Braxton Keith wrote his first song when he was seven. When you talk to him now at age 23, you get the sense that the childlike energy he attacks the craft with has never really worn off. The Midland, Texas native has his eyes set on just about every prize conceivable, and you really start to believe his charisma can carry him wherever he wants to go by the time he bellows that first note.
“I wanna do it all, that’s the thing,” Keith said. “I wanna show you the range; I wanna show you that I can do the old school, the new school, the in-between school. And we’re working on all that currently.”
In the halls of a college dorm room in Lubbock, Keith was pressured by a roommate to write and record some original music, giving him the first inklings of what he calls “that honky tonk bug” that’s yet to wear off. Once they laid down the track, any other career aspirations he may have had started to dissipate. Thankfully, from there, his way ended up being the highway.
Those first three years were mostly spent on his home turf. Braxton was strumming and humming in any barroom or nightclub that would put him on the bill. Acoustic, full band, it didn’t matter; Keith just wanted to play. If you wonder where his zeal for the craft comes from, a good portion of it is definitely a regional competitive edge. Country acts from anywhere else in the country, the world for that matter, don’t get put through the farm system circuit like Texans do. They’re bred to chase perfection, with more miles on their odometer than most before the rubber even meets the road. It’s a blessing and a curse, knowing you’ve got the juice and still being asked to prove it.
“I hate being labeled as a Texas artist,” Keith said. “Because you have to break out in Texas, figure out what you’re doing, get to Nashville, and make everybody believe you’ve been doing that stuff. Because everybody’s been living there, and they’re like, ‘You haven’t been here, you’re not in the scene, you’re not in these writer’s rounds that I see every week’ or whatever. And it’s like, yeah, but I’ve still been working!”
Even if the label comes with its growing pains, he’s still finding gratitude in the opportunities and a leg up as far as his resume goes. If nothing else, it’s fuel to the fire for him. Last month, he sold out all of his dates in Florida and returned home to San Antonio after another slew of fully crowded concert halls in California and Arizona. No one bothered to tell him if hard work and success weren’t supposed to correlate in the entertainment business.
“It’s just like any career, honestly,” Keith said. “I thought it was gonna be different, but it’s not. All I gotta do is put the work in, and usually, you get lucky after that.”
But if Keith had been steadily stoking the flame that was his career, his single “Cozy” from last March emptied out the whole jar of gasoline in the firepit. The incredibly catchy, ubiquitously Texas tune caught wind on TikTok before its initial release would take the cowboy to new heights. Though, he had to fight for it. He had to sit it for almost eight months before it graced a set of ears outside his immediate circle. Again, it’s a credit to Keith’s persistence.
“I knew that I had never written anything like that before,” Keith said. “And that there was gonna be some kind of reaction, I just didn’t know what kind of reaction it was gonna be. I told the label before we put it out, ‘This song is gonna go, so y’all better be ready.’”
Structured like any classic slow dance you’d hear Strait or Jennings cut their teeth on, the strokes of Keith’s pen on “Cozy” grab you. That lonely Lone Star native lurks over every starstruck loverboy’s shoulder, waiting to pounce when he goes to get a drink. Effectively modern and unsurprisingly well-read, the singer said the track was a personal one for him and a testament to keen observation. Keith shared that after spending his nights watching slews of modern movies and shows, a pattern became apparent: a boy meets a girl, and they fall in love. The girl sees a new boy from across the bar and realizes she may have jumped the gun on her arm candy.
“You thought you had her!” Keith said, laughing.
A few months later, right in the throes of winter, he released his “Blue” LP. It was an aptly named project that was a goodie bag of sad saps chasing heartache with tequila and intimate ballads filled with high risks and one-night rewards. It was, in the most literal sense, seasonally appropriate. Keith says that was intentional, a side effect of how he puts pen to paper.
“During the winter, when it’s cold or rainy, I like to listen to my favorite kind of country music: sad, slow, and old,” Keith said. “That’s where I was when I was writing ‘Blue’.”
Now, the clouds have begun to part, and the sun is once again beating down on that hot Texas asphalt; his pace is picking up a bit.
“We wrote one last week, and now I’m listening to it, and I’m like, ‘dang, that could be the new show opener.’” Keith said. “Like it’s freaking in your face.”
Since signing his new deal with Warner, Keith has been splitting his time between home and Nashville when he’s not on the road. He’s taking the change of scenery in stride, not letting the new sites hinder his performance or his passion. Maybe it’s that youthful fervor, but it’s refreshing to see newcomers not turn their noses up at the establishment before they can even get a whiff of something good. It’s a challenge, but that part seems to excite him.
“It’s taken me from writing songs to studying the craft of writing songs,” Keith said of his time in Nashville thus far. “Like these guys are wizards here. They’ll come here and say some shit that I’ve never even thought of. And I’m like, ‘Wow, how did they spit it that way?’ Well, cause they’ve written that song 15 times, you know? It’s about repetition; it’s about licks. You gotta get those licks in, man.”
Where most artists tend to seclude themselves as notoriety mounts further, this young gun was ready to capitalize on his moment when it got dropped in his lap. His TikTok and Instagram pages are constantly flooded with updates, and he says his videographer “practically lives with me” by now. Where established and legacy acts see it as added fodder, he sees it as a necessity for someone less than six months into a major label deal. Being your own documentarian is fairly forward-thinking, especially for a guy who plans to ride this pony all the way to the top.
Being a member of Gen-Z, a cohort that prefers that’s been imbued by vlogs and ‘day in the life’ videos of every flavor, these rough outtakes of him singing or talking shit on the tour bus is a fun alternative to how most in his age bracket conduct business. Where other acts feel like they script and storyboard every “intimate” moment they choose to share with the world, he prefers to let his personality beckon new fans into the fold.
“I want them to feel like they know me,” Keith said about his fans. “I listen to podcasts a lot, and I’ll talk to my friends about these podcasts and say, ‘Me and so-and-so were talking the other day.’ I wasn’t really talking to them, but I feel like I was! Because I’m listening so closely, I want to know so much about that person, and that’s how I want my audience to feel with me.”
That sentiment extends into his live shows, typically kicked off by a bass booming intro of the band backed by BigXthaPlug’s “Texas.” From there, Keith can usually be found whizzing back and forth between his catalog at every stage while peppering in some Johnny Paycheck sex-romps with a cover of “Slide Off Your Satin Sheets” and Eddie Rabbit’s karaoke classic “Drivin’ My Life Away” as added flavor. He perceives himself as a sort of curator of the moment, citing his own experiences in the standing room section as his reasons for commanding the stage with such zeal.
“I used to do this because I love to sing; now it’s because I love to watch people fall in love,” Keith said. “I love to see relationships get made, see memories that people will take with them forever. That’s what’s cool about it. I used to be in the crowd, and I still remember those memories. That time, I kissed that girl one time at that Randall King concert or whatever it was. Those will be with me forever, and I hope that I’m doing that for other people.”
By now, it’s clear that there is nothing half-assed about the way Keith walks through life, and even when the rest of the world comes to a halt, this cowboy keeps working. During COVID, that meant upping his facial hair game and growing what’s now maybe the best mustache in country music. Sparked by sibling rivalry, the move was made initially to see how this oldest child could compete with his much taller younger brothers, both of whom were naturally blessed with well-adorned facial hair. At first glance, you may think it needs a whole team for maintenance, though apparently he only waxes it for big shows like Cain’s Ballroom or Billy Bob’s. Willie’s Beard Balm, the Duck Dynasty brand, is his favorite.
Keith is back home in San Antonio, twirling his whiskers as he plots his next move. Still reeling from the release of his most recent single, “Bye In A Goodbye,” with another one in the chamber ready to go in the next few weeks. Recently, he’s been busy laying down tracks for a full-length project in the latter half of 2025. He says his goal with it is, of course, to do it all.
“There’s gonna be some that literally sound old-school traditional,” Keith said. “There’s gonna be some crazy acoustic ones, some waltzes for sure; it’s gonna be a mix of everything. Slow, fast, there’s gonna be honky tonk barn burners, from modern to old school. So hopefully, a little mix of everything.”
