Artist Spotlight: Krislyn Arthurs

Part of fun of being on the Galleywinter team is having new artists catch our eye and then putting them on your radar. It's really a core mission, and today we want to put Medford, Oklahoma's Krislyn Arthurs in your sights.

Although she's been bumping around the scene for a few years, opening for Braxton Keith, Josh Meloy and William Beckmann among others, she's just now releasing her debut album Honky Tonk PhD (April 24th).

The album dives into her take on the white trash lifestyle, and Arthurs admits it's pretty much drawn from her own life, growing up in a tiny town with just 1,000 folks. It touches on ALL the themes: heartbroken lovers, small-town secrets, messy homes, and questionable decisions. The title track, "Honky Tonk PhD," which ironically is the last track on the record, is an upbeat introduction that reads as a resume of her bonafides.

Our favorite off the album, "Pretty Good at Bad Decisions" feels like a Joan Jett anthem wrapped in country bad girl vibes, though it could just be Arthur's jet black hair and greasy "f**k it" attitude that sells us on that thought.

The other track we are putting out there is her first single off the record, "Psycho."

It's exactly what you what you think it is, her version "Before He Cheats" with plenty of vindictive bitch, but sanded down with beautiful, feminine vocals that comes across as more of a confessional rather than a threat.

Check out the record when it drops on April 24th and let us know what you think. Honky Tonk PhD is a decent "Hello World" into our scene and there is no doubt Krislyn Arthurs has the talent and songwriting chops to make it. With emerging artists, debut albums are a stake in the ground establishing who they are, and Arthur's has our attention. The real question is where she goes from here.