Nate Barnes is an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer and songwriter.

Early life

Barnes was born in

South Haven, Michigan South Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city is in Van Buren County, although a small portion extends into Allegan County. The population was 4,403 at the 2010 census. Because of its position on Lake Michigan, at the ...

. Growing up, he worked at a blueberry farm and a nuclear power plant.

Musical career

In 2020, Barnes took a vacation in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

where a friend introduced him to songwriter

Jason Sellers Jason Sellers (born March 4, 1971) is an American country music artist. After several years of touring the United States in his family's band, Sellers joined the road band of Ricky Skaggs. By 1997, he was signed to a recording contract with BNA Re ...

and record label executive Benny Brown, who was formerly the president of

BBR Music Group BBR Music Group (formerly Broken Bow Records) is an American record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in July 1999 by Benny Brown, the label specializes in country music. The label's executive vice president is Jon Loba. Craig Morgan ...

. After Barnes played songs for the two of them, Brown signed him to Quartz Hill Records, a record label that he had just founded. Barnes then wrote his first single, "You Ain't Pretty", with Sellers and

Jimmy Yeary James Earl Yeary (born in Hillsboro, Ohio) is an American country music singer and songwriter. In 1994, Yeary moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to begin a career as a recording artist. Although he was signed to Atlantic Records, a change in label ...

. The song was then released on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, where it went on to gain over 12 million views after its 2021 release. Following this, he began working on his debut album with producers

Mickey Jack Cones Mickey Jack Cones (born in San Antonio, TX) is an American record producer, engineer, session musician, singer and songwriter. Raised in a musical family, he is the grandson of Glenn Gray Orchestra singer Jane Cones and son of Jackie Cones of Th ...

and

Derek George Derek George (born in Philadelphia, Mississippi) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist currently signed to Spirit Music Group. He is known for his work in Pearl River and Williams Riley, and his frequent collaborations ...

. In addition to its release to radio, the song was made into a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

, which has aired on CMT. By October 2021, "You Ain't Pretty" had reached number 47 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

charts.

Discography

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Nate American country singer-songwriters Country musicians from Michigan Living people People from Van Buren County, Michigan Year of birth missing (living people) American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Michigan