Chapel Hart Reveals Ultimate Tour Van Playlist, From Loretta Lynn to System of a Down

If you've seen Chapel Hart live or on America's Got Talent, you can attest that the trio of sisters Danica and Devynn Hart and their cousin Trea Swindle brings equal doses rock 'n' roll fervor and country grit to every stage. Wide Open Country dug up the roots of this approach by asking all three members for their go-to tour van jams: a playlist that spans from solid country gold to industrial-strength heavy metal.

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Influences beyond those listed below vary from fellow country groups (Little Big Town) to Southern rockers (Jackyl, featuring collaborator and former tour mate Jesse James Dupree) and a broad range of popular acts (Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, Outkast). That '90s and early aughts blend made for an electric --and eclectic-- sound as the band found its bearings back home in Mississippi.

"In the early Chapel Hart days, we'd have a show and we'd go from 'Zombie' to 'Numb' and some Evanescence and throw in some Metallica at the end," Swindle added.

Here are eight more acts that continue to inspire Chapel Hart as performers, songwriters and listeners.

Gretchen Wilson

Devynn: "One song that impacted me growing up was really anything Gretchen Wilson, but I think maybe either 'Redneck Woman' or 'Here for the Party.' I just love everything about Gretchen and how she was just super carefree and she was unapologetically herself. She really didn't care about what anybody thought about her or her songs. So many people had bad things to say about Gretchen whenever she first came out. She just kept trudging and kept on, and I think Gretchen is one of the biggest artists in country music, especially in the '90s and 2000s era."

Danica: "Gretchen was the window for us that said, 'Okay, so she's not Black, but she's different. If she can do it, maybe we can do it.'  She was our hope to be able to do country music and be country artists."

Swindle: "Gretchen draws a lot of parallels with us because at the end of the day, she was unapologetically Gretchen. That's what made people love her that much more: she was authentic, she was rough and rowdy and she got the party started everywhere she went."

Listen to "Redneck Woman" here.

Johnny Cash

Swindle: "I'm a diehard Johnny Cash fan, and one of the songs that hit me early on was 'Get Rhythm.' It's about the shoeshine boy who's got one of the dirtiest jobs in town, literally, but it also makes me think about musicians because they say being a musician is the job that never pays off until it does. Despite being kicked down, being knocked down, you still have to put a smile on your face and you still have to use whatever you can to bring a little joy to somebody else's day, be it shining their shoes or singing them a song. That song is a good 'come on, get out of that funk. Get rhythm whenever you've got the blues.'"

Listen here.

Garth Brooks

Danica: "The minute the piano starts, it's an instant weep for me. I can't imagine that I'll ever be able to sit down like on a couch and me and Garth Brooks talk about this song [without me crying]... It's just one of those songs. You want to look back and not regret anything, the ups and downs. Lyric beauty at its finest."

Swindle: "I'm waiting for the day that she hears Garth sing it in person. Someone better get a fainting couch ready."

Listen here with Amazon Music Unlimited.

Big & Rich

Danica: "They did 'Comin' to Your City' [at a live gig we attended], and you would've thought that it was our birthday party. The people who's event that it actually was were like, 'What are they doing?' 'Comin' to Your City,' that's what we play when we're on tour and we're pulling up and we know that people aren't ready for the level of Chapel Hartness that we're about to bring."

Listen here.

Deana Carter

Devynn: "I was about to say 'Strawberry Wine.' We got to meet her our last time at the Opry, and her voice is still the exact same. It is just everything."

Listen here.

System of a Down

Devynn: "I'm suffering from neck issues from headbanging because when we were in Trinidad [in October], we were listening to System of a Down. It just really brings something out of my spirit that just does it for me every time."

Listen to "Chop Suey!" here.

Tom Jones

Danica: "I don't know what it is, but ['Delilah'] hits so different, and only at Waffle House. If you see us at Waffle House, we want to apologize in advance. It's not one time singing it. I feel like there's a two-play minimum."

Devynn: "I'm convinced Trea has the TouchTunes system hacked or something because of how she plays songs over everybody else's picks every time."

Danica: "We know what we get paid, and I don't know how she has enough money to play 'Delilah' that many times."

Swindle: "Well see, they rope you in because the more you play it, they give you free plays. So you keep playing 'Delilah'."

Listen here.

Loretta Lynn

Devynn: "I like 'You Ain't Woman Enough' because that has an amount of sass and class. It's what we call nice nasty. It gives very much nice nasty vibes. I hate to admit this, but I can be a little nice nasty at times, too. But I can definitely see where Loretta is coming from."

Swindle: "Whenever you hear songs like 'The Pill'... It took some kind of gall for her to tell him: 'Listen, you're not knocking me up no more. I'm taking the pill and I'm having a ball.'"

Danica: One more artist for the bar fight scene in 'You Can Have Him Jolene,' we'd take Loretta.

Listen to "You Ain't Woman Enough" here.

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