Drew Baldridge loves himself a good county fair.
“You can probably hear them pigs right now,” the country music hitmaker joked before his show at the Rock County 4-H Fair in Janesville, Wisconsin. “They opened the gate and now those pigs are just running around having a good ole time.”
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Baldridge laughs, seemingly basking in the life the singer/songwriter is living these days. “Everything that we stand for is what these county fair folks stand for,” Baldridge says. “They are really my people. I don’t have to fake who I am or try to be somebody else. This is really me. This is what I love. This is what I stand for.”
As a proud native of Patoka, Illinois, which sits about 90 minutes east of St. Louis in Marion County, Baldridge finds himself quite comfortable among county fair crowds. The country star grew up singing in church and surrounded by a whole lot of dirt.
“The family farm has been in our family for a hundred years now,” he says. “Now, my cousins and my brother still farm that same ground. And it’s just rooted very deeply in who I am and the work ethic that I have.”
It was that farm that Baldridge left at 19 when he made the move to Nashville in pursuit of a country music career. And while his massive hit “She’s Somebody’s Daughter” catapulted his career to new heights when it reached No. 1 on country radio in 2024, Baldridge was never going to be the kind of guy to let his priorities get out of whack.
“It’s really easy to chase fads if you want to sit back and do that,” he says. “But I’m not trying to be somebody else.”
It’s this philosophy that is infused into his new album, FARM FAITH FAMILY.
“I just feel like this whole album encompasses who I am and what I stand for and what I want to stand for and what I want people to know about my music,” Baldridge says. “I think everybody knows me for ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter,’ but I wanted people to know me for more than just the ‘She’s Somebody’s Daughter’ guy. This album has a purpose. It’s for people to get to know who we are and to know what we stand for.”
Perhaps nothing better explains just who Drew Baldridge is than the example he sets forth when it comes to his beloved Big Baldridge and Bonfire Festival—a one-day country festival that began in 2022, celebrating more than 300 stops on his grassroots, fan-driven Baldridge and Bonfires Tour. Basically, he does it because he remembers what it used to be like when he couldn’t.
“We’d have to travel to St. Louis to go to a concert or anything like that of this caliber,” Baldridge says. “That would be 80 or 90 miles for us. And so, I always dreamed of being able to put something on in our hometown that was extravagant and big and looked cool and people could come out and have a night of country music and fun with their family.”
Granted, Baldridge had to make the difficult decision to forgo the event in 2025, simply based on how crazy busy his schedule was at the time.
“It was to the point where I was like, All right, maybe we just don’t do this,” he remembers. “I mean, we were out doing our own thing touring and such, but I had so many people that was like, ‘We missed it. We were so bummed that you didn’t do this. We love this. This was such a big thing for our area.’ So, I was like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll bring it back.’”
And that’s exactly what Baldridge will do in Patoka on September 19, just one day after the release of FARM FAITH FAMILY. “When I’m singing songs about that water tower off the album, that same water tower will be behind us while we’re playing that night,” says Baldridge, who has already released album cuts such as “A Man Don’t” and “Maker’s Mark” with Anne Wilson off the upcoming album.
Baldridge knows he could have never gotten here without the help of the family who believed in him first—including his wife, Katie. “She’s the real rockstar,” Baldridge says. “I’m lucky to have her.”
He’s also feeling lucky they get to live a somewhat unbelievable life with their two children. “Last month, I brought my 3-year-old up on the Grand Ole Opry stage and he sang ‘Tough People’ with me.” Baldridge chuckles at the memory of his ‘so very outgoing’ son Lyric joining him to perform his top 10 single. “He brought out my platinum plaque on stage. He’s not scared of anything. I think we got another entertainer in him.”
And if that’s what happens, Baldridge won’t be surprised.
“To watch my kids grow up around music and be out here on the tour bus is so amazing,” he says. “It’s a very different life than what I was raised on, but it’s really special to give these boys opportunities that I didn’t get.”
