Three Rising Country Stars Announce Their First Headlining Tours

There is a moment in every country artist's career when the support slot gives way to something bigger. The name at the top of the poster. The full set. The fans who showed up just for you. Three of Nashville's most exciting rising stars are all hitting that milestone at the same time, and country music fans are the lucky ones.

Ashley Cooke: Going Global

Ashley Cooke has been turning heads for a couple of years now, and she is not slowing down. She scored her first country radio number one with "your place," a Gold-certified, Billboard Hot 100-charting hit that won a 2024 CMT Music Award for Breakthrough Female Video of the Year. She has since toured alongside Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, and most recently joined Jon Pardi on his Honkytonk Hollywood Tour. Now she is headlining her own show, and she is doing it in a big way.

Cooke has announced the baby blues world tour, a 28-date global headline run launching September 17 and wrapping February 25 at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium. The tour takes its name from "baby blues," a longtime fan favorite that recently hit number one on SiriusXM The Highway's Hot 30 Countdown, and arrives just ahead of her highly anticipated self-titled sophomore album, due out August 14. The run hits major U.S. venues including the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., Irving Plaza in New York City, and El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, before heading overseas in January for dates in Belfast, Glasgow, London, and Manchester. The tour wraps at the Ryman. That is not a small dream. That is a statement. Read her full bio and tour dates.

Braxton Keith: The Real Deal Hits the Road

Braxton Keith is a Midland, Texas native whose debut album Real Damn Deal, a 15-track collection spanning everything from Texas honky-tonk to Western swing, dropped May 15 via Warner Records Nashville. Both Amazon Music and Rolling Stone named him one of their Artists to Watch in 2026. He logged over 130 shows last year alone, opening for Cody Johnson, Luke Bryan, and Gavin Adcock, and earned his first RIAA Gold certification for "Cozy." Now the honky-tonk cowboy from West Texas is bringing his own show to the people.

The Real Damn Deal Tour kicks off this summer and runs through October, hitting cities including Silver Spring, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Nashville, and a string of Texas dates including Round Rock, Pasadena, Waco, and Midland. Keith stands as the only non-nominated artist performing at ACM Next Wave: Country's Beach Bash this weekend in Las Vegas, a lineup otherwise filled entirely with ACM nominees and winners, which tells you everything about the momentum building around him. Get the full story here.

Zach John King: His Fans' Turn

Raised in Fayetteville, Georgia, with multiple generations of poets in his family, Zach John King fronted an indie-rock band through college before moving to Nashville in 2021. His 2024 breakout single "Wannabe Cowboy" garnered 6.7 million streams worldwide, and he has spent the past year opening for Morgan Wallen and building a fanbase one honest song at a time. Now he wants to meet those fans properly.

King has announced the Get to Drinkin' Tour, a fall headlining run kicking off October 1 in Indianapolis with dates in New York City, Nashville, Toronto, and more. The tour takes its name from his current single, a whiskey-soaked, nostalgia-drenched track he co-wrote with ACM Songwriter of the Decade winner Rhett Akins that is currently climbing the Mediabase Country and Billboard Country Airplay charts. King put it simply when announcing the tour: he wants to know who his fans are. After years of warming up crowds for country's biggest names, this fall he finally gets to find out. Catch his full biography.

Three different sounds. Three different roads to get here. One shared moment: their names at the top of the poster. Remember them.