Stone Country Showcase

Spencer Hatcher has always believed in country music, hard work and God. Now, though, he also believes in miracles.

“I feel like I experienced two miracles in just one month,” reflects the Nashville newcomer. “First, surviving a two-story fall, which I truly believe was the hand of God, and second, signing a record deal, which I realize is something that most artists never get to do.”

That record deal, with QHMG’s Stone Country Records, was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for Hatcher. Raised on a farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, in the shadow of the fabled Blue Ridge Mountains, the 28-year-old had been playing bluegrass and country music for almost as long as he could remember.

In 2020, Hatcher took the plunge and started his own country band, with Connor still backing him on upright bass and singing the “blood” harmonies for which the brothers had been likened to the Everly Brothers. Quickly developing a reputation across Virginia and neighboring states as an exciting front man, the fledgling country star was self-booking and playing more than 150 shows a year by 2023, often breaking venue attendance records.

By day, Hatcher studied business and bluegrass at East Tennessee State University, and when COVID-19 temporarily shut down live performances, he turned his attention to social media. In July 2020, a TikTok cover of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” went viral overnight, eventually earning more than 2.4 million views.

“I’d gone to bed having just 24 followers,” Hatcher recalls. “When I woke up, I had over 10,000 and my life was about to change. I’d been reaching out to venues about booking shows and that was when they started reaching out to me.”

His fan base now includes nearly a million social media followers and surpassing 68 million views. This led to a high-profile partnership with PepsiCo, with Hatcher co-writing and performing a bluegrass jingle in a nationwide commercial for Mountain Dew. His hometown newspaper, The Daily News-Record, dubbed him the “String King” and he began opening for country headliners like Gene Watson, Rhonda Vincent, Tracy Byrd and Wade Hayes.

It wasn’t long before Stone Country Records came calling, and the newly crowned “String King” signed his long-wished-for record deal in October 2024. Barely over a year later in November 25, Hatcher released his good-time debut EP, Honky Tonk Hideaway, anchored by his debut radio single, “When She Calls Me Cowboy.”

A steamy slow dance about a cheeky term of endearment used behind closed doors, “When She Calls Me Cowboy,” debuted out-of-the-box as a Top 10 Most Added Song at U.S. Country Radio (Mediabase). At the same time, influential tastemaker Saving Country Music proclaimed, “Spencer Hatcher is one of the most promising up-and-coming voices in traditional country music, and this new song underscores why.”

“I’ve always loved a classic country song—like Conway Twitty’s ‘I’d Love to Lay You Down’—that captures the tender, private moments between a man and his woman,” Hatcher shares. “‘When She Calls Me Cowboy’ is in that tradition. It still has that tenderness, and a beat you can dance around your kitchen to, just like in the song.”

Produced by Jason Sellers, Ilya Toshinskiy (Jelly Roll) and Mickey Jack Cones (Joe Nichols), the six-track Honky Tonk Hideaway EP also features its barn burnin’ title track, a lively country rocker about a place where you can leave all your troubles at the door. Other highlights include “The Way She Lies,” a spellbinding love song for a cheatin’ heart, lauded in Saving Country Music’s roundup of “The Best Country Singles of 2025 So Far.” “On the Inside” is a boot-scootin’ honky tonker that argues a broken heart shouldn’t get in the way of a good time, and “Has Anybody Ever” is a romantic toe tapper that sees Hatcher asking a new sweetheart how well she’s been loved in the past. “Cold Beer and Common Sense” is a recipe for unity in a sometimes-divided country, reminding us that most Americans have more shared values than political differences.

Noted by Billboard for his sound that “fits the ’90s-country revival that’s still turning heads among the genre’s base,” Hatcher closely studies his musical heroes, including Cash, Strait, Presley and fellow bluegrass-turned-country artist Keith Whitley. But as this young old-fashioned gentleman begins his Nashville adventure, he’s determined to forge his own creative path.

Spencer Hatcher has come to believe in miracles, and just a few years ago, he could have been forgiven for thinking it might take a miracle for “real country music” to return to the mainstream. Now, though, with the cultural pendulum already swinging back towards traditional-leaning country, he could be just the right artist arriving at exactly the right time.