Back in West Michigan after a whirlwind few years that took him from a welding shop in Otsego, to opening for legends like Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, Americana songwriter Myron Elkins has come home with a clearer sense of who he is, where his music belongs, and how he wants to make it.
Home, for Elkins, isn’t just a geographic reset. It’s a creative one.
After years in Nashville, a city he views like “Disneyland” for musicians and music lovers, the place just lost its luster.
“Nashville felt like high school to me,” he told Revue. “And I hated high school. It’s like, if you want to play the places and meet the people, you’ve got to kind of dress the part, and make sure you fit in. It was bad. It’s a lot better up here.”
That sense of not fitting neatly into Nashville’s ecosystem isn’t new for Elkins. From the start, his music pulled from a different lineage: Three Dog Night, Sam Cooke, Marty Robbins, soul records and outlaw country rather than polished radio trends.
Even as a teenager, before music ever felt like a viable career, he was absorbing stories. Raised around the Kalamazoo area, Elkins learned to sing in church, picked up guitars from his “Papaw,” and listened closely to the working-class narratives that would later define his songwriting.
After graduating high school, music wasn’t his career plan. Welding was. He went to work in factories around Otsego, writing songs in his head while sparks flew.
Music stayed on the side until a relative signed him up for a local battle of the bands. With three weeks’ notice, Elkins assembled a group made up largely of cousins. They didn’t win, but something clicked.
Three years later, at just 21, Elkins released his major label debut album, 2023’s “Factories, Farms & Amphetamines,” a record steeped in small-town truth and emotional weight. Produced by acclaimed producer Dave Cobb, and recorded at Nashville’s storied RCA Studio A, it paired Elkins’ gravel-worn voice with songs that looked unflinchingly at where he came from. It also dropped him headfirst into the industry machine.
“It happened really fast,” Elkins said.
Months of touring followed, along with opening slots for Kaleo, Marcus King, Lucero, Blackberry Smoke, and others.
“It was terrifying at first,” he said, recalling his very first national tour opening for Kaleo, who had a massive TikTok hit in “Way Down We Go.”
He and the band drove their van from Kalamazoo to Seattle, all through the night, braving a January snowstorm.
“We get there, and there’s this gigantic crowd full of young people, which we never play to,” Elkins said, as his music’s rich history often attracts older listeners. “It was scary, but it went over well, and it kept going over well, and became kind of second nature. It was dream come true stuff.”
Elkins soon became a seasoned road performer, logging long miles, while enjoying the experience of seeing the country and performing for new fans.
“I love history, and I love driving,” he said. “Out west where the Comanches were, or seeing Boston, or El Paso… it felt very right to me. I do well traveling. It’s odd.”
That constant motion fed his songwriting, turning childhood song references into lived experience.
“You grow up listening to ‘Never Been to Spain,’ (by Three Dog Night), and then you’re in Spain,” Elkins said. “Or Marty Robbins songs, and you’re driving through El Paso like, ‘Oh wow, this is it.’”
The road also led to moments that felt surreal.
Last year, Elkins found himself sharing bills with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Expectedly, Dylan remained elusive, but meeting Willie left Elkins nearly speechless.
“I didn’t say anything besides, ‘Hi, I’m Myron,’” he said. “He booked Bob Wills. He saw Hank Williams Sr. play. He wrote ‘Crazy…’ It was like meeting George Washington of American music.”
Nelson’s presence reinforced the ethos Elkins has long admired.
“He writes what he wants to write and what he feels,” Elkins said. “He doesn’t wear suits. He’s just a raw artist. A pioneer for everything the Americana genre stands for now.”
Despite those highs, the Nashville chapter began to sour. Elkins watched the city’s industry tighten, with fewer opportunities for grassroots growth.
Increasingly, he found inspiration elsewhere, particularly in Memphis, a city he still views as sacred ground for its own history, and surprising similarities to the Midwest.
“There’s still a lot of people there doing music for the right reasons,” he said.
It was in Memphis where Elkins ultimately recorded his second album, “Nostalgia for Sale,” entirely independently after being dropped from his label.
“(It was) completely opposite,” he said of the experience compared to making his debut.
Hurting financially and creatively, he scraped together sessions song by song, learning how to produce himself, sell his own gear, and book whatever shows he could.
“It really instilled a mentality in my head where I’m just going to do this on my own from now on,” he said. “I was on the road with Charlie Crockett the year we laid that first half down, and he pretty much told me that’s what he did, and he's doing very good right now. And he said, let them come to you. So that's going to be the mentality, I think, moving forward.”
Back in Michigan, Elkins is recording again, this time in houses in Kalamazoo and Flint, embracing different sounds, and resisting the urge to force a plan.
“It’s more of an artist thing now, not a business guy thing,” he said about recording and releasing music independently. “We’re kind of surprising ourselves. And it’s fun.”
The return home has also brought Elkins closer to the Midwest scenes he feels are too often overlooked.
“It’s super refreshing,” he said. “The scale is smaller, but for what I want to do, it’s not really necessary to be working with the monopoly. I just want to put out records that feel like me, and let fate take care of it.”
That philosophy will be on full display at his upcoming vinyl release show at The Intersection, a venue Elkins calls home. With horns, keys, and a Memphis-inspired soul lineup, it’s designed as both celebration and statement.
“It’s going to be a Memphis-style soul songwriter thing,” he said. “We don’t do too many shows a year with horns because it’s expensive, so this one’s special… The Intersection's been our home since we started. They used to put us out front for after parties, which aren't even really a thing. They just kind of gave them to us, so it's cool to be back.”
Looking ahead, Elkins plans to tour selectively — with dates like Telluride Blues Festival on the horizon — but his focus remains rooted.
“I feel like we finally hit a home base,” he said. “It turns out, it was always right here.”
Myron Elkins
“Nostalgia For Sale” Vinyl Release
Wsg. Big L & Code Blü
The Stache (inside The Intersection), 133 Cesar E. Chavez Ave. SW, Grand Rapids
Feb. 7, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, $15 advance, All Ages
Myronelkins.com, sectionlive.com
