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When Fancy Hagood was just 17 years old, he got in a car he barely knew how to drive and moved to Nashville, a city he’d never visited, with the dream of becoming an openly queer country artist. He had gumption, and hustle. In Nashville, he was told that being a queer country artist was not an option, so Los Angeles, and the pursuit of pop, followed. “I went from working at Forever 21 to working with some of the biggest names in music ever,” he says, remembering the period of his career in which he opened for artists like Meghan Trainor and Ariana Grande. But despite the high highs, making pop music—a genre in which he had little control over his artistry or image—was often unfulfilling. Hagood found his creative process—one brimming with the kind of truth and vulnerability that emerges best in the company of close, trusted collaborators—being curtailed in an environment that crafted songs as if they had been placed on conveyor belt.

Still, he kept his dream within reach. “Every year I'm on some artist to watch or up and coming list, and I've been on that list for the past decade and I just keep going. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs personally, and I’ve just always been able to find my way back to myself. I’m really grateful that none of that materialized, because, if I’m being honest, I don’t think I was prepared for what my ultimate goal is.” That goal: “To bring people together, make people feel seen, make people feel heard, to help heal,” he says. It’s this community-forward, empathetic vision, along with his drive, resilience, and indomitably joyful spirit that color Hagood’s sophomore solo album, American Spirit, out on October 25.

American Spirit marks, in Hagood’s view, both a return and an arrival, an embracement of his past while moving forward into his future. On his debut album, 2021’s Southern Curiosity, which found the singer blending country with the sounds of glam rock and confessional pop, he says, “I fought really hard about it being labeled a country album, because I had just been so jaded by the conversation about who belongs in country and what is country.” Despite labeling it as pop, though, Southern Curiosity found a home on country playlisting and with country audiences. Elton John was a fan. So was Brandi Carlile, who called him “an artist to watch.”

“When I moved to Nashville, I was listening to Nickel Creek—my favorite band of all time—Little Big Town, Keith Urban, Sugarland, Sara Evans, Alison Krauss. I had a very, very big heart for country music. That’s what made me want to come to Nashville in the first place,” Hagood says. “I knew after Southern Curiosity had been well received by this community that I wanted to go pedal to the metal and really go back to my roots and that original dream of wanting to be a country artist.” So, in 2022, Hagood returned to the studio, ready to experiment with producers John Osborne (The Brothers Osborne, Ashley McBryde’s Lindeville), Jarrad K (Ruston Kelly’s Dying Star), and Jeremy Lutitio (Joy Oladokun, Devon Gilfillian) and different co-writers, including Caitlyn Smith, Mindy Smith, Sean McConnell, and Mary Steenburgen to create something new and distinctly country-forward. While the initial sessions were productive, in Hagood’s eyes, the songs weren’t entirely there yet. He needed more time to sit with them.

“I feel like my albums kind of reveal themselves over time and over trial and error,” he explains. “So I kept writing and I kept doing the thing, and then I went through a breakup. This album started out one way, and it wrapped up in another.” Faced with the end of his first serious relationship, Hagood’s professional experience of resilience, healing, and growth became personal. In moving forward through his heartache, Hagood realized the importance of having a strong, loyal community and support system around himself—and another unexpected revelation. He couldn’t write a savage breakup album full of kiss offs and diss tracks. “That ended up not being my heart,” he explains. “I got into the idea of writing songs that could possibly help other people move on and move forward and find the strength to get through whatever. I was able to find my joy again after such devastation and a relationship ending.”

Hagood’s reclaimed joy permeates American Spirit; despite everything he’s been through, sorrow has no home here, though vulnerability, gratitude, and resilience do. Life may, sometimes, be hard and disappointing and confounding, but most of the time, we can survive it. And if we’re lucky, and we have the right people by our sides, we can thrive again. On American Spirit, Hagood creates a rich atmosphere of this type of community, the feeling of confidence you get when surrounded by trusted collaborators and friends who not only allow you to fully express your artistry and emotions, but lift you up in the process.

That trusted environment allow Hagood’s lyrics to traverse all the complex emotions of being alive, from experiencing the many stages of grief for loved ones lost (the bittersweet “Good Grief,” its melody like the sun peaking through clouds after rain) to reminding oneself that pain is a part of the human experience (“Isn’t That Life?” featuring Michelle Branch, one of Hagood’s longtime musical idols) that can’t be avoided, only moved through (the aptly-titled boot stomper “Through”), where, hopefully, you’ll find a new version of yourself on the other side (“Ever Really Ready”). On “Losing Game,” Hagood crafts a delicate country love song, though it’s a compassionate one for anyone who has ever experienced the rush of jumping headfirst into romance with someone they know isn’t necessarily good for them. That thrill and obsession isn’t always crazy; sometimes, it’s a sign of your ability to show up, a strength that will just be better suited with a future partner. And “The Chase,” a rootsy ode to the euphoria a crush can induce, features Sean and Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek, marking a full-circle moment for Hagood. “When I close my eyes, I’m on a backroad in Bentonville, Arkansas driving my Isuzu Trooper with my moon roof back, it’s fall, the mandolin’s going on a Nickel Creek song, and it’s the first time I can remember being absolutely in love with music—and that’s what it feels like hearing them on my song.”

A native of Bentonville, AR, Hagood now calls Nashville home. His debut album, 2021’s Southern Curiosity, which was heralded as for its “lively, unapologetic, [and] buoyant” (Rolling Stone) and “dreamy, nostalgic” (The Boot) songwriting, was nominated for Best Country Record at the 2022 Libera Awards. In 2022, his single with Kacey Musgraves, “Blue Dream Baby,” was praised by Elton John, stating, “We need more people like Fancy.” An artist who values community, collaboration, and inclusiveness in music, 2024 found Hagood guesting on Orville Peck’s highly anticipated duets album Stampede in addition to releasing Smothered, Covered & Fried, a 5-song EP in collaboration with She Returns From War, Jamie Wyatt, TJ Osborne, The Kentucky Gentlemen, and Brooke Eden.

What stands out most on American Spirit most is its sustained note of self-assuredness and confidence. After years of ups and downs, Hagood is standing fully in his artistry. The joy he finds in creating music again seeps into the music itself, carrying the torch of connection that he felt from his own favorite artists to create a sense of shared community and camaraderie with listeners. “It’s like I’m sitting at a table where I don’t have to explain myself,” he says, “and I just wish I could invite the younger versions of myself to this moment to say, ‘Look, we’re doing it, and it feels really good.’ In some ways, this album is really for that 17-year-old who was brave enough to move to Nashville and beat the door down and say, ‘I belong here.’”