Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country’ on Hulu, A Get-To-Know-Her Special About The ‘Yellowstone’ Star and Country Singer

Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country, now streaming on Hulu in conjunction with ABC, follows the singer and songwriter during her first big arena tour in 2023, a year that also saw the Louisiana-born Wilson win a Grammy for her record Bell Bottom Country and take home the Country Music Association’s top award for Entertainer of the Year. It’s been a whirlwind, Wilson tells ABC’s Robin Roberts in a sit-down interview, and fittingly, that’s also the name of her upcoming fifth studio album. But she’s not slowing down. “If somebody tells me I can’t do it,” she tells Roberts in Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country, “hold my beer. Watch this…”

LAINEY WILSON – BELL BOTTOM COUNTRY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “A lot can happen in a year, and I am proof of that. I went from playing a show in Alabama to 87 people, and next thing you know, I’m headlining my first arena show.” As she looks out at the rows of seats during soundcheck, Lainey Wilson says that moments on the big stage always remind her of who she is and where she came from.

The Gist: With her new record on its way out, Lainey Wilson is leaning into the media blitz. Bell Bottom Country is streaming on Hulu, and with the Roberts connection, getting play on Good Morning America. She just performed her new single on The Voice. And while basically everybody who isn’t Taylor Sheridan is in the dark about the future of Yellowstone, Wilson made a memorable turn on the show, playing a version of herself in the first part of season five. The CMA’s newest Entertainer of the Year has also put her name on a bar in Nashville, something a repeat winner of the award is doing, too. 

So everything’s coming up Lainey. But Wilson’s doing her damndest to stay grounded. “You can’t think that everybody’s gonna love ya,” she says in Bell Bottom Country. And she recognizes how fickle and fleeting the music business can be. But for now, she’s out here trying to live up to the work ethic instilled in her at a young age. The documentary special travels back to Wilson’s hometown of Baskin, Louisiana, where she grew up on a farm, was a flag girl in the local rodeo, and first learned a few chords on the guitar from her dad. Before she was ten years old, she was writing her own songs. And soon enough, she was also finding ways to perform, including starring as Hannah Montana at kids’ parties and old folks’ homes. “I’d open for myself,” Wilson tells Roberts in Bell Bottom, playing a few originals before she donned the blonde wig and belted out “Nobody’s Perfect” through her portable sound system.

As Wilson continues her arena tour in 2023, Bell Bottom Country includes more flashbacks, covering her 2011 arrival in Nashville, the years of scrambling and hustling that came after, and her first breaks toward the exposure, which would lead to the breakout success of the single “Things A Man Oughta Know” in 2019. Brief interviews also appear with radio host and occasional American Idol mentor Bobby Bones, Wilson’s band, her fellow songwriters in Nashville, and manager Mandelyn Monchick.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Here I Am, a warm and revealing documentary about the legendary Dolly Parton, appeared in 2019. Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll are buddies, having come up in Nashville at the same time, toured together, and performed the memorable duet “Save Me,” which also inspired the title of Jelly Roll: Save Me, the rapper, singer, and songwriter’s recent doc. And while Luke Bryan was recently surprised to learn that Wilson was a past American Idol hopeful, the host and country star has his own biographical TV profile in Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary. 

Our Take: Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country presents an artist who certainly appears prepared to take on the next phase of her career. But that’s probably because her prep work started all the way back in 2011, when she was a 19-year-old new arrival to Nashville living in a camper trailer alongside a recording studio. It’s one thing to see her onstage at the Grammys, accepting the award for Best Country Album. And Bell Bottom Country includes a few solid clips of her rousing live performances in front of sold-out arena crowds. But it’s the rawer, older moments that resonate most in this documentary special. “I have no followers! None!” the Lainey Wilson of a few years ago laments to her Instagram stories, and her manager recounts how much Wilson killed it at one of the first showcase events they booked, which would be great, except for the fact that no one showed up.

Nashville, says country radio host Bobby Bones, “is a ten year town.” As in it takes a decade to get noticed, and even then it’s a crap shoot. Bell Bottom Country effectively delivers the Lainey Wilson biographical boilerplate, but it’s better at establishing the perspective of its subject, who seems both hardened and heartened by all those years she was grinding.

Sex and Skin: “I was scrollin’ on TikTok in November ‘22,” Lainey Wilson tells Robin Roberts, “when I noticed a few videos of my butt that had gone viral.” While it was startling for her posterior to become a trending topic on social media, and she and Roberts address the double standard with regard to discourse over women’s bodies in their interview, Wilson also describes how she allowed the exposure to become a positive. “It was a big – no pun intended – moment. But me gainin’ a few pounds or losin’ a few pounds – if you got a problem with that, turn off the radio, ‘cause you’re gonna be hearing me on the radio.” 

Parting Shot: “My kinda crazy is still running its courses with Wildflowers and Wild Horses…” Wilson and her band are performing at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, which is another career milestone for the singer and songwriter who first saw the show as a nine-year-old fan. “I was not given this opportunity to just cross one thing off the list. I’m here to make a splash, and we’re gonna keep doing it.”

Sleeper Star: The interviews with her parents in Lainey Wilson: Bell Bottom Country, Michelle and Brian Wilson, have the heartwarming feel of looking through childhood pics and videos while being over at the family home in Baskin, Louisiana for lemonade. Brian even sports a work vest emblazoned with the logo of the Dutton Ranch on Yellowstone. Because what proud daughter isn’t going to snag some on-set swag for her dad when she guest stars on the show?    

Most Pilot-y Line: “When I moved to Nashville, I realized pretty dang quick that being a singer-songwriter is not enough. As a female in the business, I knew that I was gonna have to kinda take it a step further, and for me that was leaning into the whole – the bell bottoms kind of, you know, retro throwback look. I feel like it was true to me. I feel like I’m kind of an old soul, anyway.”

Our Call: STREAM IT, especially if you’re a curious or emerging fan. As Lainey Wilson says, putting a face to a name is one of the biggest challenges in today’s music industry, and Bell Bottom Country is designed to help facilitate that.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.