A primary arc in the second season of Landman, Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ series set in the Texas oilfields, focuses on the character Cami Miller, played by Demi Moore. Navigating the personal and economic fallout from the death of her oil tycoon husband, Cami is wracked by loneliness and stress and, in an intense scene late in the third episode, collapses on the marble patio of her mansion while holding a photo of herself and her late spouse. As she does, a heavy acoustic guitar gives way to Drayton Farley’s muted voice singing, “Everything about this place has changed.”
It’s a pivotal scene in the series. As it turns out, it’s also a pivotal scene in Farley’s career — and in those of Sunny Sweeney and Dani Rose, too. The three artists co-wrote “Touch and Go,” the song heard in the scene, in 2023 at a writing camp organized by Andrea von Foerster, the music supervisor who curates the music in Landman just as she has done for Sheridan’s juggernaut series Yellowstone. It was Farley’s first-ever co-write, and von Foerster held onto the song for more than a year before deeming it a fit for Cami’s emotional breakdown.
“We all talked about watching our parents growing older and how hard those emotions can hit you,” Farley says of the song. “There’s this one line, ‘Wish I could stop the age in my daddy’s eyes,’ that really stands out. That one, I believe, was born from Sunny. It’s the kind of line that keeps the song true and the writer on track. I’m really proud of this song, and honestly Andrea could not have placed it in a more fitting scene.”
Within a week, “Touch and Go” topped Shazam’s Top 200 U.S. chart for all genres. Out of nowhere, Farley, Sweeney, and Rose had a viral hit. In the month following its placement in Landman, the song received more than half a million streams on Spotify alone.
Such is the power of the alliance that Sheridan and von Foerster have forged in soundtracking Yellowstone and Landman with music from outside country’s mainstream. “The Taylorverse” as von Foerster calls it, has been instrumental in elevating Zach Bryan, Whiskey Myers, Shane Smith and the Saints, and Ella Langley — and just about any other artist whose song she picks to help develop Sheridan’s characters.
When Landman’s second season wraps up Jan.18, more than 100 songs will have been featured in the series. Iconic names like George Strait and Chris Stapleton blend with rising stars like Farley, Noeline Hofmann, and Danno Simpson on the series’ official Spotify playlist.
The Taylorverse is not the only streaming home for Red Dirt, Texas, and Americana artists — Sterlin Harjo’s FX projects Reservation Dogs and The Lowdown were instrumental in showcasing the music of Ken Pomeroy and Blaine Bailey, for example — but it’s the gold standard. There’s an argument to be made that nothing has played a greater role in the rise of independent country artists than being heard in one of Sheridan’s shows since Yellowstone premiered in 2018.
That’s the vision that von Foerster had from the outset.
“When you work on a hit, you get to help launch and further artists’ careers,” von Foerster tells Rolling Stone. “That’s amazing. When you’re choosing soundtracks for your characters’ emotional arcs and storylines, you get to take the audience along for the ride. The success of the music doesn’t change the show’s musical identity, but it’s a nice nod of approval.”
Before teaming up with Sheridan, van Foerster was already established as one of the top music supervisors in television and film, having overseen the song choices for movies like 500 Days of Summer and Air, among dozens of others. During the planning stages for Yellowstone, von Foerster says dozens of phone calls and a few in-person meetings with Sheridan made them realize they shared the same musical aesthetic. From there, she maintained a steady focus on Sheridan, taking her cues from how he creates his storylines.
“He writes very clearly,” she says. “It’s really just listening to what the page says it wants and the characters, and following that emotional arc. Sometimes, it’s a montage — but less so in Landman than Yellowstone. Sometimes it’s sourced from its location. Is the feeling over a scene at the end of the episode like ‘Touch and Go’? Are you playing to the emotion or are you trying to misdirect? It’s always just paying attention to what’s on the page.”
Still, even a well-curated selection does not automatically mean the songs are going to resonate beyond their accompanying scenes. Ryan Bingham, who had an acting role in Yellowstone, recalled having mild trepidation when he learned the series would skew heavily toward Texas, Red Dirt, and Americana. “At the time, you know, it could have gone either way. It could have been really cool for this music, or it could have been really bad for it,” Bingham told Rolling Stone in 2024.
For von Foerster’s part, though, the need to match the tone of Sheridan’s work rendered those concerns secondary. There was no reason to, say, fill the series with artists constantly at the top of the country music charts. Plus, she figured, if she and Sheridan liked a song, fans of their work would like it, too.
“We never said we were not going to do something,” von Foerster says of how she and Sheridan ended up steering largely clear of the mainstream. “It wasn’t that. It was that these stories don’t call for it. If we use music that’s everywhere, it makes it seem like the show is a playlist.
“We’re not matching the show to songs. We’re matching songs to the show.”
That process, she says, is mostly intuitive. “When you love something, you don’t try, you just do,” says von Foerster, who collects music on playlists and has an inbox overflowing with pitches from artist representatives. She and Sheridan both keep abreast of new artists who may be a fit. When Sheridan attends a concert in Texas and an artist catches his ear, he lets von Foerster know quickly. The songwriting camp that led to “Touch and Go” is one of many that van Foerster holds in hopes of finding music that will match the right moment in a script.
“Music is my first language,” she says. “It’s what I’ve dedicated my life to. I don’t have the talent to make it, but I have the talent to have it created, and matchmaking is my thing. Matching the audio to the visual is what I’m good at. When that’s the case, either you find it or it finds you, but somehow it just happens.
“I have been in line for a restroom at a restaurant in Nashville before, looked at a guy in a cardigan and said, ‘Great cardigan! What band are you in?’ And he was in a band of course. Then, I got to know that band, and I used that band in a show.”
Sweeney was already riding a high from the near-universal praise for her 2025 album Requiem for a Dream when “Touch and Go” had its viral moment. She was struck by the sheer speed at which the song resonated with Landman viewers.
“The show is solely responsible for introducing this song to a wider audience and shows how music can really travel when it’s paired with the right story,” Sweeney says. “Music supervisors have such a crucial job pairing their vision with what’s happening on screen. Suddenly, people are connecting their own moments to it, and to me, that’s been the most powerful thing to watch.”
Says von Foerster: “We like Red Dirt country and outlaw country in the Taylorverse.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous will be released April 1 via Back Lounge Publishing.
