Tanner Adell Talks 'Unconventional' Country, Anti Slut-Shaming Anthem 'Buckle Bunny' (Exclusive)
Over the past two decades, country music has become an ever-changing landscape of genre-blending, leading to graduating class of new artists who are poised to define a new era of southern music. This conversation simply cannot be had without including Tanner Adell, an emerging singer/songwriter who has built a dedicated following less than three years after releasing her debut single, "Honky Tonk Heartbreak." Now, Adell is dropping "Buckle Bunny," a bass-heavy anti slut-shaming anthem that has already stirred up a lot of chatter.
PopCulture.com had a chance to catch up with Adell recently and she shared with us how she came to pen "Buckle Bunny," as well as where her love of music originated. "My adopted family comes from Utah and Idaho, [and] Wyoming, and then my mom's side comes from California," the singer explained, noting that splitting time between the coast and the heartland ran in the family. "She actually did the same thing growing up. She would spend a year in Santa Barbara, California, and then the next year would be in Wyoming."
"It was just summers for me in Star Valley, and then the school year was in Manhattan Beach, California, she added. "But I think the biggest part of my heart always kind latched itself to the Star Valley side, and I think you could probably hear that in my music. It's very much a blend of those two worlds, but Star Valley is why I chose country."
Adell went on to share how her background shaped her sound. "It's very organic. I'm half black, half white. I spent half of my time in California, half of my time in Star Valley. I just met my birth family. I have half my birth family, half is my adopted family. I've always been half of this and half of that, and I don't really have to try. I don't really need to try." She continued, "When I'm in the room, I'm not thinking at all, 'Oh, should we lean towards country? Or maybe let's lean towards more of a pop sound.' I just kind of hear it and that's just what naturally I tend to do. Everything's just always going to have some sort of country influence because that's just who I am."
The singer already has a solid collection of hits under her belt, including her 2021 track "Country Girl Commandments" and newest single "Trailer Park Barbie," and next up she's finally releasing "Buckle Bunny," which is certain to be a summer hit. Explaining where the song's title comes from, Adell clarified that it's an old derogatory term for what some would call "a country bumpkin ho essentially," she said. "It's been kind of a mean word. It's like calling someone a slut or calling someone a whore. That's what a buckle bunny is in country culture."
She explained that when she was "growing up" spending her years half in Los Angeles and half in Star Valley, it was normal for her to be "wearing my rhinestone jeans in Wyoming. We get ready to go to the rodeo and I'm getting my hair done, I'm doing my nails, I'm doing my makeup. There's a lot of country women who enjoy the glam side of Western wear, but there are a lot of people who don't like it so much."
Unfortunately, the term was something Adell became accustomed to at a young age no girl should. "So going to a rodeo and stuff, you pretty much expect to be called a hussy or a buckle bunny. I was like 16 or 17 the first time someone called me a buckle bunny at a rodeo," she recalled, "and I was like, 'Hmm, okay, yeah, that's new.' It probably doesn't help that I'm in this tiny little town in Star Valley, Wyoming that has one black person and it's me." She then quipped, "Well, it has five me and my siblings."
While the experience wasn't ideal, Adell took the heat and is now turning it back on the haters in the form of "Buckle Bunny," which can be summed up perfectly by a line in the song that says, "Lookin like Beyonce with a lasso." The track is a little bit Cardi B a little bit Gretchen Wilson, but entirely Tanner Adell. "Anti slut-shaming is what it is," the singer told us, "and taking that power back and reclaiming it because it's a cute word. It's so cute. So I want it back and I took it back."
Critics be damned, Adell is no doubt making "unconventional" country music for herself and her beloved fans, both the ones who've been there from the start and those she picks up along the way. "The independent musician journey is so difficult. I mean, it's really, really hard, but I think people just want to latch onto something that's real," she explained. "I think everyone is craving being real and wants to be themselves, and I've been myself since day one and I think it's very authentic and people just see that, that I'm not trying to be something that I'm not, that I'm always just being myself. I think it's how I've been able to really connect with what I would say are fans."
She had a chance to connect with many of her fans recently at the 2023 CMA Fest in Nashville, Tennessee. "It was so fun," she said with a smile. "Performing live is my favorite thing ever, period. There was a couple from England who found out I was playing CMA Fest just two or three weeks before that, and they worked for British Airways, and so literally they are best friends and they just booked tickets to come see me at CMA Fest all the way from London. And I was like... That really hit me."
Adell continued, "For the first time I got to see people singing the words and singing it back to me and knowing, which was just the most amazing. I mean, that's just the most amazing feeling ever to be writing as a kid, growing up in my room, just sitting at my piano, super shy, my parents would walk in and I'd be like, 'Get out. Get out,' to singing a song that other people actually know the words to, that I wrote is, I mean, it's my dream. That's my dream."
While being a performer is something Adell "always wanted to do," it wasn't until she attended college that she met the person who would help her discover her untapped potential. "I went to school at Utah Valley University, and there you get assigned a voice coach in the commercial music program, depending on the program you join. My coach Nancy Baumgartner on the first day was like, 'You have a voice that if you wanted to do this, you could really, really do this.'"
Adell's response? "I was like, 'I can barely go to class without throwing up. I can barely make friends.' It wasn't my choice to be so nervous and so anxious. I didn't want to be. She told me that most artists do have debilitating stage fright. Donny Osmond was one of those people who's like amazing. I mean, he's amazing, but he overcame extreme stage fright."
Eventually, Baumgartner was able to break through Adell's anxiety with patience and sensitivity. "She said, it comes with when you are comfortable and know your craft so well that there's nothing to be worried about," Adell recounted, "because the anxiety comes from, 'Oh, am I not going to be good enough? Oh, what if I mess up? Oh, everyone's going to see me mess up." Over about a year, I worked with my voice coach on getting my voice technically where I wanted it to be. That was the end of me being shy about being on stage."
Adell then clarified, "I'm still very not super social and I like to stay home. But it created this, what I call is Tanner Adell, which is my first and middle name. I'm Tanner, but that girl on stage, that's Tanner Adell, that's the girl that I curated to do that."
Fans can hear "Buckle Bunny" when it drops on July 21st, but be sure to pre-save it now. To check out more music from Adell click here, and make sure to follow her socials for current tour dates. Keep it locked to Pop Culture.com for more great country music news, reviews, and interviews!