Less than a year after plotting out a solo music career, Yellowstone star Luke Grimes (Kayce Dutton) is well on his way to making good on those plans.
Burgeoning talent Luke Grimes recently performed at California’s Stagecoach Festival and has other premier gigs on the horizon, including Montana’s Under the Big Sky Fest and Tennessee’s Pilgrimage Festival. But his biggest accomplishment to date might just be having his music featured on the show he stars in.
During the half-season finale of Yellowstone’s fifth season, fans got a taste of “No Horse to Ride,” the artist’s debut single that dropped on December 16, 2022. A co-write with Jonathan Singleton and Tony Lane, the song sees Grimes ruminating on the heartbreak he'd be feeling and the reckless behavior he’d be engaging in without his sweetheart by his side. The metaphors keep coming: a guitar with a broken string, a falling star without the night sky, and the titular cowboy without a horse.
The tear-in-your beer ballad, which Grimes followed with the singles “Oh Ohio” and “Hold On,” fits perfectly into the Yellowstone narrative, providing the soundtrack to a scene in which Rip, Lloyd, Teeter, and company wrangle cattle into their pens. All the while Grimes’ television wife, Monica, looks on before being interrupted by John Dutton, who informs her that the herd will soon be moving south to the Texas Panhandle to escape the brucellosis that plagues them.
The conversation soon pivots to what’s going to happen to the ranch with Rip away tending to the herd and John in Helena fulfilling his duties as governor. John offers Monica and Kayce a home at the ranch’s east camp in exchange for looking after and ensuring things run smoothly while he’s gone.
Monica says yes without a doubt in her mind, giving the couple the purpose they’ve been longing for since she lost what would have been her second child earlier in the season when she was on the way to the hospital to have the baby and crashed the car when a cow appeared in the road.
In many ways, the heartbreak of that moment can be heard in “No Horse to Ride,” making it just as much of a true story for the Duttons as one imagines it might be for Grimes.
Yellowstone is currently in its midseason hiatus, with episodes scheduled to resume later this year.
Want to hear from more of Yellowstone's musicians? Check out our conversations with Isaac Hoskins, Shane Smith & The Saints, Lainey Wilson, and Myron Elkins.
