Album Review – Luke Grimes – (Self-Titled)

When it comes to mainstream people, if one of their favorite actors or a famous name releases a music album, they’re likely to give it a listen and perhaps regard it more favorably than they normally would. But with grassroots and independent music fans, an actor moving into the music space is more apt to be met with speculation, tough scrutiny, and accusations of using their celebrity to cut in line.
If you listen to the albums of actors such as Kiefer Sutherland, or Kevin Bacon’s Bacon Brothers, or maybe ol’ John Dutton himself, Kevin Costner, you’ll find they’re probably pretty good. All the pieces are in the right place, the songs are pleasant enough, and the production is professional. Yet there’s usually something fundamentally missing. There’s just not the pain or a unique enough perspective to make the music feel real, or what’s often referred to as “soul.”
With the new self-titled album from Luke Grimes, you don’t get that empty feeling. Patient, purposeful, authentic, vulnerable, and expressive, Ol’ Kayce Dutton isn’t just relying on his Yellowstone cred and what your girlfriend thinks is a cute butt to get by. He put in his time, paid some dues, and the result is a full-length debut album that’s worth listening to regardless of his name recognition.
In real life, Luke Grimes was born in Dayton, Ohio, and is the son of a Pentacostal pastor. Grimes grew up singing and playing music in church, including drums, and later learned piano and guitar. Grimes also briefly played drums in a band in Los Angeles before his acting career took off. Grimes says he grew up on Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson. Now 40 years old, he cites Colter Wall and Ruston Kelly as modern influences.
Working with Dave Cobb as producer, this self-titled album is not super twangy, or super singer/songwriter. But it’s just enough of both to make for a pleasant listen that will pull you in no matter your sensibilities. You’re not here for Luke Grimes the singer either, but his singing is good enough to represent the songs well. And really, it’s the songs that carry this album.

Luke not only had the presence of mind to work with professional songwriters, he worked with the right ones. This includes Brent Cobb and Aaron Raitiere on multiple tracks, as well as Jon Randall, Jesse Alexander, Josh Thompson, and the Love Junkies (Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose). He also covers Hayes Carll’s “Worst of Me.” Luke had a lot of help, but it results in one quality song after another, including songs that feel personal to Grimes himself like “Oh Ohio.”
The debut single “No Horse To Ride” sounded good enough, but still left you a little inconclusive if Luke would have the goods to make music more than a side hustle. It was the second single “Hold On” that really sold many on Luke Grimes the singer. “Playin’ On The Tracks” co-written with Brent Cobb, and another Grimes co-write “Ghost Of Who We Were” are really solid early tracks, pulling you into this album.
At times the album can get a little sleepy, but “Black Powder” with its gritty, AM radio treatment spices things up. “Ain’t Dead Yet” also gives he album some needed grit and pulse. About the only song that feels a little like Music Row formula is “God And A Girl.” But you can tell that Grimes is not angling for radio play or to make it onto pop country stages.
The songs of this self-titled album feel like they could slide into the soundtrack of a Yellowstone season right beside Colter Wall, Whiskey Myers, and Shane Smith and the Saints. Sure, Grimes can flash his actor’s guild card and get himself booked on Dave Cobb’s busy calendar, pull a bunch of important songwriters to his side, and book slots at some of country music’s biggest festivals. But none of this means the music is bad.
The Luke Grimes self-titled album isn’t just good for an actor. It’s good for an album. It’s country. It includes good songs. And seeing how Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan can’t seem to check their egos and figure this thing out—dooming Yellowstone to only five seasons—Luke Grimes needs a Plan B. As he proves on this album, music isn’t a bad one at all.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8.1/10)
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Purchase Luke Grimes
March 19, 2024 @ 8:22 am
Just “DAMN” !….It is said “All Actors want to Be Singers/Musicians and All Singers and Musicians want to be Actors”….This is an Impressive Debut.
March 19, 2024 @ 9:42 am
I became sort of borderline impressed with the EP that came out ahead of the full release. The full is even better. I’m not familiar with his work as an actor, but if you told me this was just the debut record of a lifelong musician I wouldn’t think twice that was true. Love it.
March 19, 2024 @ 12:43 pm
Love his Yellowstone character, even like a few of his recorded releases. I am disappointed to say that his performance at the Fairwell Festival 2023 (on the main stage while Shane Smith, Drayton Farley, and Calder Allen were relegated to 2nd & 3rd stages) was unwatchable bad. I hope he can muster a live show that remotely resembles the review I just read. If I didn’t respect Trigger’s musical criticism so much I would skip over anything Luke Grimes after that atrocious experience. Looks like I’ll give him a second chance.
March 19, 2024 @ 3:26 pm
I saw Luke Grimes perform at Under The Big Sky Fest a couple of years ago. That’s where the photo at the top of the article comes from. I found the show rather nondescript. It wasn’t bad or anything. But being unfamiliar with the material, it just didn’t raise my pulse one way or another.
At FairWell Fest, I was focused on Shane Smith and Drayton Farley, but then walked over to catch the tail end of Luke’s set. At that time, they’d stopped his show down for a medical emergency, and I watched as someone who was unresponsive was loaded into an ambulance. I never found out the status of that person (though I asked), but there was a serious concern they may have passed away. To say that cast a pall on Luke’s set is an understatement. I can’t speak about what happened before then because I wasn’t there. But I went into this album not expecting much, and ending up being pleasantly surprised.
March 19, 2024 @ 6:44 pm
That is a fair point though we had crew there (mostly the ladies) for the beginning and they said it was not good. We actually were at the festival with a PFB first responder who was summonsed over until the festival EMT’s got there. He thought is was a matter of heat stroke. I’ll give Luke another listen though. Studio and live performances are apples and oranges and maybe he’s still working on his showmanship. Difficult to play through a serious interruption for sure.
March 19, 2024 @ 2:35 pm
Yeah, pretty decent voice and the songs manage to avoid most of CM’s worst lyrical cliches.
Must admit, I’m still a little reluctant to dive in wholeheartedly on this “side project” to his acting career. Yes, I acknowledge that could be an unfair judgment in this case. I have yet to binge on Yellowstone, as it is not on a platform I subscribe to, but I hope to see it sometime down the way.
March 19, 2024 @ 4:16 pm
I was surprised I liked this album and even more surprised how much I liked it upon first listen. I came into it thinking why listen to something by a TV star on a show I don’t even watch? But letting my guard down and really digging into it proved to be very worthwhile and satisfying. Great review. Hits exactly how the album hit me – pretty damn good, and not even grading on a curve.
March 19, 2024 @ 5:43 pm
I like the album enough I preordered it on vinyl. For sure one I’ll spin often. You were spot on with how you may talk yourself into something. I listened to Kiefer’s debut album more times than I should have because I loved Jack Bauer/24.
This smokes Sutherland’s stuff.
8.2/10
March 19, 2024 @ 6:07 pm
Jeff Bridges is another actor who has put out some country music.
March 19, 2024 @ 9:54 pm
I haven’t seen Luke Grimes in concert are on tour I am looking forward to the day when I can. I fell in love with every single and the album I think is great. You can feel the love he has for his music. I hope he never stops acting. I have seen as many of his movies as I could find and Yellowstone has came to be my favorite TV show. Luke is a very important part of the Yellowstone story. He is a very good actor but it shows the talent he has in his song writing and singing is coming truly from his heart. I will be a life time fan. We all love you. Keep up the good work.
March 20, 2024 @ 6:03 am
I really liked the first single No Horse To Ride that Grimes released about a year ago. However, this album suffers from the big label problem many albums do these days. There were several more singles that were ok but not great, then an EP with a song or two more, and now an album with another few songs. Most of the material on the album has already been released over the past year, and it leaves the album kinda anti climatic.
There’s some good stuff here, and I like Grimes, but overall this album didn’t really move my meter on him. Think No Horse To Ride, Black Powder, and God And A Girl are the standouts.
March 21, 2024 @ 7:19 am
Same! I’m sure I’m just an old man (46), but I hate the way they release material these days. I really love the new Shane Smith album but I’m pretty sure “Hummingbird” was released 2 years ago. The Randall King release was even more drawn out.
I’m sure in the age of streaming, it pays to put out a single, an EP version of the song, then the album version to saturate the market, but I make sure to delete everything but the album version once it finally shows up so I don’t have the same song multiple times in my library. A lot of times, if I’ve added the Single version to a playlist, I won’t add the album version and once I delete the Single, its not played as much anymore.
Sierra Ferrell has an album coming out tomorrow, but she just released a Single version of the first song on the album this week…not the album version. I just don’t get it.
March 21, 2024 @ 10:27 am
I remember when an album would be released and then singles would be released later to radio keep interest in the album afterwards. Streaming has pretty much made radio obsolete, and in turn it appears albums are becoming less a focus than singles. It’s really become a what have you released lately business.
For us that enjoy the album experience, it’s really been diminished by the release of 4-5 singles, EP, another single, album, and more singles followed by the deluxe and super deluxe releases. I kinda understand the reasoning, but don’t personally like it myself.
March 21, 2024 @ 12:02 pm
I have written about this on numerous occasions. I really think the music industry and publicity is doing itself a disservice by tying media coverage to the release of singles. Sure, this gives additional opportunities to promote the album ahead of the release, but it also diffuses the impact of the album on release day. Furthermore, this system allows no follow through after the release.
This is one of the reasons I rarely feature anything but the lead single from an album, and rarely review EPs if I think they will feed into larger albums, which at this point, and EP from a major label is likely to do.
March 20, 2024 @ 7:32 am
You are a amazing singer and actor love see you in concert some day . Keep up the good work.
I have a question for you but don’t want to ask you on here so can you please send me a message to my email. Thank you
March 20, 2024 @ 10:06 pm
I saw Curtis Grimes in March 2021 as part of the Houston Music and Arts Festival. He followed Jason Eady and Courtney Patton. It was a cold, rainy afternoon, yet the band performed wearing jeans and T-Shirts. I’d be surprised if there were more than fifty people in attendance. He was good, but I recall several songs that didn’t seem to fit his vocal range. But, he looks to be finding his path now.
March 21, 2024 @ 7:14 am
Like Luke grimes songs love black power
March 21, 2024 @ 7:15 am
…three examples and three times borderline unlistenable stuff. come on, this guy is at best an almost half bearable vocalist. that makes it kinda difficult to really like that effort since it’s not an instrumental endeavour, isn’t it? lowering the bar in this case means digging – or perhaps taking morgan wallen as the benchmark for male vocals in country music. up to now, i considered americana to be the refuge for slightly limited rural vocalists, but western is increasingly taking over from them it seems. i can enjoy some of colter wall’s, ian munsick’s or brady lux’ music but really well sung ain’t any of it, let’s face it.
March 26, 2024 @ 12:27 pm
Luke Grimes is a force of nature! He has all the talent to be an actor and musician. As a long time country music lover, I have seen real country turn more toward country rock. Oh there are some good newcomers, Scotty McCreey, Little Big Town, Josh Turner, among others. Luke has the works. He is a good actor. His new album says he is also a very good musician. His voice with just enough growl can hold you in thrall. The songs on his album catches you in the very beginning. “Burn” and ” Hold On” are great, but I love the whole album. His voice is authentic and not like anyone else out there. I am definitely a fan for life!
March 26, 2024 @ 10:35 pm
YOU GO ( LUKE GRIMES ) YOU GO I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU AND YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE YOUR SONGS KEEP DOING WHAT YOU DOING AND YOU’RE DOING GREAT JOB YOU’RE AWESOME ????⚘️ ???????? ???????????? ????????????✨️AMEN AND AMEN❤️❤️❤️! !!!
March 27, 2024 @ 10:01 pm
I really just listened to the whole album in its entirety tonight, it has such a deep soulful emotional undertone. Just perfect for moody cowgirl to listen to after riding all day on fractious 2 year olds. This album will be on my regular playlist alot . I love more than a few of the songs Luke has here… I have to admit he is easy on the eye as well. I cannot wait to see him play and sing live this year when his tour hits California. He’s very talented and his vo I ce is so good to listen to. He feels real like a friend I’ve known a long time kind of voice. Very nice , especially for a first effort.