Patrick Droney [MOVED TO THE STATE ROOM]

Patrick Droney is a Brooklyn-based artist, songwriter, producer, and guitarist. His third album, Made You Look, will be released on July 24 via Warner Records.

With streams in the hundreds of millions, Droney writes songs that offer striking snapshots of the human condition. He has toured extensively in recent years, with sold-out shows across the U.S., including New York’s famed Webster Hall, and in the U.K. He performed at Super Bowl LVII, appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has shared stages with The Eagles, Sheryl Crow, The Vamps, and more.

For Tenille Townes, writing songs has always been a way of reaching out to anyone trying to make sense of a confusing world. In the last five years, the Canada-born, Nashville-based artist’s full-hearted, soul-searching songwriting has led to tours with Stevie Nicks, Miranda Lambert, Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Reba, Zac Brown Band, George Strait, and Dierks Bentley. She has also earned two JUNO Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards, and 17 Canadian Country Music Association Awards. Townes has built a globe-spanning fanbase drawn to her deeply human stories, told with empathy, clarity, and hope.

“What I love about making music is the potential for my songs to meet people right where they are, but then leave them feeling a little more seen and lifted up than they were before,” says Townes. “Even if it’s just the comfort of knowing someone else feels the same way.”

That mission continues with The Acrobat, Townes’ forthcoming album, due in 2026. Written during a period of personal and professional transition, the record finds her at a crossroads between who she has been and who she is becoming. Relationship endings, career shifts, and the noise of the world pushed Townes inward, where she began peeling back long-held patterns of people-pleasing and self-sacrifice. The result is her most stripped-down and intimate work to date, rooted in vulnerability, courage, and the tenacity to keep moving forward when certainty falls away.

Originally conceived as simple work tapes, The Acrobat took shape in quiet moments of solitude. Townes wrote, performed, produced, and mixed the album herself in the spare room of her home. By leaving the songs largely as they were first written, she captured a raw honesty that reflects both loneliness and freedom, grief and resilience. Released independently, the album takes a more singer-songwriter and folk-leaning approach, letting the stories lead and leaving room for unguarded emotion and unhurried reflection. At its core, it reflects on the preciousness of time, the fear that comes with change, and the resolve to hold on to what matters while learning when to let go.

The album’s first single, “Enabling,” sets the emotional tone for this new era. Written after an attempted apology from someone Townes loved, the song examines the painful line between compassion and self-betrayal. Townes confronts the habit of rushing to the rescue, mistaking endurance for love, and silencing her own hurt to keep the peace. “Choosing love ain’t love, unless the choosing is free,” she sings. Rather than placing blame, “Enabling” turns inward, recognizing that real care sometimes means stepping back and choosing yourself. It is shaped by vulnerability, resolve, and the belief that boundaries can be an act of love.

That emotional honesty has defined Townes’ career from the beginning. Growing up in Grande Prairie, Alberta, she fell in love with music through her parents’ eclectic record collection and discovered songwriting as a teenager after receiving her first guitar. Forgoing college, she organized and performed a 32-week tour across Canada, playing schools and community spaces before relocating to Nashville. Her debut album, The Lemonade Stand, arrived in 2020 and included the gold-certified, chart-topping “Somebody’s Daughter” and the award-winning “Jersey on the Wall (I’m Just Asking).” Townes became the first female artist in Mediabase Canada history to earn two No. 1 singles. She followed with 2022’s Masquerades and later released Train Track Worktapes, a collection of songs written and recorded while traveling across Canada by train in support of local food banks.

Whether on record or on stage, Townes continues to create what she calls a “safe space” for listeners. Her live shows balance quiet reflection with joy and release, grounded in the belief that music can help people feel less alone. “The greatest measure of success for me is the stories people share about how a song helped them,” she says. “It’s a reminder that music can open something inside you and let a little light in.”

With The Acrobat, Tenille Townes steps forward with renewed clarity, embracing vulnerability, honoring the passage of time, and trusting her own intuition. With everything stripped back, the album reflects a reconnection with self and a belief in listening inward, offering songs about the courage and tenacity it takes to keep choosing connection in an ever-changing world.