Sheriff by day, country star by night.
If you didn’t grow up on ’90s country, the name Mark Collie may not sound as familiar as it should be. But anybody who still spins the good stuff (or listens to our ‘Saved by ’90s Country’ playlist) probably recognizes Collie as the singer behind hits like “Even the Man In The Moon Is Crying” and “Born To Love You.”
Collie released his debut album Hardin County Line back in 1990, scoring one top 20 single with “Let Her Go.” But he saw his most success with his third album, the self-titled Mark Collie, which produced two top 10 hits and two more that charted inside the top 30.
He released his last major-label album back in 1995, but has continued to release albums under various independent labels. Most recently, he dropped an independent album Book of My Blues back in 2021. And if you dig into the liner notes on the album, you might see another familiar name in the credits: The title track was co-written by none other than actor Billy Bob Thornton.
It’s not the first time that Collie has teamed up with Thornton. Back in 2015, he released a song called “Raisin’ Cain” that featured Thornton on vocals.
And if you’ve watched Billy Bob Thornton’s most recent project, the hit Paramount+ show Landman, you might not have even realized that Mark Collie is one of the stars of the show.
The latest Taylor Sheridan show has been a massive success, featuring an all-star cast of Thornton, Ali Larter, Michelle Randolph, Jon Hamm and Demi Moore. But if you aren’t familiar with Mark Collie, you may not have recognized the ’90s country star playing the part of Sheriff Walt Joeberg, the west Texas lawman caught in the middle between the community and the oil company.
The sheriff has solidified himself as an ally of Thornton’s Tommy Norris, the title character and VP at a oil company, and often looks the other way to keep the company happy and investing in their town.
It’s not Collie’s first acting role: The singer made the move to television back in 1998 with a role on Walker, Texas Ranger and has appeared in shows like JAG and Nashville, along with films like The Punisher and Jericho.
His casting also continues a long history of producer Taylor Sheridan casting country artists in his shows. Of course Yellowstone featured names like Lainey Wilson, Luke Grimes and Ryan Bingham, and the prequel series 1883 starred Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.
And of course Sheridan is well-known for featuring incredible country music in the soundtracks of his shows. Just in the first season of Landman we’ve heard music from Turnpike Troubadours, Whiskey Myers, Brent Cobb, The Red Clay Strays, Charles Wesley Godwin, Ella Langley, Zach Bryan, and many more.
But it still seems like we should get some of Collie’s ’90s country classics on the soundtrack too:
Season 1 of Landman just wrapped up, with season 2 expected to go into production early this year. If you haven’t given the show a shot yet, Paramount+ offers a 7 day free trial, so you could get up to speed and cancel before getting charged, but I’m betting once you see everything on there (including Yellowstone prequels 1883 and 1923, live sports, and Tulsa King) you’ll realize it’s easy to get your money’s worth and stick around.
