Bryan Andrews
In October, as ICE continued ramping up its aggressive tactics across U.S. cities, using violence against citizens and making arrests without judicial warrants, country singer Bryan Andrews made a video. Donning a camo hoodie and a cap emblazoned with a deer skull, Andrews unleashed a fiery rebuke of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I would rather my label call me up right after posting this video and drop me — and have no career at all — than live in a world where what is happening right now is happening and I don’t say a thing, like most of these artists do,” Andrews said. “I want it to be crystal fucking clear what side of history I’m on.”
The video, which racked up more than a million views, is one of many impassioned, F-bomb-laden speeches calling out ICE, corporate greed and the MAGA movement that can be found on Andrews’ social media pages. In another post in the weeks leading up to CMA Fest, Andrews addressed whether he’d “tone down” his political views for the massive four-day country music gathering taking over downtown Nashville June 4 through 7. His response? A photo of himself holding up a guitar with “This Machine Kills Fascists” painted on the soundboard in an homage to Woody Guthrie, accompanied by his two word reply: “Fuck no.”
“It’s going to be an antifascist party,” Andrews tells the Scene of his CMA Fest set, scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, June 4, at the Good Molecules Reverb Stage outside Bridgestone Arena.
Raised in the small town of Carrollton, Mo., Andrews spent his early 20s working as a welder. He began writing songs in hotel rooms while traveling for construction work. While he cultivated a sound that leans toward the harder rock side of contemporary country, he’s often found lyrical inspiration in his own blue-collar background.
“When I look at the blue-collar community, and I see so many people voting against their own best interests and voting for people who are taking advantage of them,” he says, “and telling them, ‘Hey, I’m for you,’ and then turn right around and steal even more money from their pocket — it pisses me off.”
The 29-year-old readily admits he’s not the first country artist to speak out against the status quo. He points to legends such as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash — “When I think about who I want to be masculine like, it’s my father and Johnny Cash,” he says — and outspoken contemporary artists like Maren Morris, Tyler Childers and Jason Isbell as musicians who “broke the walls down” in country music. But he does stand in stark contrast to a slew of mainstream country artists such as Carrie Underwood, who took the stage to sing at Trump’s second inauguration, and Jason Aldean, a vocal supporter of the president who was photographed sitting in the VIP section with Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Even country artists who’ve steered clear of Donald Trump seem hell-bent on staying mum on his policies.
“I really love country music,” Andrews says. “I love what it stood for, and I love what it still does stand for. I hate to see it be adopted by this whole bootlicking mindset that if you’re not down with this shit, then you can’t listen to country music.”
In his barn burner “YeeHaw,” Andrews calls out so-called rebels who posture as outlaws but stay silent as their rights are stripped away.
“They’re serving up our daughters, they’re shipping off our sons,” Andrews sings. “Next thing you know / They’ll skip the vote and come for all your guns.”
“Outlaw country is leftist country,” Andrews says. “Some of these newer artists get onstage and throw these beer cans and act like they’re some kind of outlaw, but then they get right down and kiss the ring and put on that MAGA hat every chance they get. I really don’t think they listen to the music, because if they did, they’d know that [Cash’s song] ‘Man in Black’ is about standing in solidarity with the working class and the working man and the marginalized communities of that time period. I just have a hard time believing that Johnny Cash would be dick-riding for Donald Trump.”
In April, Andrews launched his ICE Out of My Country Damn Music Protest Tour, with stops in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago and Des Moines. With help from Andrews’ tourmate, fellow singer-songwriter and activist Lou Ridley, the four-date run raised money for Human Rights First, which provides pro bono legal representation to refugees seeking asylum.
“We chose some of the cities that had been personally affected by ICE in a major way on a public level,” says Andrews. “I was like, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do this, let’s make it relevant to something that we’ve seen because I want these shows to feel like rallies.’ And they did.”
Ahead of his first CMA Fest set, Andrews is already prepared for the chorus of “shut up and sing” from naysayers who don’t want politics at their carefree, sun-soaked country music festival. As always, he doesn’t hold back with his response.
“Everything is political. When [people are] like, ‘Oh, I don’t do politics,’ it’s like, great, well, politics is doing you. It doesn’t matter if you don’t care, because politics cares about you. Art is political. History will be told, and it’s going to be told through art, and I want to be a part of it. If they’re [at CMA Fest] to listen to some music about getting your heart broke or drinking beers in the back of your pickup or some shit like that, there’s probably 150 other artists there they can go see.”
Diving into the who, what, when, where and why of the two major music festivals that hit Middle Tennessee at the start of summer
