The rising country artist shares his new six-track project
Modern country traditionalist Spencer Hatcher has just released his six-track debut EP, Honky Tonk Hideaway. Raised on a farm in the heartland of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Hatcher began playing the five-string banjo in his family’s bluegrass band at the age of 11. In 2020, he formed his own country band and was self-booking more than 150 shows a year by the time he signed with Stone Country Records in Nashville in late 2024.
Hatcher’s debut EP is described as a good-time destination for music fans who prefer their country served stone cold—with heartfelt storytelling, easygoing melodies from the front porch to the dance floor, and generous helpings of pedal steel. Produced by Jason Sellers, Ilya Toshinskiy (Jelly Roll) and Mickey Jack Cones (Joe Nichols), Honky Tonk Hideaway features Hatcher’s debut radio single, “When She Calls Me Cowboy,” which this week debuted as a Top 10 Most Added Song at U.S. Country Radio (Mediabase), earning double-digit adds upon its official impact date of November 3rd.
The Music Universe had the chance to chat with Hatcher about his new EP and radio single, and that conversation can be read below.
TMU: Please tell us about your new EP.
Hatcher: Well, my new EP is going to be a place where, number one, everybody can go and find all of my music all at once, and listen down. And I hope it’s going to make it even more obvious just how country the music we’re creating is—from “On the Inside” to “When She Calls Me Cowboy” to the brand-new song, “Honky Tonk Hideaway.”
Hopefully, it’s a real showcase for what we’re trying to do, and people can listen to this EP and say, “This is real country music right here that’s, you know, as pure, raw and straight as it comes.” But I’m also just very excited to get another new song out into the world for people to listen to, and “Honky Tonk Hideaway” is maybe the most upbeat and hardest-hitting song that we’ve put out yet.
TMU: You have some big Nashville names who have written songs you recorded for this project. Tell us about the process of choosing those songs.
Hatcher: Well, it varies, but a lot of times, what I’m looking for is relatability. Of course, that’s not always number one, but I like for the listener of a song to be able to relate to it. I think it’s important that people can say, “Oh yeah. Well, I know what that’s like.” But also the melody and the tune is so important, and is it something that aligns with my beliefs and my sound, and me as an artist? And if so, then, you know, I kind of look at the artistry and the lyrics and how it’s written and the overall message of the song.
TMU: I’m guessing you had to listen through a lot of demos to get to the songs you actually recorded, right?
Hatcher: Oh, yeah—tons. I mean, I’ll be sent songs by, you know, individuals, and then I’ll also be sent entire folders that have 20, 30, 40 songs in them, and we’ll just go through and listen and listen. And I don’t ever judge a song based off one listen. I try to give it two, three or four, until I make a decision. I look forward to doing a lot more songwriting myself, but as far as this EP goes right now, yeah, we were really listening to a tremendous amount of music to be able to pick and pull what we have now.
TMU: Some big producers have also contributed to the record. What was it like working with them?
Hatcher: They are the greatest in the world. I love all three of those guys [Jason Sellers, Ilya Toshinskiy and Mickey Jack Cones]. They’re wildly talented and, you know, I think all three of them are giants in the industry in their own right. But to have a producer like Jason, in particular, who is such an amazing artist—a vocalist, a producer, a songwriter—he can do it all. And of course, Mickey, who has worked on so many massive hits in country music, and then Ilya, who is just good at everything that he does. For me to be able to work with these guys—people that will push you to get better and to be better—that’s the kind of people I want to hang around. I’m just very blessed and grateful to call these guys my producers.
TMU: Your debut radio single was released this week, ahead of the EP. How is that going for you?
Hatcher: It’s going great. It’s going how I prayed it would. But did I ever think that it would come out in the Top 10 of all country music radio adds? Well, you pray about it, but you just, you have no idea. And for it to come out at such a high spot like that, to be Top 10 most added—I believe No. 8—it’s unbelievable. And it’s not just that I’m part of it, but I believe “When She Calls Me Cowboy” has so much potential as a song. It’s country, and it’s the direction that the industry is moving, to a more traditional sound. I’m proud of the song, and thankful to everybody in radio that’s willing to bet on me and bet on the song. And when you look at the names that are above “When She Calls Me Cowboy,” [on this week’s list of the most-added songs at U.S. country radio] they are as big as it gets in the industry. So I hope that I’m raising some eyebrows in the industry, and people are wondering who this new guy is in town.
TMU: Your music is on par with the ’90s country that has seen a resurgence lately. Who has inspired your music?
Hatcher: All of my heroes that I grew up listening to, which would be Keith Whitley, Hank Jr., George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Randy Travis. But having grown up playing bluegrass, I do believe that I also have some bluegrass influence in my songs. I mean, is it how I sing? Is it how I say words? Is it the way that we stack harmonies? There’s no doubt that there’s still some bluegrass influence, to which I would say The Seldom Scene and the Bluegrass Album Band are who I could thank for that.
TMU: You have racked up a strong social media following with nearly one million followers. Tell us how you were able to have such a big accomplishment, mostly as an independent artist.
Hatcher: Yeah, well, I think the main thing is, I always did what I wanted, and I didn’t listen to anybody that told me otherwise, because it was always my judgment and what I thought would be entertaining and what I knew my audience liked. And so to do a Johnny Cash song and then change it up and do a bluegrass song, and then do a skit, and then come back and do a country song, and to have four different things go viral, I think it’s because the audience that I created is one that loves country music and can relate to my lifestyle and likes to be entertained. And so that was always important to me, to be able to do whatever I wanted on screen, and to never have to put a mask on, to always just act like myself. And I think that when you do that and you offer something that’s worth watching and entertaining, anyone can go viral with those things.
TMU: You’re probably being a little too modest there. But is it true you went to sleep one night having almost no followers and then woke up the next day with thousands?
Hatcher: It was that very first video [a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”]. I went to sleep, and I had 24 followers on TikTok, in particular, and when I woke up, I had just over 10,000 followers, and that doesn’t even count what happened on Facebook and YouTube as well. So I established quite a fan base overnight, and then the second video that I filmed and posted two days later also went viral.
TMU: Tell us about touring dates. Where can people see you live?
Hatcher: You can see me Saturday night, November 8th, with Aaron Tippin in Winchester, Virginia. Then we’ll be in Georgia—in Savannah on November 14th and Augusta on November 15th. You can find all the information for those and other upcoming shows on my website.
