When the bellwether bands in the Red Dirt scene, Cross Canadian Ragweed and the Turnpike Troubadours, announced the latest installment in their Boys From Oklahoma tour de force, they put a brand-new name on the lineup. Shelby Stone will join Ragweed and Turnpike on Feb. 28 at the Akins Ford Arena in Athens, Georgia. The concert will mark the first time the Boys From Oklahoma plays out in a venue other than a stadium, and Stone is the first woman to land on the bill.
“I’ve never even been to Georgia,” Stone tells Rolling Stone. “I’ve never played an arena, just the occasional national anthem gig. And now I get to open for two of the biggest and historical bands in the Red Dirt scene? I’m beyond honored, and honestly just grateful as hell.”
The billing marks the latest in the year-long rubicon that Stone, originally from Decatur, Texas, has been crossing from local act to the fringes of stardom. When the 4,500-seat Pinnacle opened in Nashville in March, Turnpike played one of its first shows, with Stone opening. She also played a showcase slot in June at Circus Mexicus, the annual festival in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, put on by one of Stone’s mentors, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. She joined American Aquarium this summer too as a support act on a tour of clubs and theaters.
Most importantly, Stone dropped her debut full-length album, Silveryear, in August. But there was a catch: The record was only made available in physical format and via digital download on Stone’s website. She’s not releasing the project to streaming services until April 2026. The move was very intentional. Early adopters of Stone’s music paid for the record and she sees this as a gesture of thanks.
“Since we crowdfunded the album, I wanted to get it to our backers immediately,” Stone says. “For everyone else, I wanted to give people the opportunity to purchase the album directly before it hits streaming, where artists make pennies on the dollar. I know releasing singles is the industry standard now, but I was already playing shows and wanted audiences to know more than just one or two songs. This approach felt like the best way to honor both my supporters and my artistic vision.”
Vinyl pressings of Silveryear long ago sold out on Stone’s website. On the day the album dropped, she was waiting on a flight at the Denver airport, and her phone battery died from the volume of notifications about the project.
Such is life, lately, for the 25-year-old. Her lyrics are heavy on angst and heartache and her voice is commanding. When she performs, fans see her music emanate from a tangle of tattooed arms and legs and her blue-dyed hair bouncing in every direction. It’s a veteran stage presence for someone whose career is barely half a decade old.
As Stone tells it, she had little interest in music growing up. She attended private school and was surrounded by religion. She appreciated the Texas country radio stations and the Christian music stations she could hear in and around Fort Worth. As a teenager, she’d sing in church or an occasional national anthem, but she wanted to be an ER doctor. As a sophomore in college at UT-Arlington in 2019, she got a job at the Ranch, a country station in Dallas, and it changed her career path.
“I started working at the radio station, and realized this was a whole thing,” she says. “They made me get on stage at a Christmas party, and I immediately changed my major from nursing to music.”
Her first-ever gig was on Valentine’s Day 2020. The pandemic slowed her progress some, but enough bars stayed open that she found steady work. Stone also became something of a student of Texas music. She was particularly interested in the paths that female artists from the Texas-Oklahoma region like Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves, and Kaitlin Butts had forged.
She also saw a role model in Shannon Canada — Cross Canadian Ragweed’s manager and wife of frontman Cody Canada. She eventually reached out to Shannon and Cody and struck up a friendship. She did the same thing with Dalton Domino, who had a long career in Texas as a songwriter and musician, and he became Stone’s manager.
“From 2020 to 2022 when I met him,” Stone says, “there were six different tweets that I made saying, ‘All I want is a mentor. I just need someone to tell me what to do, and I’ll do it, but I’m shooting in the dark here.’ He has been an insane game-changer, from the songs to the branding to the shows that we take.”
Domino, in turn, introduced Stone to P.H. Naffah, the drummer and co-founder of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Silveryear was produced by Naffah at his studio in Arizona, with Domino co-producing. Rather organically, Stone had surrounded herself with a group of industry veterans she could trust to navigate the life of an up-and-comer.
When she played at Larry Joe Taylor’s annual festival in 2022, Taylor told Stone: “You could sing the alphabet to these people and they would cry. You need to focus on your songwriting.” She took it to heart, became a self-critic, wrote frequently with Domino — “Each Other” and “Easy Tiger” off Silveryear are examples of their collaborating — and found both a comfort zone and a fan base.
“I know what I like as a fan,” she says. “Treat me like a real person, and also reward me when I do what you want. The way to approach it is to think like a fan. Reward the fan for listening. Reward the fan for buying the merch. Give them the music first. Sure, streaming is cool, but ‘Here’s a download card,’ hits harder.”
Stone says she was having a rough morning when she got the offer to join Ragweed and Turnpike in Athens. It came via text from her agent, Jon Folk. “My jaw hit the floor and stayed there,” she says. “Growing up, when someone said ‘CCR,’ I honestly thought they meant Cross Canadian Ragweed, not Creedence Clearwater Revival. This whole thing feels full circle.”
Stone’s first major headlining show came in August when she was the main act at a pre-party at the Backyard Waco, Texas, the night before Ragweed and Turnpike played to 40,000-plus people down the street at McLane Stadium. The crowd response to Stone’s set that night led Cody and Shannon Canada to push for Stone to be on the lineup in Athens.
“Shelby got my attention immediately with her music, attitude and voice,” Cody Canada says, “but her work ethic blows me away. I think the sky’s the limit for this badass chick. Glad to be on her side.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous will be released April 1 via Back Lounge Publishing.
