Texas Hot Country January 2012 : Page 5

TEXAS HOT COUNTRY MAGAZINE, JANUARY2012, PAGE 5 KEVIN FOWLER LIV LIVE AT THE HUMBLE BY LEON BECK T he title of Texas country singer/ songwriter Kevin Fowler’s new CD, Chippin’ Away, pretty much describes how his music career has evolved over the past 14 years. “That’s how I kind of feel about my career,” Kevin says during a recent interview at Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon in Webster. “It’s just like nothing ever happens easy for me; I’m always the hard-luck cham-pion, the underdog.” There was never just an explo-sive moment in his careert “where it just blows up on me,” he says. “It’s just a slow, steady growth. I just keep on chippin’ away. No matter what the industry throws at us, we just keep on keepin’ on.” Kevin did note that the “Chippin’ Away” cut on the CD, penned by David Lee Murphy, Shane Minor and Brice Long, has no real relevance to his career, other than the title. “That song,” he points out, “is more about chippin’ away at getting a girl. I just thought the title really just fit my career and the way things have gone down. “This is one of the few songs on the record that I didn’t write. But I fell in love with it the first time I heard it.” After Kevin’s last two labels (Equity Records and Lyric Street Records) shut their doors while he was still under contract (after all, he is the hard-luck champion, the underdog) he landed a recording contract with a new Nashville label, Average Joe’s. “It’s just an awesome label that really gets artists like me and all my red dirt friends, artists like Corey Smith, me and Colt Ford. All these artists that are very grassroots-driven.” The main focus for Kevin now is to promote his new CD and single, “That Girl,” which he co-wrote with Trent Willmon and Clint Ingersoll. “We’ve been non-stop on this never-ending radio tour promoting the new single to all these radio stations coast-to-coast.” This CD, Kevin points out, is sort of a departure from his typical Fowler fare. “Just the songwriting and the production --we’ve stepped it up a notch. With every record we just try to beat out the last one, and with all that extra time in there in the middle it gave me time to really focus on the songwriting. I think the CD is just head and shoulders, musically, above anything that I’ve done in the past.” “That Girl,” Kevin admits, probably wouldn’t have made the cut on any of his previous CDs. IVE A THE HUMBLE RODEO F EB. 1 1HUMBLE RODEO FEB. 11 E FEB. 11 “It’s got that rock pop edge to it,” Kevin notes. “In previous records I would have probably bumped it because of that. In our earlier years, if it weren’t country enough, if it weren’t twangy enough. I was really closed-minded in my song selection. I’d always write songs like that on every record, songs that are more rockin’ and more on the pop edge, but as I get older, it’s like a great song is just a great song. Why do they have to try to fit a certain mold? I think this CD runs the whole gamut, from full-on rockers like that and ‘Beer Money,’ to the really tender little ballads like ‘Daddies And Daughters.’ “The CD has everything on it. I’m glad that we kind of took the blinders off on this record and just let anything go.” “That Girl” has been picked up by mainstream country radio and is breaking on stations around the country. His radio tour is taking him from “North and South Carolina, Georgia, all down there in the southeast, northeast, Wisconsin, the West Coast, Las Vegas, Nebraska, all over Texas” and beyond. Kevin attributes the success of “That Girl” to it being “just a great song. It’s about a guy reflecting back about that girl that he met 20 or 30 years ago who is the same girl that he’s in love with today. I think it’s a song that has a universal message that everybody can relate with. It’s just right down the middle-of-the-road.” How has Kevin changed over the years? “The only change,” he says with a laugh, “is that I’m getting older and moving a little slower. This is a dream. I’m on a carnival ride --and I don’t want the ride to end.” ROCKIN’ RADIO WITH ‘THA GIRL OCKIN’ RADIO WITH ‘THAT GIRL’

Kevin Fowler Live At The Humble Rodeo Feb. 11

Leon Beck

The title of Texas country singer/Songwriter Kevin Fowler’s new CD, Chippin’ Away, pretty much describes how his music career has evolved over the past 14 years. “That’s how I kind of feel about my career,” Kevin says during a recent interview at Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon in Webster. “It’s just like nothing ever happens easy for me; I’m always the hard-luck champion, the underdog.” There was never just an explosive moment in his careert “where it just blows up on me,” he says. “It’s just a slow, steady growth. I just keep on chippin’ away. No matter what the industry throws at us, we just keep on keepin’ on.” Kevin did note that the “Chippin’ Away” cut on the CD, penned by David Lee Murphy, Shane Minor and Brice Long, has no real relevance to his career, other than the title. “That song,” he points out, “is more about chippin’ away at getting a girl. I just thought the title really just fit my career and the way things have gone down. “This is one of the few songs on the record that I didn’t write. But I fell in love with it the first time I heard it.” After Kevin’s last two labels (Equity Records and Lyric Street Records) shut their doors while he was still under contract (after all, he is the hard-luck champion, the underdog) he landed a recording contract with a new Nashville label, Average Joe’s. “It’s just an awesome label that really gets artists like me and all my red dirt friends, artists like Corey Smith, me and Colt Ford. All these artists that are very grassrootsdriven.” The main focus for Kevin now is to promote his new CD and single, “That Girl,” which he co-wrote with Trent Willmon and Clint Ingersoll.“We’ve been non-stop on this neverending radio tour promoting the new single to all these radio stations coast-to-coast.” This CD, Kevin points out, is sort of a departure from his typical Fowler fare. “Just the songwriting and the production -- we’ve stepped it up a notch. With every record we just try to beat out the last one, and with all that extra time in there in the middle it gave me time to really focus on the songwriting. I think the CD is just head and shoulders, musically, above anything that I’ve done in the past.” “That Girl,” Kevin admits, probably wouldn’t have made the cut on any of his previous Cds. “It’s got that rock pop edge to it,” Kevin notes. “In previous records I would have probably bumped it because of that. In our earlier years, if it weren’t country enough, if it weren’t twangy enough. I was really closedminded in my song selection. I’d always write songs like that on every record, songs that are more rockin’ and more on the pop edge, but as I get older, it’s like a great song is just a great song. Why do they have to try to fit a certain mold? I think this CD runs the whole gamut, from full-on rockers like that and ‘Beer Money,’ to the really tender little ballads like ‘Daddies And Daughters.’ “The CD has everything on it. I’m glad that we kind of took the blinders off on this record and just let anything go.” “That Girl” has been picked up by mainstream country radio and is breaking on stations around the country. His radio tour is taking him from “North and South Carolina, Georgia, all down there in the southeast, northeast, Wisconsin, the West Coast, Las Vegas, Nebraska, all over Texas” and beyond. Kevin attributes the success of “That Girl” to it being “just a great song. It’s about a guy reflecting back about that girl that he met 20 or 30 years ago who is the same girl that he’s in love with today. I think it’s a song that has a universal message that everybody can relate with. It’s just right down the middle-of-the-road.” How has Kevin changed over the years? “The only change,” he says with a laugh, “is that I’m getting older and moving a little slower. This is a dream. I’m on a carnival ride -- and I don’t want the ride to end.”

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