Watch Bo Staloch's 'I Won't Be There Waiting For You' Visualizer

09-05-2026

(Capitol) 21-year-old singer and songwriter Bo Staloch returns with "I Won't Be There Waiting For You," a dizzy ride through driving alt-folk and earnest slacker-rock out now on Capitol Records. The new single again shows off the Austin-born, Nashville-based artist's gripping vocals, affecting poetry, and sonic breadth as he sings about a friendship that's slipping through his fingers.

"I Won't Be There Waiting For You" continues Staloch's fruitful union with producer Brad Cook (Mavis Staples, Waxahatchee), who plays bass alongside guitarist Colin Croom (Twin Peaks) and drummer Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver), while Staloch also strums and sings. The end result feels lo-fi yet impeccably executed, pairing the sticky melody of the verses with a beautifully breathless chorus. "I lost my mind as you went and left my sight / How could two friends share love and watch it end?" sings Staloch as he looks on as a loved one rides off into the sunset. "How long will I keep living in this lie that / I won't be there waiting for you."

The song's lyrical twist, that Staloch will in fact wait as long as it takes, spills into a heartfelt reprise that turns the back half of the song into one epic bridge and instrumental - a wave of feeling that carries us to the end. That dynamism has been a constant of Staloch's work of late, including his staggeringly gorgeous last single, "Masks," which overflows with the young artist's palpable old-soul energy as he sings of serious heartache.

Leaning into a striking loud-quiet-loud sound, July's "From a Different Age" was no less stunning. After Staloch performed it at the Rolling Stone Stateside Fourth of July festival in New York, Rolling Stone noted that the era-opening single "shows off what [Staloch] does well: achingly pretty folk-rock tunes that combine a delicate croon, subtly atmospheric kick, and gut-punch choruses, sort of like a more anthemic Bon Iver."