Logan Mize

Logan Mize built his sound around sleek yet forceful modern country, layering in extra doses of rock guitar energy. Before issuing his 2012 Big Yellow Dog debut Nobody in Nashville, he had already notched songwriting credits, one of which landed with American Idol finalist Bucky Covington. Throughout the remainder of the decade he worked within Nashville’s system and registered modest gains on the lower tiers of the Billboard country charts. Eventually he moved back to his home state of Kansas, where he began composing material centered on Midwestern life, culminating in the 2021 album Welcome to Prairieville.

Born in Clearwater, Kansas, on May 7, 1985, Mize grew up in a household steeped in country tradition. His great uncle Billy Mize had played pedal steel for Buck Owens and penned songs later recorded by Waylon Jennings and Jerry Lee Lewis. Logan’s own listening ranged widely, encompassing Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Steve Earle alongside Aerosmith, Tom Petty, and Nirvana. At age seven he began piano lessons, then concentrated on vocal development during his early teenage years. After high school he enrolled at the University of Illinois and played football, yet his commitment to music prevailed; he left school, relocated to Nashville, assembled a band, and pursued a career in earnest.

An independently released self-titled project appeared in 2009, which quickly secured him a publishing agreement with Big Yellow Dog Music. Following extensive touring, he delivered his second album, Nobody in Nashville, in 2012 via the label’s own imprint. The project climbed to number 49 on the country albums chart and opened doors for supporting slots with Blake Shelton, the Band Perry, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, LeAnn Rimes, and additional headliners. Further visibility arrived in 2013 through a national television commercial for cotton featuring actress Hayden Panettiere and a guest appearance as himself on the series Hart of Dixie.

Mize signed with Arista Nashville in 2015 and introduced the single “Can’t Get Away from a Good Time,” which appeared on the five-track EP Pawn Shop Guitar that same year. He followed with the full-length Come Back Road in 2017. Two EPs arrived in 2019—Acoustic Sessions in September and From the Vault in May—while the track “Better Off Gone” gained radio traction and peaked at number 49 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

New material surfaced late in 2019 with the single “Something Just Like This,” quickly succeeded by “I Ain’t Gotta Grow Up,” the latter issued in a remix featuring Willie Jones, known from his 2012 appearance on The X Factor. Early 2020 brought “Home Town,” and later that year he issued the Donovan Woods collaboration “Grew Apart” along with “Prettiest Girl in the World.” Still That Kid, a full-length celebrating his rural roots and containing songs written by Rhett Akins, Nicolle Galyon, Ashley Gorley, and Chris DeStefano, arrived the following year.

After that release Mize returned to Kansas, noting that “the pace of life here is much more conducive to creativity.” The renewed creative environment produced Welcome to Prairieville, issued in October 2021 and co-written with Blake Chaffin. Throughout 2022 he issued the Grace Leer duet “Nothing with You,” “Crackin’ a Cold One,” and “Albuquerque,” then collected recent work on the EP Prairie Tapes, Vol. 1. The year closed with the holiday EP Merry Christmas from Logan Mize, which included the Jill Martin duet “Wrapped.” He opened 2023 with the single “Bloodline.”