Arlo McKinley

An Ohio-based vocalist and tunesmith whose music fuses earthy country, rock, and folk elements in a deeply expressive style, Arlo McKinley first appeared on record with his self-titled debut in 2014. Wider notice arrived in 2020 via Die Midwestern on the Oh Boy imprint once overseen by the late John Prine. Two years afterward came the inward-facing long-player This Mess We're In.

McKinley entered the world in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began performing vocals at eight years old within the choir of his family’s Baptist congregation. During childhood he absorbed the vinyl collection of his Kentucky-born father, absorbing the work of Hank Williams, George Jones, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, and Van Morrison. In his teenage years he took up guitar and fronted punk groups, yet by his twenties he was composing original material that leaned into roots-oriented country and soul while retaining traces of his earlier rock leanings. A difficult stretch marked by substance issues interrupted his progress and drew him away from music altogether; for a time he worked as a truck driver hauling tuxedos between Cincinnati and Detroit. Eventually he resumed writing and, in 2014, issued his first album, Arlo McKinley & the Lonesome Sound. Extensive touring alongside Tyler Childers, John Moreland, Jason Isbell, and Justin Townes Earle expanded his audience. In March 2020 he became the last performer added to the roster of John Prine’s Oh Boy Records just prior to Prine’s passing that April. That August he unveiled his second album and Oh Boy debut, Die Midwestern, tracked at Sam Phillips Recording Studio under the guidance of Grammy-winning producer Matt Ross-Spang. In 2022 McKinley delivered his third full-length release, This Mess We're In.