COVER STORY : ELLE KING lle King , 14-year career has followed a similar , if slightly more serpentine path than the famed Beverly Hillbillies . When she last checked in , early in the pandemic , she was bunking with her sister and her children in Los Angeles and had become “ a true Hollywood Hillbilly ” with access to her own high-falutin ’ cement pond , even an inflatable hot tub , she joked at the time while promoting her then-current , gently acoustic “ In Isolation ” EP , which a displayed a hushed , thoughtful new songwriting side of her , inspired by the pandemic . “ But that was like an eternity ago ,” the singer now sighs , on the eve of her latest full-length release , “ Come Get Your Wife ,” which is straightforward country , was composed and recorded in her comfortable new hometown of Nashville , and features cameos from genre artists Dierks Bentley , Ashley McBryde , Miranda Lambert , and some of the best co-writers and session players Music Row has to offer . The swimmin ’ pools and movie stars celebrated in “ The Beverly Hillbillies ” theme song ? P ’ shaw , King spits — she ’ s had enough , and she ’ s returned to the familiar backwoods territory in Nashville that was her home turf all along . It wasn ’ t a straight reverse-Clampett trajectory from L . A . to Nashville ; you would imagine , either . But nothing in King ’ s topsy-turvy life has ever gone according to a carefully-mapped out plan . Tom Lanham spoke to the leading candidate for 2023 ’ s queen of country .

HELLO MY NAME IS “ FITZ ” FITZPATRICK

Many folks looked at the oppressive , lockdown-and-mask-mandated pandemic and saw a glass half empty . But all Michael ‘ Fitz ’ Fitzpatrick could envision was a more optimistic glass half full . “ And as scary as it was to be like , ‘ Holy shit ! I ’ m not playing live shows anymore — how am I gonna make a living ?’ There was all this stress in the world , and it felt like the world literally was on fire , especially in California at the beginning of the pandemic ,” recalls the kinetic frontman for Fitz and the Tantrums , who had become accustomed to always being in motion . ” For me , it was the first chance I got to wake up in my own bed , see my kids every morning , and put my kids to bed every night for a year straight . And I never get to do that . Tom Lanham spoke tothe charismatic frontman .

PAGE 20 : ELLE KING

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