Jake Worthington

Jake Worthington may have made his mainstream debut as part of the 21st century pop juggernaut The Voice but the music he made while on the televised musical competition showed that he was a throwback to the heyday of honky tonk. Worthington picked up on this thread on the music he made after leaving the show, culminating in his long-awaited eponymous 2023 full-length debut where he fashioned himself as an heir to the Texas country of George Strait. Born March 1, 1996 and raised in La Porte, Texas, country singer Jake Worthington had a true country kid childhood, developing a love of fishing, mudding, and four-wheeling, and of course, sports, which in turn led him to music after he broke his back playing football. While laid up from the injury, Worthington discovered his passion for music, particularly for traditional and neo-traditional country, and blessed with the perfect, tuneful Texas drawl of a singing voice, he set about building a professional career. After not making it out of the blind audition for season five of the reality talent show The Voice in 2013, Worthington returned to audition for season six in 2014, this time making the cut, ending up on Blake Shelton's team and placing second by the show's finale, slipping in traditional country songs by Keith Whitley, George Strait, Waylon Jennings, and others along the way. Earning a fervent fan base through his exposure on The Voice, he returned home to Texas, still only 18 years old, to officially graduate from high school. A debut digital download single, "Heaven," was released in May of 2014. In the coming year, Worthington signed on with W3 Entertainment and, in late 2015, issued his self-titled debut EP, which continued to play to his old-school traditional country image. Subsequent singles "How Do You Honky Tonk" and "A Lot of Room to Talk" were later included on his second EP, 2017's Hell of a Highway. Worthington spent the next few years quietly -- "Don't Think Twice," the closing track from Hell of a Highway, was released as a single in 2019, and he cameoed on Ronnie Dunn's 2021 single "Jonesin'" -- but when he reemerged in 2023, he had his first full-length album in hand. Preceded by the singles "Next New Thing" and "State You Left Me In," Jake Worthington appeared in April 2023.
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