Hudson Westbrook Explains How Everyone from George Strait to John Mayer Influenced His Sophomore LP (Exclusive)

What do you get when you throw John Mayer, Jack Johnson, George Strait, Clint Black, and Tracy Lawrence together? Well, according to Hudson Westbrook, you get Hudson Westbrook.

The 22-year-old country singer said he was influenced by all those artists and more while growing up in Texas. Strait’s place on that list is expected for a kid who grew up outside of Fort Worth, spending his time showing pigs as part of Future Farmers of America.

The Mayer mention is an outlier, and becomes even more so upon learning that that’s the name Westbrook mentioned more than any other during a recent chat with American Songwriter.

Listeners may not hear the Mayer’s influence in the instrumentation of Westbrook’s new album, Made You Look. That’s more à la Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson, or Ella Langley, all of whom Westbrook played on repeat during the writing and recording process of the LP, which is out now.

Dig into the lyrics or production, though, and Mayer’s presence is clear as day.

“If you don’t get it, you don’t get it,” Westbrook said of his own writing style, which takes its cues from Mayer. “I want you to hear it and not know what the hell I’m talking about until you listen to it the third time.”

Hudson Westbrook Discusses Stand Out Tracks on Made You Look

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That comment was specifically about “Backwards,” one of several songs listeners got to hear ahead of the album’s release.

It’s not really track-specific, though, as Westbrook’s lyrics throughout the album lean more storyteller than the truck-beer-gun refrain that makes up country music stereotypes.

Take “Texas Tear,” a breakup song that foregoes the typical “I’m drinking now because you’re gone” formula.

“‘Texas Tear’ was written from this point of, now that we’re split up, I’ve gotta just worry about what I did wrong,” Westbrook said. “In a relationship when you split up, two people go separate ways and it’s like, ‘All right, screw you.’ But then you’re like, ‘Hold up. I kind of did this… I should have done this, or I shouldn’t have done that.’ That whole song is a guy admitting that.”

The song fits into the theme of the album: young love. It’s not all romance or heartbreak, though. There are road trip songs, and upbeat tracks, and even a screw you number or two. For Westbrook, that all fits together because that’s all part of who he is.

“I want to take what country music has done for me and keep it going in the right direction,” he said. “We’re in a weird time where some modern stuff works and some older stuff works. I tried to mix the two with unique lyrics.”

Hudson Westbrook on His Musical Past and Future

While the modern-meets-contemporary sound of his LP was obviously important to Westbrook, he’s a lyrics guy, first and foremost. Writing poetry is, after all, how he got his start in music.

“I’d write poems in my notes and I would write down things throughout the day, but I didn’t really know what it meant yet. And then I started to learn guitar for real. That’s when I started pairing the two together,” he said. “I would write poems in my notes, and then I would transfer it to a melody. I would try to write with the same syllables in each line. It literally matched up with the guitar every time. And then I would sing it in my head the way I heard it.”

Flash forward a few years, and Westbrook is celebrating the release of his sophomore album. While that quick rise may be anxiety-inducing for some artists, Westbrook doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t really feel pressure, because I feel like I’m just starting. This might be my sophomore album, but this is just the beginning of me really knowing where I want to go with my music and what I want it to be,” he said. “… I’m not worried about the now. I’m worried about 10 years from now.”

“Like, ‘Where will I be 10 years from today? Will I go up and then will I go down? And then will I do it again and then do it again’?’ Yeah, probably. I don’t know,” he continued. “I don’t ever try to think about the pressure. Then you’re writing songs to live up to that pressure. I feel like that’s the wrong thing to do.”

Instead, Westbrook plans to focus on what he can control: the music. It’s no surprise, then, that what Westbrook is most looking forward to in 2027 isn’t more opportunities or more followers or more exposure, but living a simple life and writing songs about it.

“Since this album, I haven’t written a single song. That’s very rare… This time I was like, ‘I’m not going to write for a minute and just listen,’” he said. “I built a playlist that I want my music to sound like. I’ll just listen to that. I’m gonna chill, go hunting. I wanna take my boat out and go surfing. I’m just going to do normal things and then do songwriting around it.”

“That’s what I’m excited for next year, to normal things, go live a little,” Westbrook continued. “I feel like I’ve grinded for two-and-a-half, three years now. It’s been dates, after dates, after dates, and shows, and drops, and all this stuff. I want to give everyone a break. I’ll come back renewed.”

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