Country stars often use whisky to wash away their woes on tracks about love lost and hard times. But Tanner Adell is raising a glass of the dark and flavorful spirit to celebrate the biggest year of her career to date.
On December 10, the country starlet took the stage at Brooklyn’s Desert 5 at the Crown Royal Blackberry Bunny Bash, a one-night honky-tonk celebration of her sold-out, first-ever headlining tour. With nothing but a blinged-out guitar, a microphone, and a cowboy boot disco ball spinning overhead, Adell belted out acoustic renditions of her hits like “Buckle Bunny,” “Tan Lines,” and perhaps most pointedly “Whiskey Blues,” as fans packed out the western-themed venue.
We caught up with Adell to chat about tour life, her skyrocketing career, and plans for her big debut hot on the heels of a momentous 2024.
Crown Royal flowed in specialty cocktails with its Blackberry flavor – a personal favorite of Adell’s – serving as the highlight. Attendees took spins on the mechanical bull, had bandanas personalized with custom stitching, and after a quick tutorial, scooted their boots in a line dance timed to the country crooner’s infectious smash “Do Si Don’tcha.”
“I have really dedicated passionate fans and it’s just been amazing,” Adell told ESSENCE of her ongoing tour just ahead of Tuesday night’s bash. “This is my first time doing any sort of headlining touring, and it’s my first time with female musicians playing with me.”
“I’ve wanted a girl band forever. I had to play with stinky men for the last two years,” she laughs. The songstress says despite the common assumptions that women working and traveling together will naturally face cattiness, drama, and bickering, “going out on the road with girls has been so much fun and my dreams have come true.”
“It’s just been amazing to bond and it really feels like a family now,” she explains. “I’ve been on the road with men and there’s just been such a disconnect, like, ‘You’re walking into my dressing room and not knocking why?’ It’s just been nice to feel safe.”
Adell’s ten-city cross-country tour was sponsored by Crown Royal – a partnership that simply made sense for the Kentucky-bred bombshell, who has long been a fan of the Canadian Whisky, particularly their elusive Blackberry expression.
“Crown is some of my favorite whisky, and it always has been,” she says. “The Crown Blackberry specifically I found about a year ago at a bar and then I was never able to find it again. And just so happens [the brand] reached out and wanted to do a partnership and center it around the Blackberry flavor and I said, ‘that’s literally my favorite!’”
Though few artists would rebuff an offer from a legacy brand like Crown Royal, Adell’s personal connection with the product is one that she felt was genuine enough to move forward with. “I don’t say yes to brands that I don’t really f*** with or believe in or not actually use,” she says. “I’m not just going to say yes. So when they came with an offer to take me out on tour, it was a no-brainer.”
An added perk to partnering with her favorite spirit brand, Adell was able to help Crown Royal extend their spirit of generosity during the Bash with their continued support of Black Girl Ventures, a 501(c)(3) organization that provides underrepresented woman-identifying founders with access to community, capital, and capacity-building to help meet business milestones that lead to economic advancement through entrepreneurship. Donations were made all evening long from the brand to the organization, as a heft dollar amount was given in recognition of each attendee who hit the dancefloor and each who signed up to have special merch personalized.
Adell’s tour, which wraps in her bluegrass home base of Kentucky on Friday, December 13, caps off a banner year for the songbird, who admits she’s a bit overwhelmed by the onslaught of success she’s had over the last twelve months after years of working diligently toward her dream.
“It’s a little stressful sometimes,” she shares candidly. “It has definitely been an adjustment and I have a lot of really incredible people that I look up to but have been supporting me since I moved to Nashville. And I always lean on people who are more experienced than I am.”
“I feel like I have to put out more music, and I’m working on an album, and I’m so perfectionist and always wondering, ‘Is it good enough? Is it there yet? I need to add more,’” she continues. “As stressful as that is, it is my favorite thing in the world and it gets me up every day. So, I’m excited for what’s coming in 2025.”
Adell dutifully remains tight-lipped on the title and release date of her upcoming album, and her lead single which bears the same name as her still-mysterious debut. But if the sparkle in her eye when discussing her latest material is any indication, fans have just as much to be excited for.
As she preps for a European tour run in the early Spring and the release of her debut studio album, Adell is leaning on the support of her loyal and ever-growing fan base and readying for the next level in her career. Listeners have notably re-energized for the Country genre this year, particularly Black fanbases. As one of the few Black women making waves in Nashville, Adell notes that the presence of her kinfolk in the Country crowd is increasing – and always appreciated.
“Support is what we do,” Adell says of the familial diasporic faces piling into venues and dotting festival crowds to get a glimpse of the self-proclaimed Buckle Bunny putting on a show. “So I’m never ever worried about that.”
