindell's Country Music Association award-nominated acclaim, Tenpenny 2021's "Truth About You" is experiencing viral social media and streaming success because of how easily it relates to the genre's fans.

The song's earworming, soulfully delivered chorus highlights a cheated-upon mate stating that if a cease-fire of lie-telling from their straying partner is not achieved, they will take the low road, too, and reveal hurtful truths about their sadly ended relationship.

"People knew, or thought they had, been through that. Or heck, the song was so good that people wished that the situation was one they had gone through," Tenpenny jokes. "Seeing people's faces when they are thinking about someone and singing those lyrics? That's been fun but crazy.

"I love my friends and I love this town," Tenpenny says. "But I'm past competing with them and what Nashville is becoming. Now, it's just me, my feelings and my guitar. I'm a storyteller who's challenging myself more. It's easy to appreciate what I've done. But achieving more involves being uncomfortable, so that's what I'm doing."