“If You’re a Dreamer, You Better Be a Doer”: Inside Netflix’s New Lainey Wilson Documentary

Even if you aren’t a country, it’s decent odds you’ve heard of Lainey Wilson: a Grammy-winning country artist who has also racked up 16 Academy of Country Music Awards and nine Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year in 2023 and 2025. Taylor Sheridan even created a role specifically for her on the final season of Yellowstone, casting her as a love interest for Ryan (Ian Bohen), who mirrored Wilson’s own signature style and even performed several of her own songs. 

But now, thanks to the forthcoming Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, everyone’s about to find out why she’s become such a big star. Directed by Amy Scott, the filmmaker behind such documentaries as Sheryl, Melissa Etheridge: I’m Not Broken, and Counting Crows: Have You Seen Me Lately, Keepin’ Country Cool aims to chronicle Wilson’s transition from living in a camper trailer to one of the most recognizable names in country music. 

“Musicians and artists are really fascinating to me,” Scott tells Den of Geek at SXSW 2026. “I like to understand how they work, how they make the things that they make, and they usually lead really unique lives.” 

Scott wasn’t overly familiar with her subject before making the film. But she was won over fairly quickly by Wilson’s work ethic and charisma. 

“I didn’t know a lot of her work [before I made the film],” Scott says. “But country is one word that means a lot of different things historically. So, I was a big fan of country, but maybe more so of older stuff. I wasn’t as familiar with her. But now we’ve spent a lot of time with her, and I love her music. I think she’s an incredible entertainer. She’s got it.” 

Wilson released her first album in 2014, but didn’t land a major label deal until five years later. Her first number one single, “Things a Man Oughta Know,” was released in 2020. And now seemed the right time to tell her story. 

“There were some producers that had the idea, and they all make really cool films, and they got together with Lainey’s team and thought this might be a really interesting year to capture because she’s on this rapid ascent,” Scott says. “And those moments are fleeting that an artist will let you come into their world and be vulnerable as they take off. So [the film] had been conceived, and they had seen some of my previous films about musicians. It was a good fit.”

While Wilson herself wasn’t involved with determining the documentary’s direction or its day-to-day filming choices, Scott says both she and her team were very collaborative. 

“She wasn’t involved in any creative decision in terms of the film,” Scott says. “You don’t want someone sort of dictating what you’re going to film or not. She’s extremely down to earth and very open, let us come into her world with a very small crew, who are all incredible documentarians, and we’re all filming. And then a cool thing that happened with her team — and this had not happened to me before — but she had a photographer too, and they’ve [been] friends and known each other for years. He filmed a lot of video and worked with us to share footage, and we sort of became one team. I thought that really [added an] additional layer of intimacy and accessibility that would have taken us a lot more time to build that trust.”

As with any documentary, Keepin’ Country Cool is about showing off many different sides of its subject, from Wilson’s abilities as a performer to her more unexpected personal traits.

“Vulnerability can come in many different flavors. It can be a vulnerability about struggles. But vulnerability is also when you can be funny and have a really unguarded, self-deprecating nature,” Scott says. And what we realized very early on is she’s really, really funny. That was kind of like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that about her, so I think we definitely have to showcase this woman’s sense of humor.”

One of the film’s repeated themes involves the often-unseen hard work — not to mention the considerable time — it takes to become a success, a win that many often (incorrectly) perceive as an “overnight sensation.”

“You know, it’s a story about dreaming,” Scott says. “She says this line at the beginning, it’s in one of her speeches, but I thought it was so profound:’ If you’re going to be a dreamer, you better be a doer.’ That’s just the point of the whole thing. Nothing is given to you, but if you can dream it, then you should go and do it. So I think it’s really inspirational for anyone else [who’s] chasing their dreams.”

For Wilson, this means constantly working — both when it comes to her present-day activities like touring and other professional commitments, and thinking about what’s coming next. 

“One thing, and I don’t know if this is the case for all musicians, but it was a new thing for me, is to see that she’s on tour constantly. She never stops. She doesn’t sit still. But when she does, she goes, and she starts songwriting the next record,” Scott says. “So she’s banking all these songs, and she’s constantly looking to make the next record. So we did capture a handful of the moments in the process of her looking forward, not just touring past records, but building toward [the next one].” 

According to Scott, no documentary is ever crafted in a straight line, and Keepin’ Country Cool doesn’t tell Wilson’s story that way, either. Instead, she, like those of us watching at home, is really just along for the ride. 

In an ideal world, you map it all out, and you get all your checkpoints along the way and everything like that. But that’s just not realistic. Documentaries are not narratives that way,” Scott laughs. “They take twists and turns, and after a while, it became apparent that we’re not chasing the tour. We’re chasing Lainey. And her life is all over the place. Her life is not a straight line. So we just tried to hold on to that mechanical bull ride.”

Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool premiered March 17 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival. It is now available to stream on Netflix.

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