The Current presents

Wyatt Flores

with Kashus Culpepper

Doors 7:00 p.m. | Show 8:00 p.m. | 18+

INFORMATION | TICKETS

Wyatt Flores

Pressing play on the new album from Wyatt Flores can feel a bit like turning down a gravel road. At times, it may challenge you, like when the steering wheel shakes as your tires catch on a few loose rocks. But tucked between waving tree branches and rolling across wildgrowing fields of fescue, there’s beauty and honesty in each passing mile.

You may get a little lost. But you may also find yourself along the way.

The album’s called Welcome To The Plains, and it takes listeners to the corner of the world that this 23-year-old country-folk singer-songwriter knows best Oklahoma.

“Welcome To The Plains is all about my fight to come home,” said Flores. “The struggle of coming from home – the little towns – and going out in the real world. Just being lost in it all.”

A 14-song trek through tales of fiery love, small-town truths, and lighthearted mortality, Welcome To The Plains captures the grounded, sincere storytelling forged by Flores in-part during formative years in his hometown, Stillwater, Oklahoma. He was raised on timetested rock ‘n’ roll, like the Eagles and John Mellencamp. At age 12, his sister passed him a copy of Turnpike Troubadours’ sophomore album, Diamonds & Gasoline, unlocking a love for roots music that later extended to artists like Jason Isbell, 49 Winchester, and Sturgill Simpson.

Flores began his songwriting career in earnest after studying at Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology for a semester in late 2020 that ended in his dropping out, because “college will take your money no matter how old you are, I’m gonna go chase down a dream,” he said. After his brief run on campus, Flores ranched while moonlighting as an aspiring songwriter. He began independently releasing music, and soon took extended trips to Nashville in hopes of honing his craft alongside seasoned songwriters.

In the months after releasing a handful of singles – including the fan-favorite, “Please Don’t Go,” – and his debut EP, The Hutson Session, Flores began building a steadfast following of listeners who often heard shades of their life experience in his honest songs. Gigs in tiny Oklahoma bars turned into shoulder-to-shoulder club shows and, eventually, a contract with Island Records. With 2023 EP Life Lessons and early 2024’s eight song collection Half Life under his belt, Flores’ music now reaches millions each month.

In summer 2024, he joined the soundtrack of Twisters: The Album alongside trendsetting artists like Tyler Childers, Luke Combs, Leon Bridges, and more. His standout summer continued with a nomination for Emerging Act of the Year at the 2024 Americana Honors & Awards.

And before this year ends, he’ll deliver Welcome To The Plains, an album that opens with the scene-setting title track, co-written by Ketch Secor, bandleader of the Grammy Award-winning group Old Crow Medicine Show. In the foot-stomping country-folk tune, Flores stretches a new take on his homeland. In the chorus, he sings, “It’s red dirt poor and wanting more/ Mr. Weatherman knocking at my door/ Where dreams go drying up like rain … Welcome to the plains.”

Kashus Culpepper

Alabama-born country crooner Kashus Culpepper encompasses the sound of the South. A student and reverent purveyor of Southern music – country, soul, blues, folk, and rock – Culpepper’s husky, sandpaper growl bellows like a freight train over self-penned stories that are as raw and real as they are haunting. Finding his voice in church as young as five years old, it wasn’t until 2020’s global pandemic that Culpepper went from listener to performer, picking up a guitar and learning cover songs to play at barrack bonfires in Rota, Spain, during his deployment with the Navy. Covers soon became originals, and once he landed home on U.S. shores, Kash played dive bars up and down the Mississippi Gulf Coast, making a name for himself with the fresh-yet-reminiscent sound that oozes from his very being. Crashing into prominence, Culpepper sold out headline club shows throughout the South before formally releasing a single song. With Nashville taking notice, Culpepper found a musical home at Big Loud Records and will release his debut album, Act I, on January 23. Culpepper has joined Leon Bridges, Sierra Ferrell, and Darius Rucker on tour this year. Named one of GRAMMY.com‘s 25 Artists to Watch in 2025, Apple Music Zane Lowe’s 25 Artists for ’25, 2025 Variety Power of Young Hollywood Impact Report, Opry NextStage Class of 2025, Billboard‘s February 2025 Country Rookie of the Month, 2025 Amazon Music Bonfire Artist to Watch, Apple Music’s February 2025 Country Riser of the Month, 2025 Pandora Country Artist to Watch and Martin Artist Showcase Class of 2025, The Guardian declares: “it’s obvious why his career has been fast-tracked. The handful of songs he’s released so far take a smart, often witty route… performed in a style he classifies as ‘southern sounds’…”