. – Big Loud Records / Songs & Daughters singer-songwriter Lauren Watkins releases her third album If I’m Being Honest, available everywhere today. Across 12 unguarded tracks, the Nashville native captures an eye-opening chapter of her life, pairing her signature lyrical imagery with a plainspoken look at love, life and the everyday truths most people won’t say out loud. Produced by Will Bundy with co-production on select tracks from Joey Moi, If I’m Being Honest leans further into the honesty that has long defined Watkins’ songwriting.
“If I’m being honest — no pun intended — this is the most ‘me’ I’ve ever felt making a record,” shares Watkins. “While much of the album comes from my own story, it was also inspired by the life unfolding around me…from conversations with friends over margaritas to everything I observed from the van window on the way to a show. At this age, some of my friends are going on first dates while others are getting divorced. Some are getting promotions and others are having babies. I wanted to capture all of it and make a record where, wherever you are in life, there’s a song for you.”
Watkins approaches the album from the perspective of two dreams unfolding at once: the music career she once imagined and a life at home with her husband, a thriving garden and a sense of small-town peace. She co-wrote all 12 tracks, including the solo-written “Daydreams.” Across the tracklist, she finds something worth saying about the ordinary moments most people overlook.
The album kicks off with “Pulling Weeds,” as Watkins clears out old habits, bitterness and regret to make room for something better to grow. “Better Love Next Time” finds her looking on the bright side of a breakup with humor, grit and a classic Nashville turn of phrase, while “Main Street” captures the realities of a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business — right down to who’s taking the trash out. Watkins closes the album with “Curtains,” imagining the one heartbreak she isn’t sure she could recover from.
If I’m Being Honest follows Watkins’ 2024 debut, The Heartbroken Record, and 2025’s In A Perfect World, carrying forward the bite of her earliest writing with the perspective that comes from a few more years of living it.
Tickets are on sale now for Watkins’ headlining If I’m Being Honest Tour, which includes her first hometown headline show at Nashville’s Exit/In on Thursday, Oct. 8, along with stops in Chicago, Knoxville and more. The tour follows recent dates with Dylan Scott and Luke Bryan as she continues bringing her old-school country grit and “direct-yet-poetic songwriting” (Billboard) to stages across the country. For tour dates and more information, keep up with Watkins at laurenwatkinsmusic.com and on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
If I’m Being Honest Tracklist:
- “Pulling Weeds” (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate, Luke Laird, Caroline Watkins)
- “Heartbreakaholic” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon)
- “Convenient” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Emily Landis, Mark Trussell)
- “Main Street” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Lauren Hungate, Josh Miller)
- “Daydreams” (Lauren Watkins)
- “Better Love Next Time” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Lauren Hungate, Mark Trussell)
- “Sunshine & Daisies” (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate, Luke Laird, Caroline Watkins)
- “KOA” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Mark Trussell, Lydia Vaughan)
- “How’s Your Mama ‘N Them” (Lauren Watkins, Nicolle Galyon, Jordan Minton, Mark Trussell)
- “What I Think About You” (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Lauren Hungate, Mark Trussell)
- “Prayer List” (Lauren Watkins, Mia Mantia, Chase McGill)
- “Curtains” (Lauren Watkins, Rodney Clawson, Nicolle Galyon, Kat Higgins)
ABOUT LAUREN WATKINS
With an earthy, all-natural magnetism and razor sharp poetic instincts, Big Loud Records/Songs & Daughters country artist Lauren Watkins will never be accused of hiding her true feelings. Schooled on mavericks like Sheryl Crow, Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, then nurtured by songwriting legend Nicolle Galyon, she’s grown from Nashville roots into a stadium performer with nearly 100 million global streams, wielding vintage, sun-dappled vocals and serene, sepia-toned bravado. Co-writing every track on her 2024 debut The Heartbroken Record, “Anybody But You” helped set the romantic rebel without a cause apart, before 2025’s In a Perfect World found Watkins evolving. Working with husband and award-winning songwriter/producer Will Bundy (Ella Langley, Riley Green), she’s now made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, NBC’s TODAY and Madison Square Garden, while hitting the road with Morgan Wallen, Zach Top, Riley Green, and Lainey Wilson. On her third album, If I’m Being Honest, out now, Watkins’ truth-telling ways collide with a soft-spoken-yet-confident blast of organic country. Chasing the bright lights of the stage while dreaming of a front porch sunset, 12 unguarded tracks came from her finely-tuned pen (including one captivating solo confession) as she took an almost-scientific interest in speaking plainly. Produced by Bundy (with co-production by Joey Moi on select tracks), Watkins brings a graceful nonchalance to the hard truths most people won’t say.
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