MJ Lenderman

Class of 2026

No young singer-songwriter in the last five years has captured the American rock imagination—or the enthusiasm of the memosphere—quite like MJ Lenderman. He first emerged through a series of Western North Carolina bands, dropping out of college to tour with friends and record in a cozy compound tucked into an idyllic mountain valley. Over a series of solo albums and EPs, he sharpened twin sensibilities as a wry and deliberate storyteller and explosive guitarist, a Drag City acolyte raised on the potential glories of Southern rock. His 2022 album, Boat Songs, became a surprise breakthrough, his one-liners about sports and hangovers slicing through winking meditations on faith and failure, losers and the worry he might still be one of them. 

Lenderman has since grown tremendously as a writer and bandleader. He offset the stinging wit and sharp stories of 2024’s Manning Fireworks—as close to a consensus favorite as indie rock has had in many years—with real vulnerability. “Please don’t laugh,” he deadpanned at one point, a command that was itself funny. “Only half of what I said is a joke.” His band The Wind has quickly become a hard-touring institution, a loud and intuitive rock group that often feels like the smart country cousin of Crazy Horse.