Thornton and Collie’s fingerprints are all over the project, with credits on five songs. That includes “Livin’ It Up in Texas” co-written with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, “She’ll Dance for Whiskey” alongside rising star Parker McCollum, and “That’s What Lonely People Do” with country outlaw Dwight Yoakam. They also collaborated with Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn on “Blood for Black Gold,” where Thornton himself plays drums, and penned “Midland After Midnight” with Flatland Cavalry.
Who Features on the ‘Landman’ Album?
The rest of the record is stacked with country heavy-hitters: Chris Stapleton joins George Strait on “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame,” while Ella Langley, Drayton Farley, The Red Clay Strays, Whiskey Myers, and Clint Black also lend their voices. It’s an eclectic mix of Americana, rock, and country that doubles as a love letter to Texas grit. According to co-creator Christian Wallace, Thornton and Collie began experimenting with songs on set as far back as Season 1. Sheridan may be known for building empires of cattle, horses, and oil, but it was Thornton who kept pulling out a guitar between takes.
“[Thornton] was writing throughout the show and he had all these fantastic collaborators, from Billy Gibbons to ZZ Top and Tanya Tucker. That was a really fun part of the show with Billy pulling out a guitar and singing a song he had written about the show, or was inspired by the show.”
The soundtrack isn’t Landman’s first brush with music. Earlier this year, Paramount+ released Andrew Lockington’s original score, praised for blending sweeping Texas landscapes with the show’s intensity. But this new project feels more like a cultural extension — a country music crossover with enough star power to get Nashville talking. As Thornton recently put it:
“Mark Collie is an old friend of mine, a country singer-songwriter… Collie said, ‘Hey, you and I should write a country song [for the show] and see what happens.’ The next thing you know, I’m talking to MCA about doing a soundtrack album, and before you know it, somehow we started co-writing songs with all these country singers.”
Landman Season 2 arrives this November on Paramount+.
