Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has already conquered the country charts. Now it’s getting the bluegrass treatment, courtesy of Matthew McConaughey and the Last Bison.
During a Wednesday appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, McConaughey
joined the Virginia folk group for a loose, homespun rendition of Langley’s chart-topping hit. The performance arrives just ahead of the Aug. 14 theatrical release of The Rivals of Amziah King, in which McConaughey plays Amziah King, a musically gifted beekeeper and community fixture in rural Oklahoma who leads a ragtag bluegrass band of his own.
The Fallon stage was dressed like a rural roadhouse transported onto late-night television, with a weathered red barn door glowing beneath strings of lights as McConaughey stood at the center of the makeshift ensemble. The Last Bison surrounded him with a thicket of acoustic instrumentation, including guitar, banjo, bass, and mandolin, while Fallon, cowboy hat planted firmly on his head, joined the fray with a washboard. McConaughey leaned into the song’s easygoing twang, which made Langley’s tale of romantic abandonment for a Texas rival sound like a song that had been passed around a porch for generations.
McConaughey, in what appears to be some form of method acting, blurred the distinction between his latest role and his own passion for music in his performance. He’s currently on the promotional trail for The Rivals of Amziah King, Andrew Patterson’s Southern crime drama that stars him as an Oklahoma beekeeper whose life is upended when his former foster daughter, Kateri, returns to his community. Music is deeply embedded in the film: McConaughey sings and plays mandolin in the movie, while the Last Bison contribute two songs, including “Inheritance” and a newly recorded version of “Quill.”
The band is also releasing Our Inheritance, a sweeping re-recording of the album that first introduced them to a national audience, on Aug. 14, the same day the film opens in theaters. Founding member Ben Hardesty, one of the film’s composers, makes his acting debut in the movie, expanding on what began as a pair of song placements into a larger collaboration with Patterson.
It’s fitting that “Choosin’ Texas” would find its way into this particular promotional union. The song has stood out as one of country’s most notable hits of 2026, spending 15 weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and setting a record as the longest-running Number One by a solo woman for a non-holiday song. Langley’s original may be built for stadium singalongs and summer radio, but the Fallon performance proves that her song remains sensational despite the change of scenery.
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