Blake Whiten books Saturn for April, capping a breakout year

The South Carolina country singer, SiriusXM's first Highway Find of 2026, plays Birmingham on Friday, April 16, with Sunny Black.

A year ago, most country fans had not heard Blake Whiten's name. By next spring, he will have played the Grand Ole Opry, cracked satellite radio's country Top 10 and headlined his own tour. Birmingham gets him on the way up.

Blake Whiten plays Saturn on Friday, April 16, 2027, at 8 p.m., with Sunny Black opening. Tickets are on sale through OpenDate. The show was announced October 26, and Saturn holds 500.

Whiten is a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Six Mile, South Carolina, signed to Warner Records through its Enchntmnt imprint, according to All Country News. His 2026 has moved fast. In February, SiriusXM's The Highway named him its first "Highway Find" of the year, and his single "Rollin' Stone" went on to reach the Top 10 of the channel's Highway Hot 30. That same month, he made his Grand Ole Opry debut.

SiriusXM's first Highway Find of 2026, an Opry debut in February, and a headlining tour by spring.

The singles kept coming. In late March he released "Ghost House," and in May he announced his headlining Something to Say Tour. That run is still going right now and wraps up in Nashville on November 13, which makes this Saturn date one of the first things on his calendar for the new year.

Why this room? Saturn holds 500, and that is the size where an artist like Whiten is most worth seeing. He has radio momentum and a growing list of big stages behind him, but he is still playing rooms where you can see faces from the back. Artists on this kind of trajectory do not tend to stay in 500-capacity clubs for long, and a lot of people who catch a breakout act this early end up telling the story for years.

The Highway's endorsement is a good signal of who is going to show up. That channel's audience is the core of modern mainstream country, and a Highway Find tag has been an early marker for a lot of artists who later moved up. Expect a crowd that knows "Rollin' Stone" word for word.

When to get tickets: the date is five months out, but this is a 500-cap room and the show is already on sale through OpenDate. If you have been playing his singles since the SiriusXM nod, there is no reason to wait for the spring. Sunny Black opens, and an 8 p.m. start on a Friday makes it an easy night to plan around.

By April 16, Whiten will have another few months of momentum behind him. Saturn is the chance to say you caught him while he still fit in a room this size.

Sources: Blake Whiten has something to say, and country music is finally listening (All Country News) (allcountrynews.com); Blake Whiten is The Highway's first Highway Finds of 2026 (SiriusXM) (siriusxm.com); Blake Whiten makes Grand Ole Opry debut (antiMusic) (musicpressbox.antimusic.com); Blake Whiten takes fans to Ghost House with new single (antiMusic) (musicpressbox.antimusic.com); Blake Whiten launching Something to Say Tour (antiMusic) (musicpressbox.antimusic.com); Tickets (OpenDate) (app.opendate.io); JamBase listing (jambase.com)