Tune in to a mini-concert with Stephen Wilson Jr.

Next month, Indiana-raised singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr. will be at the Country Music Awards in Nashville. He’s nominated in four categories, including male vocalist of the year and new artist of the year.

He’s also probably the only CMA nominee who’s also invented a dog treat.

You know those dental sticks you give dogs to help keep their teeth clean? Well, Wilson Jr. helped invent them while working his old day job as a research and development food scientist at Mars Inc.

He’s also been a finalist in the state Golden Gloves boxing championships.

And through all of that, he was writing songs. In 2023, Wilson Jr. released his breakthrough debut album, søn of dad, and he’s continued to build a following and earn critical acclaim with a string of singles since then.

Back in May, Stephen Wilson Jr. stopped by World Cafe to perform some songs from søn of dad. Enjoy!

This episode of World Cafe was produced by Will Loftus. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our senior producer is Kimberly Junod. Our executive producer is Bruce Warren.