The moment the twang dips into “This Ain’t My First (Rodeo),” you know Dakoda Rollins isn’t messing around. The song fuels his new EP, 288 Troubadour, a high-voltage record that’s equally hooked to the past as it is to the present. Rollins owes a lot to ’90s folks such as Clint Black and Trace Adkins, but he filters his work through a Sam Hunt kind of prism. It’s sticky and beat heavy, but it carries enough emotional underpinning to feel earned.
Rollins glues “Forget Me Not” with a gummy snap track and stitches the lyrics in a swooning, lovelorn Kenny Rogers way. “I know I bought you roses, but I hope you forget me not,” he sings, cleverly playing on the name of the flower. With “In My Head,” Rollins yearns for a relationship to catch fire and envisions a full life together, even buying the wedding bands. Sometimes, love will have you do the darndest things.
“Let Me Be Crazy” is a bit of an outlier on the record. While the vocals are mixed and mastered with a modern lilt, the acoustic-based arrangement harkens to the classics like Garth Brooks and even Keith Whitley, with a dash of Randy Travis. Rollins shows off his vocal chops here, and it’s a smart move to end the project with a vocally-charged performance that makes a real statement.
Dakoda Rollins’ 288 Troubadour makes a surprising bid for a must-hear EP of 2026, and “Let Me Be Crazy” easily earns a spot on the best songs roster.
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