Kentucky bluegrass/country band The Creekers, known for their breakthrough hit “Tennessee,” has signed with Warner Music Nashville/Warner Records, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
The six-member group includes Anna Blanton (fiddle), Ashton Bowling (cajon), Jagger Bowling (bass/vocals), Allen Hacker (vocals/rhythm guitar), Tanner Horton (vocals/lead guitar) and Scott Sutton (banjo/vocals). The group formed in the Eastern coal field region of Kentucky, in Leslie County, located under an hour away from the famed coal mining area of Harlan, Kentucky that inspired the Darrell Scott-written, Patty Loveless-recorded classic, “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.”
The Creekers released their first album, the genre-melding Pour Me In The Creek in 2024 and followed with 2025’s River Rat EP, which included “Tennessee,” the soulful bluegrass song that rose to the top 5 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart this summer.
The song’s bluegrass underpinnings, topped with Hacker’s burly voice, have led some fans to compare the group’s sound to the Chris Stapleton-led, early iteration of bluegrass group The SteelDrivers. Other songs on The Creekers’ River Rat EP include “Lay You Down,” “Hyden, KY” and “Alex’s Song.”
Warner Music Nashville is home to artists including Kenny Chesney, Dan+Shay, Bailey Zimmerman, Braxton Keith, Cody Johnson, William Beckmann and Cole Swindell. Warner Records is home to artists including Zach Bryan, Billy Strings, Brandy Clark and Maddox Batson.
The signing comes as bluegrass, Americana and other roots-oriented music styles have surged in recent years, with the success of artists including Strings, Bryan, Tyler Childers, Sturgill Simpson and more. Strings’s most recent album Highway Prayers debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s all-genre Top Album Sales Chart, marking the first bluegrass album in 22 years to top the chart, since the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack spent two weeks atop the chart in 2002 (and ruled the Bluegrass Albums chart for 15 weeks).
The Creekers
Brandon Campbell