She writes at the piano, sells vintage clothes behind a honky-tonk and has three records with the same producer. Her latest is charting on national Americana radio.
Paige Plaisance grew up on a farm in rural northeast Louisiana, near the Mississippi River, where her father farmed. She honed her piano skills there and still starts her songs at the keys, an unusual starting point in a country scene built on the guitar. Today she is a fixture of the Austin honky-tonk circuit, and her second album, Swampwater, is No. 16 on the AMA Americana Radio Airplay albums chart.
From a Louisiana farm to Austin’s dance halls
Plaisance moved to Austin in 2014 and built her following on the city’s dance-hall and honky-tonk stages. She plays regularly at Sagebrush, the White Horse and the Continental Club, and she has shared stages with Nikki Lane, Reckless Kelly, Noeline Hofmann and The Band of Heathens. She has also played the side stage at Montana’s Red Ants Pants Music Festival. In September, she and the band opened for Uncle Lucius at the Granada Theater in Dallas, part of a weekend run through Dallas, Austin and Houston.
Her presence at Sagebrush goes beyond the stage. She runs Ramblin’ Rose Co., a vintage clothing trailer behind the venue, and organizes and emcees the Honkytonk Catwalk, a recurring fashion show held there.
What “swampytonkin’” means
Plaisance’s own name for her sound is “swampytonkin’,” a blend of Texas two-step and classic country with the blues and soul she grew up around in Louisiana. On record, that means pedal steel and fiddle next to horns, slide guitar and piano. She records and tours with her band, The Yeah You Right Boys, whose lineup on Swampwater features Bryan McGrath on drums, Marshall Hood on guitar, Drew Scherger on bass, Stuart Owens on fiddle and Nick Hamburg on pedal steel.
Three records, one producer
Every Plaisance release has been produced by Jonathan Tyler.
- Different Now (2022): a four-song EP on Timeless Echo that introduced the swampytonkin’ sound, including “Bayou Moon.”
- Louisiana Lonely (2024): her first full-length album, featuring the single “Good Time Girl.” It reached the Top 20 on Americana radio.
- Swampwater (2026): recorded at The Finishing School in Austin and released Sept. 4. Saving Country Music scored it 8.1 out of 10, and KUTX named her its August Artist of the Month ahead of the release.
Where to hear her
Plaisance has more than 120,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, where her music appears on playlists including Spotify’s Indigo. She is touring behind Swampwater this fall in Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas, and the album is out on streaming platforms, vinyl and CD.
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