98.5 KYGO's latest Performance Studio artist is none other than Harper Grace, a 24-year-old Texas native, and she performed "Dear Heart" – the title track of her upcoming project – "Boys Will Be Boys" and "If Daddy Says No."

Grace took the hometown-to-Nashville pipeline familiar to many artists who share her passion, and she's called Music City home for four years. Her passion for country music can be attributed to her grandma and dad, who listened to the genre frequently during her childhood.

Before a piano was donated to her family at age six, she had another passion and potential career occupying her time: gymnastics. Grace's mom was an elite gymnast and had a vision of her daughter following in her footsteps, which wasn't too far of a stretch given that Grace trained in an Olympics-hopeful group at the time.

Her mom's literal prayers asking whether or not Grace should pursue music were answered with the piano, which prompted her to acquiesce to the "Dear Heart" singer's dreams. From there, as a homeschooled girl from the Dallas suburbs, Grace embarked on her first of many work trips to Nashville at 14 years old.

Her first big step toward stardom? After her rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" at age 11 went viral for all of the wrong reasons, she redeemed herself and then some on the season 1 reboot of "American Idol" in 2018 by making it to the top 50.

Since her time on the show, she's released a multitude of singles and an EP in 2024, "Break It Like A Man."

In 98.5 KYGO's Performance Studio, Tyler Nance performed "Shovel," "Midwest Memoir" (the title track of the 17-song album he released March 20) and "Keeps Me Sane."

A rancher in the true sense of the word, Nance grew up farming and raising cattle in southwest Missouri. Once out of high school, he became a welder, but his ambitions changed once he grew to love music during his time on the road. It wasn't long before he picked up a pen and guitar to learn the art of writing and playing, and before long, those talents led him to Nashville.

His latest piece of work and his first full-length studio album, "Midwest Memoir," illustrates that journey, and listeners can expect to have "a good grasp on who [Nance is] after listening."

The Missourian's success story is a modern one – he was still working on-site in South Dakota when he posted a teaser to his first single, "Bad News," on TikTok in 2024. The success of "Bad News" and his 2025 single, "Keeps Me Sane," built off of one another, solidifying the fact that his success wasn't a mere fluke. The latter song has amassed nearly 65 million streams on Spotify as of March 2026.

In addition, the 22-year-old has released two EPs: "Wasted Chances" (2024) and "I'm Not Him" (2025). Nance is opening for Ian Munsick on The Eagle Flies Free Tour, which wraps up September 12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and stops in Red Rocks August 25.

Kevin Powers performed "Move On," "Can't Help Myself" and "When He Made You" during his KYGO Performance Studio visit.

Powers – Boston, Mass., born and Raleigh, N.C., raised – began releasing music in the hip-hop and R&B vein in 2019. It didn't take long for success to take hold, with his 2020 singles "Walked In" and "How You Been?" amassing 22 million and 15 million streams on Spotify to date, respectively.

With some of his fans likening his path to Post Malone's, he has since moved to Nashville and pivoted his sound to a genre he describes as "Southern pop," the change marked by the release of "High & Dry" in 2024.

The North Carolinian's big break materialized after reconnecting with hitmaker Shaboozey in a Nashville bar. As legend has it, the "Good News" singer asked Powers to join his joint venture record label American Dogwood, where he's currently signed.

The two have worked together many times since: Powers had a hand in writing Shaboozey and Jelly Roll's "Amen," which won the Grammy in 2026 for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, he opened for Shaboozey on his Great American Road Show tour and collaborated with him on "Move On," a single released in 2025.

Powers is further establishing himself in the Southern pop realm with his latest single "Can't Help Myself" (2025), and teased an EP release for spring or summer of 2026.

Spencer Hatcher, a 28-year-old Virginian, played unreleased "Love Button," "Cold Beer and Common Sense" and "When She Calls Me Cowboy" alongside younger brother Connor Hatcher in KYGO's Performance Studio.

Hatcher was brought up in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where he was raised on bluegrass and the music of country greats like George Strait, George Jones, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. Bluegrass took hold of Hatcher, which led him to learn how to play the mandolin – which he "didn't really care for much" – at age 8 and banjo at 12. From there, he started playing with others and in front of an audience during jam sessions, even at the cost of missing Friday night football games. During those days, he played as one of the Hatcher Boys, a bluegrass family band that included Connor and his father.

He continued to pursue music while in college, participating in four different groups throughout, even playing in a professional bluegrass band. Ironically, that's when his passion for country music took hold, and when COVID hit in 2020, the Virginian decided to redirect his attention to the genre.

It was around this time that he started posting music content on Facebook and later to other social media platforms, quickly earning thousands of followers.

The "When She Calls Me Cowboy" singer has now amassed over 700,000 followers on TikTok and released his first EP – "Honky Tonk Highway" – in November.

Parmalee stopped in 98.5 KYGO's Performance Studio prior to their Halloween show at the Grizzly Rose and performed "Take My Name," "Cowgirl" and "Carolina."

Parmalee, whose name is a nod to their roots in Parmele, North Carolina, is a family affair of sorts, made up of brothers Matt and Scott Thomas, their cousin Barry Knox and lifelong friend Josh McSwain. The Thomas brothers formed the group after their dad retired from their trio, dubbed Jerry Thomas and the Thomas Brothers Band.

A lot has changed for the Thomas', Knox and Scott since the release of their first album "Daylight" in 2002.

Their most recent LP "Fell in Love with a Cowgirl," released in April, is preceded by seven studio albums – the most successful being their 2013 release "Feels Like Carolina." The album – their first with Stoney Creek Records – was their breakout, with singles like "Carolina," "Close Your Eyes" and "Already Callin' You Mine" reaching No. 1, 4 and 10 on the Country Airplay chart, respectively. All in all, they've racked up five No. 1 country hits.

The band isn't stopping – or slowing down – anytime soon.

The North Carolinians are touring through December and into the first few months of 2026, and also released their single "How Do I Let You Go" November 21.

Dillon Carmichael performed "Keepin' Country Alive," the title track off of his newest album, "Son of A" and "She Gone" while in KYGO's Performance Studio.

A 31-year-old from Burgin, Kentucky, Carmichael had the benefit of knowing what he wanted to do for a living from a young age, having grown up surrounded by a musical family. His mother is a singer, while his uncles – Eddie and John Michael Montgomery – have achieved success as artists in their own right, the former being one half of Montgomery Gentry.

He started chasing his dreams of becoming an artist at 15 when he learned guitar, and made plans – that he fulfilled – to move to Nashville after his high school graduation. Since then, he's released three studio albums under Riser House Entertainment: "Hell on an Angel," (2018) "Son of A" (2021) and "Keeping Country Alive" (2025). Two of the acts he's toured with – Brooks & Dunn and Lynyrd Skynyrd – sum up his country and Southern rock sound.

Listen to "Keepin' Country Alive" here.

Cleto Cordero, frontman of Flatland Cavalry, sang "Never Coming Back," "Unglued" and "Bird's Eye View" – all unreleased – in KYGO's Performance Studio.

Flatland Cavalry's five members – Cordero, drummer Jason Albers, bassist Jonathan Saenz, guitarist Reid Dillon and Wesley Hall on the fiddle – started as two, Cordero and Albers, who formed the band in 2012 as roommates at Midland College. Two years later, after the duo moved to Lubbock, the rest of the members fell into place.

The roots of the quintuplet go even further back – Albers and Cordero jammed together since they were in junior high. Cordero learned how to play the guitar at 14 and started songwriting at 17, acting as the group's main songwriter to this day.

In 2015, the group released their first EP, "Come May," and followed up with their first full-length album in 2016, "Humble Folks." The latter reached number 17 on the "Billboard" Americana/Folk Albums chart and 38 on Top Country Albums. Since then, they have released three more albums: "Homeland Insecurity" (2019), "Welcome to Countryland" (2021) and "Wandering Star" (2023).

The five are set to perform at Red Rocks on Monday, October 20. They'll be accompanied by Kaitlin Butts, a frequent collaborator of the group and Cordero's wife.

Bayker Blankenship, a 19-year-old from the small town of Livingston, Tenn., is on the fast track to stardom by way of going viral on TikTok. He swung by 98.5 KYGO’s Performance Studio to perform “Tennessee Sunset,” “Lost Time” and “Maxed Out.”

Blankenship, with over 740,000 followers and 9.8 million likes on TikTok and over 2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, is making preparations to step out of the screen and onto the stage for his first tour. The 10 shows will take place from September 19 through November 9 in cities largely concentrated in the Midwest and East. The string of shows, dubbed “The Tennessee Sunset Tour” will be kicked off by a show in Charleston, S.C., and will wrap up in Opelika, Ala.

Following in the footsteps of his family, Blankenship initially had plans to go into industrial maintenance and was attending school for it. His plans began to shift when, in pursuit of a new hobby, Blankenship first picked up a guitar during his spare time during COVID, the product of which being his first single “Can’t Get Enough” in September of 2021.

He took a brief hiatus from making music until the release of “Maxed Out,” although life came at him fast in the years between once he committed more seriously to the instrument.

Blankenship started to gain some traction when he started posting covers on TikTok late in 2022. He frequently covers two artists he cites as his musical influences: Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers. His first video to make a big splash was a cover he posted of him singing “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi with his younger brother, posted in January 2023, which currently sits at over 3.4 million views. His top video, which celebrates one million streams on “Maxed Out,” sits just under 8 million views. Those aren’t the only accomplishments his rise to fame has brought, though — it also afforded him his first time traveling on an airplane.

After his TikToks started to take off and a future in music became clearer, he quit his job as a pitmaster at a barbecue joint featured in the “Maxed Out” music video and quit school to pursue his newfound career. There’s no blueprint for Blankenship, as he claims he is the only one in his family to ever take a serious interest in music.

The teenager has since released his first EP, “Younger Years,” in July, which has six tracks, one of which being “Maxed Out.” In addition, Blankenship released a single with Waylon Wyatt, entitled “Jailbreak,” earlier this month.

Before opening for friend Sam Hunt at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre on Friday, Russell Dickerson made a pit stop at KYGO’s Performance Studio and, taking requests from the intimate audience, performed “Every Little Thing,” “Bones” and “Yours” — two of which have spent some time in the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts.

The 37-year-old is a Tennessee native, born in the small town of Union City to a musical family, and made his way to Nashville in pursuit of a career in music. Before setting out on his own, he studied music and graduated from Belmont University. In the years following, he signed with Creative Artists Agency and released his first music in the form of an EP, “Die to Live Again,” shortly thereafter in 2011.

He was soon rubbing elbows and touring with revered country artists such as David Nail, Canaan Smith and Thomas Rhett in 2015 and 2016. Also in 2015, he released one of his biggest hits to date, “Yours,” which he wrote with Parker Welling and Casey Brown. The song was a sleeper hit and didn’t make the Country Airplay chart until a year and ten months after its release, entering at number 57. Slowly but surely, the song climbed to the number-one spot in January of 2018.

The song became the title track of his second EP, which debuted on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart at number 14 when it was released January of 2016.

Dickerson wasn’t ready with “Yours” just yet. After signing with Triple Tigers Records in late 2016, he repurposed the name for a third time, using it as the title track for his first album. The LP, released October of 2017, premiered at the number one spot on the Billboard Heat Seeker chart and peaked in the fifth spot on the Top Country Albums chart. The album included other hits for the Tennesseean, such as “Blue Tacoma” and “Every Little Thing,” which both peaked at number one on Country Airplay. Yet another “Yours” was released on the album, this time as an acoustic version.

The “Yours” singer didn’t release another album until late 2020, entitled “Second Symphony.” In the interim, he became a father to his first son, Remington, born in September 2020. Dickerson struck gold on “Second Symphony” yet again with its lead single, “Love You Like I Used To,” another number-one hit on Country Airplay. In November of 2022, he released his third album, “Russell Dickerson.” In June of last year, he released his third EP, “Three Months Two Streets Down.” Later in 2023, he welcomed home his second son, Radford.

In 2024 so far, he’s released two singles: “Good Day to Have a Great Day” and, most recently, “Bones.” During Dickerson’s Performance Studio session, he hinted at the release of new music at the end of August.

War Hippies, otherwise known as Scooter Brown and Donnie Reis, visited KYGO’s Performance Studio to perform “Killin’ It,” “Like Father Like Daughter” and “The Hangman.”

Brown and Reis joined forces in 2022 due to their shared experience as both military and music veterans, hence the name of the group. Once both traded in their weapons for microphones, guitars and fiddles, and established themselves separately in the music world, War Hippies was born, which is what they consider to be a “country music duo and lifestyle brand.”

After Brown made the decision to commit to a career in music, in 2009, the Scooter Brown Band was formed and made a name for themselves playing in and around Houston. The modern southern rock band quickly found success, opening for their inspirations including The Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band, Lee Roy Parnell, Travis Tritt and Dwight Yoakam, among others.

In 2017, Rolling Stone highlighted the band in their “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know: December 2017” rundown, and the group continued their momentum and solidified themselves as a fixture in the country music scene when they made their debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage in 2019.

Brown may also be a familiar face to music television show fans, as he was a finalist on USA Network’s show “Real Country” in 2018, which featured music legends searching for the next big country artist.

Reis, similarly, is an accomplished vocalist and instrumentalist who has spent years touring and playing a multitude of instruments: fiddle, piano, guitar and, most notably, violin.

Reis is an accomplished veteran as well, having served in the US Army from 2001 to 2009, including a tour in Iraq.

He can truthfully describe himself as a veteran, producer, owner, vocalist, instrumentalist, songwriter and composer. He has written for television/film projects and artists/groups from various genres. His resume includes 26 songs on the Billboard top 10s, two of which were number-one songs. He also owns and is the executive producer of 3 South Recording in Nashville.

In October of 2022, War Hippies released their first album together, self-titled, which reached its peak position of number eight on the iTunes Country Chart. One of their songs from the record, “Make it Out Alive,” earned its way onto American Songwriter’s “Top 24 Songs of 2022” list.

Although their lives of combat may be behind them, on top of their music-related achievements, the two make their commitment to the military community known through fundraising efforts and advocacy work.

The duo is performing throughout the remainder of the year on tour, and, although War Hippies hasn’t released another full-length album since their first, they’ve consistently put out new music: singles “Loot for Good” and “No Friend of Mine” in 2023 and “So Sweet” and “Like Father Like Daughter” in 2024.