The Ozarks songwriter celebrates all of America’s characters in their heartbreaking, funny, and hardworking glory on a double album produced by Tyler Childers

This week, states that most people never imagined could ever turn blue did just that, as part of a massive Democratic sweep in the midterm elections. Most people, that is, except for the residents actually living in them. Texas, Kansas, Iowa, possibly even Mississippi. No place is a monolith, and our country is a rich, vibrant, and diverse place in every corner, where real people rarely line up with the stereotypes we thrust upon them. They may not all be Instagram-glamorous, but they believe in meaningful work, family (chosen, born or both), and a good joke. They love hard, they struggle, and they get shit done.

That’s who Willi Carlisle , the Kansas-born country songwriter, is singing about on his new Tyler Childers-produced double album, The Universal Bubba .…