Nashville-based artist Fancy Hagood drops his sophomore album American Spirit, described as both a return and an arrival for Fancy, embracing his past while moving forward. Journeying through the complex emotions of being alive, the new collection includes the bittersweet “Good Grief” was written after the passing of Fancy’s late friend Leslie Jordan, and the delicate “Losing Game” illustrates the rush of jumping headfirst into something you know isn’t quite right. Fancy’s latest single “Ever Really Ready” is a song about making it to the other side of heartache and finding there’s still new versions of yourself who you haven’t met yet. It’s strikingly fitting for an artist who is finally finding his footing and remaining unapologetically himself in the process. Fancy moved to Nashville at just 17 years old with dreams of becoming an openly queer country artist, but unfortunately was not accepted the way he had hoped. He eventually found his way to the LA pop scene working with Scooter Braun and opening for artists like Meghan Trainor and Ariana Grande under the moniker “Who Is Fancy.” But when that didn’t pan out either, he returned to Nashville to make his 2021 full-length debut Southern Curiosity, which — to his surprise — was embraced and celebrated as a country record by Nashville’s newer music community. 
“I knew after Southern Curiosity had been well received by this community that I wanted to go pedal to the metal and really go back to my roots and that original dream of wanting to be a country artist,” Hagood says in a press statement. Since then, Fancy has released duets with Kacey Musgraves (“Blue Dream Baby”) and Orville Peck (“Rhinestone Cowboy”), been named a member of CMT’s 2024 Listen Up Class, and received a nomination for GLAAD’s Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist Award. “It’s like I’m sitting at a table where I don’t have to explain myself,” he told GLAAD. “And I just wish I could invite the younger versions of myself to this moment to say, ‘Look, we’re doing it, and it feels really good.’ “In some ways, this album is really for that 17-year-old who was brave enough to move to Nashville and beat the door down and say, ‘I belong here.’” American Spirit is available now on all major digital music platforms.
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