28 MARCH 2025 (TORONTO, ON) – A reverent purveyor of Southern music, GRAMMY Artist to Watch and Alabama native Kashus Culpepper today releases rollicking new song “Southern Man (feat. Marcus King).” Collaborating with friends, Culpepper penned the song with Bear Rinehart (NEEDTOBREATHE, Wilder Woods) and features accomplished musician and artist Marcus King on slide guitar.

 

“I wanted to write a song that shows off even more of my influences…,” shares Culpepper alongside studio photos. “Truly honored to have Marcus come in and take the song to another level with his lead and solo guitar parts. My mind was definitely blown that day.”

 

To record the timeless song Culpepper, his band and producer Brian Elmquist (The Lone Bellow) journeyed to Southern rock and soul hallowed ground, Muscle Shoals – where greats like The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and more, all recorded beloved songs. The new offering builds on his catalog of growing acclaim, and signature “inimitable way, voice full of sandpaper and gravel, building intensity and volume” (No Depression).

 

Listen to “Southern Man (feat. Marcus King)” here.

 

Celebrating the release of his recent “Talk With Me” Culpepper discussed the song with Apple Music's Zane Lowe on The Zane Lowe Show who crowned him one of the all-genre 25 for '25 artists. Prior releases have earned praise from musical legends: cultural mega-icon Elton John called Culpepper's “Jenni,” “a really great record…great mixture of country and funk,” while GRAMMY Award-winning artist / tastemaker John Mayer characterized “Pour Me Out” as “as good as it gets.”

 

Recently making his Grand Ole Opry debut and just returning from a stint abroad performing at C2C in London and CMC Rocks Festival in Australia, Culpepper will join Leon Bridges, Dylan Gossett and Whiskey Myers on the road this year. He is set to make first-ever appearances at Stagecoach and Tortuga Music Festival too.

 

An emphatic co-sign to his nine-month-old recording career, Culpepper has been recognized as a GRAMMY.com 2025 Artist to Watch, Apple Music Zane Lowe's 25 Artists for '25, 2025 Amazon Music Bonfire Artist to Watch, 2025 Pandora Country Artist to Watch, Opry NextStage Class of 2025, Billboard's February 2025 Country Rookie of the Month, Apple Music's February 2025 Country Riser of the Month and Martin Artist Showcase Class of 2025.

 

Alabama-born country crooner Kashus Culpepper encompasses the sound of the South. A student and reverent purveyor of Southern music – country, soul, blues, folk, and rock – Culpepper's husky, sandpaper growl bellows like a freight train over self-penned stories that are as raw and real as they are haunting. Finding his voice in church as young as five years old, it wasn't until 2020's global pandemic that Culpepper went from listener to performer, picking up a guitar and learning cover songs to play at barrack bonfires in Rota, Spain during his deployment with the Navy. Covers soon became originals, and once he landed home on U.S. shores, Kash played dive bars up and down the Mississippi Gulf Coast, making a name for himself with the fresh-yet-reminiscent sound that oozes from his very being. Crashing into prominence, Culpepper sold out headline club shows throughout the South before formally releasing a single song, and opened shows nationwide for sound pioneers like Charles Wesley Godwin, Charley Crockett, and NEEDTOBREATHE. With Nashville taking notice, Culpepper found a musical home at Big Loud Records, and has dropped a string of resonating singles: “After Me?,” “Who Hurt You,” “Out Of My Mind,” “Pour Me Out,” “Jenni,” “Talk With Me” and latest “Southern Man (feat. Marcus King).” Culpepper joins Leon Bridges, Dylan Gossett and Whiskey Myers on tour this year; and makes first-ever appearances at Stagecoach, C2C in London, Tortuga Music Festival, and more. Named one of GRAMMY.com's 25 Artists to Watch in 2025, Apple Music Zane Lowe's 25 Artists for '25, 2025 Amazon Music Bonfire Artist to Watch, 2025 Pandora Country Artist to Watch, Opry NextStage Class of 2025, Billboard's February 2025 Country Rookie of the Month, Apple Music's February 2025 Country Riser of the Month, and Martin Artist Showcase Class of 2025, GRAMMY.com hails Culpepper as an artist who “has revived the melodic crooning of '80s and '90s country, buoyed by his blues influence.”

 

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