Adam Doleac has found his lane in country music, and it’s by coloring outside the lines. The Mississippi native just released “Biggest Fan,” a song that may not check off all of the boxes of what makes a song a hit in country music, but is a favorite of Doleac, and his fans.
“‘Biggest Fan’ is one of my favorite songs that I’ve probably ever written,” Doleac tells Everything Nash. “And especially the way that it’s recorded, I think the way that I best describe this song is when you move to Nashville, you start trying to chase the Nashville thing. And it has to have this country thing to it. Certain words need to be there, certain buzzwords for country radio to like it or people to like it. And I think what’s happened in the last few years is that nobody really cares about genre. They just care if they like the song, or don’t like the song.”
Doleac grew up listening to a wide variety of artists, ones not necessarily within country music, including John Mayer and Gavin DeGraw, which also greatly influenced the sound he wanted to make. A fan of diverse styles of music now, including artists like Ben Rector and Amos Lee, Doleac realized that their music had a tie to country music, even if it wasn’t the “red dirt country” the genre was once known for.
“That’s kind of where I’m happy and that’s how this song is recorded,” Doleac says of finding his own cross-genre lane in country music. “I’m really excited about this song. I think it could be huge, ’cause it’s not just contained to country music. It could go to singer-songwriter, it could go to that alternative rock that John Mayer and Gavin DeGraw and Ben Rector do. I’m really excited.”
Fans might have never even heard “Biggest Fan” if not for Doleac’s wife, MacKinnon. The couple tied the knot late last year, and it was on their honeymoon in Hawaii that Doleac shared the song as part of an Instagram reel, with the tune quickly going viral.
“People really, really loved it,” Doleac says. “It’s the first Instagram reel I’ve ever had that was up around a million views. It showed me to just do exactly what I love and sing exactly how I like to sing. And that’s what I did with the song. It’s real bluesy. It’s just kind of a piano vocal and a drum set. It’s making people feel things, which is really the only reason that I am in music. I think that’s what my voice is best suited to do, is to make people feel something when I sing. So I’m super excited. It feels more true to me than anything else that I’ve done so far, which is really cool.”
Doleac will get a chance to sing “Biggest Fan” on Thursday, June 8, when he performs at CMA Fest.
“It’s one of the few shows a year I allow myself to rock some shorts on stage, ’cause it is so hot,” Doleac says with a laugh. “I think CMA Fest is fun. It’s fun selfishly for me because I don’t really get to watch a lot of my buddies play shows. We’re always in different cities and always travel in different places. But this is the one week of the year where everybody’s in the same city, and you can hop around and go see all your buddies play.
“And then secondly, it’s the one week where all the biggest country music fans in the world are in the same city too,” he adds. “So you’ve got a lot of people, which, when we’re touring, I’m the type of person that actually kind of feels bad when I can’t make it to these cities and play for these fans … I’ve played a thousand shows in my life probably, but there’s still a lot of people that I haven’t got to play for. This is the week that I know that they can be here and come check it out. So you get to meet a lot of new people, and play for some of the best fans.”
Find “Biggest Fan” and all of Doleac’s music and upcoming shows at AdamDoleac.com.