Showing posts with label randy rogers band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label randy rogers band. Show all posts

Thursday, May 9, 2019

video review: 'hellbent' by randy rogers band


Hmm, this was probably a project I could have put on the Trailing Edge, but I figured a quick review was worth it for an act I like, especially if Hold My Beer Vol. 2 drops some time soon.

Next up... see, I've got King Gizzard on the docket, but I've got a top 10 I'd like to finish too - stay tuned!

album review: 'hellbent' by randy rogers band

So speaking about acts that nearly got lost in the shuffle...

Yeah, this is somewhat inevitable when we look at the bands with less traction in the mainstream or even less natural groundswell outside of a strong local scene - and while I wouldn't usually want to slot the Randy Rogers Band into the latter category, it's a little hard avoiding it nowadays. Just to catch you all up, the Randy Rogers Band was a Texas country act who landed a major label deal in the mid-2000s and yet never really saw the momentum on the singles charts... mostly because the Nashville industry can't stand Texas country and they were playing a much more neotraditional stripe of it. But the band was willing to try and cross over, even working with Jay Joyce in 2013 for their album Trouble... and when that went nowhere because of the bro-country wave, the band split for their own label and returned to a sound that was more comfortable. And let me stress while I was hard on their 2016 album Nothing Shines Like Neon, it was more because of the comparison to Randy Rogers' excellent collaboration with Wade Bowen a year earlier called Hold My Beer Vol. 1, which was one of the best albums of 2015 and featured one of my favourite songs of that year in 'El Dorado'. So while the rumor mill hasn't really given me any dates surrounding when their follow-up compilation might drop - and Wade Bowen is content to make great solo albums like Solid Ground from last year - we got this project Hellbent, so how did it turn out?

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

album review: 'nothing shines like neon by randy rogers band

So as many of you probably know, last year I picked up the collaboration album between two red dirt country acts, both seasoned veterans in the industry who decided to team up and make a record about being seasoned veterans in the industry and not having quite struck it gold in the mainstream. That record was called Hold My Beer, Vol. 1 by Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen, and it was without a doubt one of my favourite country records of 2015, but what about the men outside of the team-up?

Well, Wade Bowen has always done things in his own way, but Randy Rogers has seen a bit more success under his titular band - and note when I say success I mean barely cracking the top 40 with singles but steadily building a cult following with their album sales around the late 2000s. And for the life of me I'm surprised that they weren't more successful - sure, they had more fiddle and steel guitar and texture than your average mainstream country act, but they were signed to a major label and were willing to cross into more rock and pop textures for their successes, to the point where there were a few songs from their 2013 record Trouble that wouldn't sound that out of place on mainstream country radio... except, of course, that Jay Joyce produced it and has all the hallmarks of his clumsy work that he'd later ruin Eric Church's The Outsiders with a few months later. But the Randy Rogers Band didn't really see radio airplay, and after playing the major label game for several years, they decided to make their return to the indie scene with their album this year, promising a more neotraditional country sound with Nothing Shines Like Neon. Now, I had every reason to expect that this album would be at the worst pretty damn good, and at best something great - was I right?