Whirlwind: someone or something characterized by great energy or swiftness, often with an atmosphere of chaos.
I know 2025 was a year of chaos for so many of us. I walked my hardest road that year and am still clawing my way out of the rubble. One of the many challenges life handed me last year was my dad’s failing health, which included multiple hospitalizations. We almost lost him at multiple points. It all came to a head in October 2025, one fateful Saturday, when he collapsed at home and returned to the hospital where he had spent time in May. Later that evening at the hospital, his heart came to a complete stop, and he needed CPR for a couple of minutes. Receiving this news the next morning, my breath left my lungs and my body became paralyzed. Over the next couple days, time stood still, and the outside world ceased to exist. My dad lay still, hooked up to tubes and intubated in the ICU. We didn’t know if he would ever wake again.
…But he did.
One week after his heart stopped, we said goodbye to that hospital for the last time as my dad was discharged and went home. It was nothing short of a miracle.
WHIRLWIND: Life, Chaos & Lainey Wilson | Album & Concert Review (2026)
The trauma I went through isn’t anything unique, as we’ve all walked hard roads in life. There are a lot of hard things in life, but I’ve come to find there’s also just as much good. The light and dark coexist, juxtaposed on the same messy canvas. This juxtaposition lifted off the canvas for me the day my dad was released, as I also attended the Lainey Wilson “Whirlwind” concert in St. Paul that evening. I purchased my ticket earlier in the year and had been looking forward to it. With my dad’s health, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go, but it turned out I was.
Following up her hit album “Bell Bottom Country,” Lainey Wilson dropped her fifth studio album, “Whirlwind,” in August 2024. Capitalizing on her breakout success, Wilson launched her headlining “Whirlwind” World Tour in 2025, which included a stop in Minnesota in October. After two opening acts, teenager Maddox Batson and duo Muscadine Bloodline, Wilson hit the stage with the powerful presence and undeniable energy she’s known for. True to the tour name, she kicked things off with her tune “Whirlwind.”
Fittingly, the song reflects a love built on shared chaos and restless energy: “we’re a whirlwind cutting through a Texas town.” On stage, Wilson embodied that sentiment immediately.
Dressed in a green-and-black bell-bottom ensemble, she moved across the stage with calculated precision, ensuring every audience member felt her presence and command. From the moment she stepped into the spotlight, it was impossible not to be captivated.
Lainey Wilson has clawed her way through the rubble of making it as a woman in country music, and now she was firmly in her moment. She wasn’t going to waste a second of it. Every move, gesture and expression on stage felt intentional and purposeful, reflecting both her artistry and her determination to make the most of the spotlight she worked so hard to earn.
It felt like she understood the tough roads we all walk and was living proof of how to embrace the light when we get the chance to grab hold of it.
Keeping the audience in the palm of her hand with high energy and a reminder of the hits from “Bell Bottom Country,” Wilson moved on to “Hold My Halo” next. After firmly establishing her presence on stage, she segued into the mid-tempo “Good Horses.” On the album, she is joined by fellow country artist Miranda Lambert in a sweet, slow-grooving rendition. During the live performance in St. Paul, she brought teenage singer Maddox Batson back onstage for the duet.
Weaving songs from her different albums throughout the set, Wilson then slowed things down with “Devil Don’t Go There” and “Watermelon Moonshine.” She didn’t keep the tempo down for long, however. Next came a medley featuring her hit “Country’s Cool Again,” blended with portions of country classics, including Vince Gill’s “One More Last Chance,” Dwight Yoakam’s “Guitars, Cadillacs” and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishin’ in the Dark” before returning to her signature “Country’s Cool Again” to close out the segment.
What stands out most in Lainey Wilson’s music, both on her albums and in her live performance, is how deeply rooted she is in country tradition. She doesn’t perform like she’s trying to redefine the genre. She performs like someone who understands exactly where it comes from and is simply carrying that legacy forward. By the time she reached “Keep Up With Jones” in the set, there was no doubt left in the room that this was a country music show, through and through.
A pivotal arc in the show came when Wilson stepped onto a pedestal with a white, flowing cape trailing behind her as she rose above the stage to sing her hit “Somewhere Over Laredo.” As her voice carried to the far ends of the arena, the cape moved through the air in a whimsical and ethereal way, amplifying the sense of lift and release in the song.
Beyond her musical performance, Wilson also used her command on the stage to uplift others. Before “Peace, Love, and Cowboys,” she brought a young woman on stage whom she had known from her early performing days and crowned her “Cowgirl of the Night.” She had the woman repeat back to her: “I am beautiful. I am smart. I can do anything. I am fearless. And I am Cowgirl of the Night.”
Not content to keep the momentum subdued for long, Wilson quickly shifted the energy back to full throttle with “Yesterday, All Day, Every Day,” “Hang Tight Honey” and “Hillbilly Hippie.”
Beyond the high-octane energy, at the core of Lainey Wilson’s artistry is her songwriting and her ability to tell a story. Taking a seat at the end of the catwalk with only a guitar in hand, she delivered an intimate rendition of “Whiskey Colored Crayon.” She was then joined by Muscadine Bloodline for an acoustic performance of their collaboration, “Pieces.”
From there, Wilson began building the energy back up with an acoustic rendition of “Counting Chickens” with her band, then returning to full band ensemble on her breakthrough hit “Things a Man Oughta Know,” the smoky swagger of “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” and the rollicking “Bell Bottoms Up.” By this point, the audience was fully locked in, and we were firmly in Wilson’s hands, ready to be led wherever she wanted to take us.
Shifting gears once more, she then slowed things down with “Call a Cowboy,” a song that celebrates the reliability and character of a good country man. She followed it with the reflective “Bar in Baton Rouge,” giving the audience a chance to catch its breath before the final stretch.
To close out the evening, Wilson delivered one of her biggest hits with the love song “4x4xU,” before bringing the night to a triumphant finish with her timeless anthem, “Heart Like a Truck.” It was a perfect conclusion for a show built on resilience, authenticity and the kind of determination that has defined Lainey Wilson’s rise to country music stardom.
As I left the arena that night, I couldn’t help but reflect on the whirlwind of the previous week and the whirlwind that had been my 2025. I never knew one year could hold so much chaos, heartbreak, and uncertainty. The whirlwind broke me down and changed me in ways I never expected.
But with my dad out of the hospital and Lainey Wilson effortlessly holding an entire arena in the palm of her hand, I was reminded of one thing. Darkness is only part of the story.
The light and dark coexist on the same messy canvas. Sometimes they exist side by side in the same week, the same day or even the same moment. We don’t get to choose when the darkness comes, but we do get to choose what we do when the light breaks through.
That night, Lainey Wilson reminded me to grab hold of it.
Maybe that’s what “Whirlwind” is really about. Not avoiding the chaos, but learning how to keep moving forward. Learning to find the light when it shimmers through the darkness and having the courage to reach for it. And sometimes, that’s all it takes to make it through.
Thanks for reading “WHIRLWIND: Life, Chaos & Lainey Wilson | Album & Concert Review (2026).) Check out upcoming Lainey Wilson tour dates here or stream her documentary “Keepin’ Country Cool” on Netflix. Follow me on Twitter @tootsiepop6 to stay in touch!
*Photo Credit: Bryan West / The Tennessean – USA TODAY Sports*
