Nothing is sweeter than success in the music business … except when you make history doing so. Just ask Drew Baldridge. When he had his fair share of struggles prior to the world shutting down due to COVID-19, he knew he had two options: throw in the towel or take the bull by the horns. And throwing in the towel was not in the cards.
“I had been in this town for almost 10 years, and I didn’t have anything to show for it, other than my relationships with people and the music I’ve put out in the past,” Drew tells Country Beat. “I was watching the music we were creating reacting on social media, and it was really making a difference.”
Drew created his own label, Lyric Ridge, and hit the ground running making phone calls and rekindling relationships he’d made along the way. “I was like hey, I have this song … what do you think about it?” he recalls. “Everybody loved the song and said we had a hit.”
That song was “She’s Somebody’s Daughter.”
The tune had already grown legs of its own through social media outlets such as TikTok, as Drew was getting flooded with messages from fans from all over the country. “The messages would be from girls, dads, soon-to-be husbands … it was just special. So I wanted to fight for that. I didn’t want to look back in 30 years and say why didn’t I try? Why didn’t I try sending my best song that I’ve ever had to country radio. My dream was always to have my song on country radio, so that’s what I did.”
In August 2023, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” started what Drew calls “a dog fight,” competing with country music’s biggest and hottest start tearing up the charts. By January, the song officially charted.
“We sent it to radio on a prayer,” Drew says, smiling. “For those five months, I was just hoping and praying that we could get radio on board. Just fighting and praying and hoping. Somehow, by the grace of God, radio just kept playing it.
“It was really scary,” he continues. “I was funding this all myself at the time. I had a baby boy who was only a year old and a new marriage. But my wife just believed in me the whole time.”
Katie Baldridge not only believed in her husband, but in the song itself, which she inspired in 2019 prior to their wedding. Katie danced to the song with her dad on their big day, and the video footage helped make the music video push the song further up the charts.
“She was a full believer, even when I wasn’t a believer in myself,” Drew praises. “She was there at the 3AM wake-up’s when I was like what am I doing? She was like hey, we’ve got this … God’s got this. You’re going to do it. It helped me push along. It was so special because it’s our story. It’s our song, together.”
What Drew didn’t realize during that time is that he was embarking on territory nobody has ever accomplished before. As the song continued to climb the charts, it was brought to his attention that nowhere in country music history has an independent artist taken their song all the way to the top. “I was just trucking along, hoping to get as many stations on board as possible. But when people started telling me it had never been done before, I was like oh crap!” laughs Drew. “When I found that out, I knew that I really wanted to take it all the way. I was like let’s go do this! We are going to make country music history.”
In August 2024, “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” topped the charts, marking Drew’s very first No. 1 — and got everyone noticing exactly what he accomplished. “It was a win for everybody,” says a humbled Drew. “It just felt like a No. 1 for all of us. It was a win for Nashville. A win for songwriters. A win for producers. It was a win for country radio. They showed their power in supporting an artist who was independent. It felt very, very special that I wasn’t alone at all, especially at the end. The whole community with radio and other labels and everybody was behind what I was doing. Now we’re out on tour, and we’re having more people show up to shows than ever. It’s been a dream come true.”
With his follow-up single, “Tough People,” currently climbing the charts, Drew partnered with Stony Creek Records, a label owned by BBR Music Group. The song, like Drew, has had its own journey prior to hitting the radio airwaves. Prior to Drew recording the tune, “Tough People” was in the hands of Luke Combs who was set to release the song as a duet with Lainey Wilson. “Then life happened,” Drew says.
Luke’s label released another song ahead of “Tough People,” giving Drew the opportunity to see if there was a chance he could get the song back for his own project. “At the time, ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter’ was Top 20, and people kept asking me what was next for us. ‘Tough People’ was my favorite song, and it was just sitting there in limbo. I didn’t know what to do.”
So Drew called his friend and asked if he could generously pull the song back into his court. “Luke gave it back to me,” Drew recalls. “He was like dude, you wrote it so you should sing it. It’s your song, and I hope it goes all the way to No. 1!”
It was a moment of joy, but also a moment of fear for Drew. “It was super scary to take the possibility of two of the biggest artists in country music recording your song, and then say we are going to do it ourselves with our own voice,” says Drew. “It’s a song kind of about my journeys past about getting on ourselves, and it’s been such a blessing.”
All the buzz around Drew’s success has been opening more doors for him already as we enter into 2025. In January, Drew joined Cody Johnson on the road for the star’s Leather Deluxe Tour. Then this Summer, he will head out with Bailey Zimmerman, criss-crossing the country on the New to Country Tour.
“I’ve been in Nashville for 13 years, and I have been dreaming of tours like these,” Drew says, still in disbelief. “I first started writing songs at 16, and I think like anybody that first starts writing songs, you’re literally sitting down at the edge of your bed with your eyes closed, acting like you’re singing to a crowd in a stadium and they are singing your songs back. It’s still hard to wrap my head around all this because I’ve been here for so long. I’ve never had a chance like this.
“This last year has been so wild, compared to four years ago when I was like what am I doing with my life?” Drew continues. “Now we’re are like, oh my goodness! This is actually working. I don’t take anything for granted anymore. I’m really taking it in and soaking up every minute of it. I’m just so grateful and want to live in the moment as much as possible.”
