Up & Coming New Nashville- Joel Warren

The cowboy waits with adrenaline racing through his veins as he nervously listens for the crack of the gate admitting the steer that he’ll soon wrestle to the ground. In merely a few seconds, the crowd will delight in cheering for the clinging-to-edge-of-their-seat display in the arena. Despite countless scrapes, bruises and even a broken ankle once, steer wrestling proved to be the first cheers rancher Joel Warren heard from a rowdy crowd.

“I was on a horse every day of my life since I was 5 or 6 years old,” recalls Joel when he reminisces about a hard working, but idyllic childhood reared in Thedford, Nebraska. He was adopted when only two days old. His dad was a celebrated champion steer wrestler and naturally Joel wanted to follow in his rather large boots. “My dad’s steer wrestling days were over, so I’d never seen him actually do it, but I heard plenty of stories and saw the buckles to prove it. Steer wrestling is a special connection we have.”

His childhood on the second generation ranch was a cross between a John Wayne western, “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie” peppered with a large extended family of aunts, uncles & cousins. His grandfather Chester helped with the ground breaking of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Joel remembers Chester receiving an award at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Wilford Brimley, Tom Selleck, Michael Landon and the “Little House on the Prairie” cast were all in attendance. “I thought I had died and went to heaven.”

Though ranching and the roar of a rodeo arena were in his blood, the inviting applause and rumblings of a country music crowd proved to provide a new entertainment outlet for Joel. “With my grandparents, I’d watch the ‘Lawrence Welk’ show reruns and impersonate “the King" with swiveling hips and curling lips.” But soon, the Elvis fascination would yield to Chris LeDoux, George Strait and Garth Brooks. Joel got his first exposure throughout the Midwest competing in the “Galaxy of Stars.” You Look So Good In Love was the first song that he sang in the competition at only 13. Even though he didn’t win his first year, he refused to give up on his dream and would make a connection with the competition’s creator Wynne Adams. “I had been trying to win this competition for a couple years and the year I finally did it, the winner was given the opportunity to open for Pat Green. I was so excited, but at the same time I was torn. The very same night of the Pat Green show, I had purchased tickets to see my idol George Strait. So right there from the stage I offered to sell my two tickets. I never regretted that decision.”

After the competition, Joel made the move to Nashville where he learned to play guitar, built his confidence and honed his songwriting skills. “Before I played guitar, I would just wail my arm around on stage,” remembers Joel with a chuckle. “Now I would feel so weird taking a stage without having the guitar in front of me.” Still waters run deep with Joel as he is a man of few words. This ropin’ cattle rancher has lived his songs a bit too literally, but in the harshest of times his songwriting has offered the catharsis which has helped him process his life‘s changes. “I never thought I would be living the lyrics of my first single "Leavin’ Lubbock", but I am living proof that you can never say country music isn’t about real life stories.” Like the character in his song, Joel suffered the end of his marriage and is now living in the “Live Music Capitol of the World” Austin, Texas.



The roots of the ranching legacy mean everything to him as he aspires to represent the ranchers and rodeo cowboys.

When he’s not in the spotlight on stage, you’ll find this avid outdoorsman back at the ranch working cattle and hunting deer, turkey or coyotes. He’s come along way from his days singing along to the radio. “I just love the way music affects the crowd. I’m more comfortable on stage than anywhere else. I want to carry the torch for ranchers as it’s the only way of life I know.” This freshman project reads like a journal of small town life. There are the uplifting songs like Keep Rollin’ On and Writing a Song to balance the emotional rollercoaster on the debut single Leavin’ Lubbock and God Fearin’ Man. What keeps Joel Warren going are his fans who inspire him to keep on writing about his country roots and singing his own brand of country music.