Country radio does not usually hand a brand new name 128 stations in a single week. It did exactly that for Jacob Hackworth’s debut single at the end of April, a total we reported in June as the largest first week ever logged for a new artist’s debut at the format. A number like that measures how much Nashville already trusted him. It measures nothing at all about whether anyone will stand in a field to hear him.
That second question gets its first real answer on October 23, when his debut EP finally arrives.
What Has Changed Since June
When we profiled Hackworth in June, the story was a songwriter with more than sixty major label cuts who had just signed to MCA Nashville and Goat Island Sound in March and was outrunning his own anonymity at radio. Four months later the picture is less about the record and more about the catalog he is finally putting his own name on.
“What Took You So Long” arrives October 23 on MCA and Goat Island Sound with seven tracks: the title song, “I Wanna Quit,” “Bad As I Do,” “Last Night I Got Lonely,” “First Friday Night,” “Help Yourself” and “Mess That Marlboro Made.” When the project was announced in August the title track was still inside the country radio top forty, and “Last Night I Got Lonely” followed in late September. Hackworth has called the EP the most full circle thing he has ever done, which from a writer who spent four years handing hooks to other people is not an empty line.
The live schedule has moved too. He is out with Tucker Wetmore for the third time, a run whose first leg included a Ryman set his label says drew a standing ovation, with a Red Rocks date this month. He also joins Zach John King this fall, which puts two artists this series has covered on the same autumn routing.
The Credit List Is Still the Argument
The reason we keep coming back to him is not the radio record. It is what sits underneath it. “Rock and a Hard Place,” written with Heath Warren and Jet Harvey and cut by Bailey Zimmerman, held number one on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart for six consecutive weeks starting in April 2023 and climbed to number ten on the Hot 100. “Wine Into Whiskey,” written with Wetmore and Justin Ebach, launched Wetmore’s career as his debut single in February 2024; Hackworth has six cuts on that album. “This Heart,” written with Thomas Archer, Blake Bollinger and Michael Tyler, gave Corey Kent a number one at country radio. Add “Jack and Jill” for Morgan Wallen, “2 Pair” for Kane Brown, “Damned If I Do” for Vincent Mason and three songs on Jelly Roll’s “Beautifully Broken.”
In September we argued that streaming numbers are the worst way to book a festival. A credit list is the opposite kind of evidence. A follower count tells you how many people once tapped a button. A cut tells you that an A and R executive, a producer and an artist with a career to protect all put real money behind a melody, and that it worked often enough for them to come back. Sixty times is not luck.
His label’s own talking points put his catalog above a billion streams as a writer in 2025 alone. Treat that the way you would treat any figure in a press kit, as a direction rather than a measurement. The credits are the checkable part.
The Honest Counterweight
Writing a hit and holding a field are different jobs, and we are not going to blur them. A forty five minute set on a spring afternoon in Central Florida asks for a performer. A great pen guarantees nothing about that. The Ryman standing ovation is a label telling a flattering story about its own artist, and we are repeating it with that label attached. Hackworth has never headlined anything. His credits tell us the songs will land. Only a stage tells us whether he can carry them, and at festival scale that test has not happened.
We also have a stake worth naming out loud. We are building a country festival in Apopka, and every artist we write about warmly is an artist whose rise would be good for us. Weigh our enthusiasm accordingly. What we will defend without hedging is the method. When we decide who deserves a closer look, we read credits before we read analytics.
What We Are Listening For on October 23
Two things. First, whether the melodic instinct he has spent four years giving away sounds different when he keeps it, because writers who hand off their most obvious hooks sometimes save the stranger ones for themselves. Second, whether his voice has an identity of its own. Country radio in 2026 is full of capable baritones who are hard to tell apart through a truck speaker, and 128 adds will not protect anyone from that for long. “Mess That Marlboro Made” is the title on the track list that suggests he already knows it.
Frequently Asked: Is Jacob Hackworth playing Sunset Country Fest 2027?
No lineup has been announced for our 2027 festival, and the Sunset Stage Series is editorial coverage rather than a booking announcement. When we write about an artist here we are telling readers who we think is worth hearing right now, nothing more than that. Lineup news will come from the festival directly, and the mailing list below is where it lands first.
Sunset Country Fest 2027 takes place April 3, 2027 at the Apopka Amphitheater, 3710 Jason Dwelley Pkwy, Apopka, FL 32712, with gates at 2:00 PM.
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Sources & References
- MusicRow: Jacob Hackworth Slates Debut EP For October
- MusicRow: Jacob Hackworth Signs With MCA
- uDiscover Music: Jacob Hackworth releases Last Night I Got Lonely
- MCA Records: Jacob Hackworth artist talking points
- Country Swag: Who Is Jacob Hackworth?
- Chart history: Rock and a Hard Place
- Chart history: This Heart
- Chart history: Wine Into Whiskey
When does Jacob Hackworth’s debut EP come out?
“What Took You So Long” arrives October 23 on MCA Records and Goat Island Sound. The EP carries seven tracks, and its title song was still inside the country radio top forty when the project was announced in August 2026.
What songs has Jacob Hackworth written for other artists?
His credits include “Rock and a Hard Place” for Bailey Zimmerman, “Wine Into Whiskey” for Tucker Wetmore, “This Heart” for Corey Kent, “Jack and Jill” for Morgan Wallen, “2 Pair” for Kane Brown, “Damned If I Do” for Vincent Mason and three songs on Jelly Roll’s album “Beautifully Broken.”
Who is Jacob Hackworth touring with in 2026?
He is on his third run of dates with Tucker Wetmore, which includes a Red Rocks stop in October, and he joins Zach John King for shows this fall. He has not headlined a tour of his own yet.
Disclaimer: Important Notice
The information published in this article is based on publicly available data from official sources, press releases, and music industry publications available at the time of writing. Tour dates, ticket prices, venue details, setlists, album release schedules, award nominations, lineup announcements, and all other details referenced in this article are subject to change at any time without prior notice.
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Last updated: October 15, 2026 · Sunset Country Fest Editorial Team · Contact Us