10 Undercard Acts You Shouldn't Sleep On

Gregg Gillis has history on this sand that predates Wallen's festival by 15 years. Sand in My Boots uses the Gulf Shores public beach where the Hangout Music Festival began, and Girl Talk played the first day of the first Hangout, a 7:15 slot on May 14, 2010, that the Mobile Press-Register picked as the set most likely to upstage the Grammy-winning headliners. He came back in 2011, when a Paste writer dancing onstage watched his crew fire rolls of toilet paper into the crowd with leaf blowers. The method hasn't changed: a laptop, other people's records, and by his own estimate 300 or 400 samples an hour, with the transitions improvised.

Juicy J has played this festival before: he and DJ Paul performed as Three 6 Mafia in 2025, and Billboard reported him asking for a mosh pit in the sand. The Memphis group's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won the 2006 Oscar for best original song, the first for a hip-hop group, over a field that included Dolly Parton. His solo Stay Trippy debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 in 2013, the year he took the guest verse on Katy Perry's "Dark Horse." In July 2026 he and his brother Project Pat, also on this bill, released the 20-song Dem Goats, with Snoop Dogg and Killer Mike among the guests.

Gucci Mane is filed under Atlanta, but he was born Radric Davis in Bessemer, Alabama, and started rapping at 14 in East Atlanta. His 2005 debut, Trap House, set out the sound he has kept for two decades: gangsta grit over dance-floor synths and slowed, almost psychedelic beats. The State vs. Radric Davis and The Appeal both made the Billboard 200's top 10, and Everybody Looking, released in 2016 after a three-year sentence, peaked at No. 2. His latest, Against All Odds, released October 16, 2026, through his 1017 label and Atlantic, walks through those eras on purpose and closes on a song called "1017."

If one record on the undercard sounds like it was made in Alabama, it's Act I, and part of it was. Kashus Culpepper grew up in Alexander City, in the east-central part of the state, with the Muscle Shoals studios as his reference point, and his January 2026 Big Loud debut was partly cut at Ivy Manor Studio there, with Marcus King on slide for "Southern Man." Rolling Stone heard old-school country, soul, R&B and Southern rock in it. He came in sideways: Navy service, where he fronted cover bands, then firefighting and EMT work, and a viral cover of Tyler Childers' "Messed Up Kid." He only started writing in 2023, yet Act I has 17 originals, co-written with Brent Cobb, Natalie Hemby and Foy Vance among others.

Rick Ross is already on a Morgan Wallen record. Wallen's "Miami," a Keith Whitley flip from I'm the Problem, came back as a remix on July 25, 2025, with verses from Lil Wayne and Ross. The Carol City rapper's own catalog starts with Port of Miami, which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2006 behind "Hustlin'," and in summer 2026 he toured it for its 20th anniversary as a black-tie show with the Renaissance Orchestra and the Sainted Trap Choir. Set in Stone, released July 17, 2026, is his first solo album since 2021: 19 tracks, with T.I., Kodak Black and BigXthaPlug among the guests.

Kameron Marlowe and Ella Langley have now opened for each other. At a 2021 show in Huntsville, Alabama, she was his opener; this fall he was on the second leg of her Dandelion Tour. They released a duet, "Strangers," in January 2024. Marlowe is from Kannapolis, North Carolina, and was working in a car dealership's parts department when he made the top 24 on NBC's The Voice in 2018. After three albums on Columbia Nashville, a self-titled record is due January 22, 2027, co-produced with Austin Goodloe and announced from a rooftop above Broadway under a 22-foot banner.

Two of Carter Faith's 2026 releases were made with acts on this lineup. Kygo built his April house single "That's When You Know" around her vocal, and in September she and Waylon Wyatt put out "I'm Sorry But I Love You," which they wrote with Tofer Brown; she'd planned on singing harmony until he asked her to take a whole verse. The Davidson, North Carolina singer's debut album, Cherry Valley, came out in October 2025 and was expanded in July as Cherry Valley Forever. Her first CMA nomination, for New Artist of the Year, came in September, and Heartland, a Netflix film she acts in alongside Jessica Chastain, premieres November 13 with her song "Still the Sparrow Sings."

Avery Anna won the ACM's New Female Artist of the Year in April 2026; Sam Barber broke the news to her mid-set at Lone Star Smokeout. She grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona, names Patsy Cline as her main influence, and signed with Warner Records Nashville after a video of her belting a cover in her mom's clawfoot bathtub went viral. "Narcissist," from 2022, is RIAA platinum. The newer songs carry more weight: let go letters (2025) was built from letters fans wrote her about depression, addiction, eating disorders and family trouble. She co-wrote and sang on Barber's Hot 100 single "Indigo," shares this year's CMA New Artist field with Carter Faith, and is booked on Luke Combs's 2027 stadium tour.

The Woodstock, Georgia singer's career is about a year old. He posted "I Gave Her The Moon" to TikTok on November 23, 2025; Charlie Puth shared it three days later, and in June 2026 the two sang it together at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville. MCA announced his deal in May, and the seven-song EP Fool In A King Size Bed followed in June. The sound is neotraditional on purpose. He names Keith Whitley, Randy Travis and Daryle Singletary as his voices, calls "One Foot In The Grave" his version of "Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox," and cut "Movin' On's Movin' In" with Vince Gill at Gill's home studio.

Corey Smith is the opposite case, with records going back more than two decades. He taught world history, geography and guitar at North Gwinnett High School in Georgia until he was 28, then quit to play full-time; Undertones, in 2003, came out on his own Undertone imprint. The Broken Record, mixing new songs with re-cut fan favorites like "Twenty-One," reached No. 17 on the country albums chart in 2011. The Jefferson, Georgia native built a Southeast following on records like these and keeps returning to the same rooms: at a Chicago bar he said he'd been coming to for more than 15 years, a January 2023 set included a cover of Flo Rida's "My House." Flo Rida is on this lineup too.