Texas Hot Country March 2012 : Page 11

TEXAS HOT COUNTRYMAGAZINE, MARCH 2012, PAGE 11 JOSH ABBOTT BAND LIVE AT THE GALVESTON COUNTY FAIR & RODEO APRIL 14 o BY JAMES HARVEY n the heels of the release of their new single “Touch,” the Josh Abbott Band will be the featured performers at the Galveston County Fair on Saturday, April 14th Released to great fanfare on February 14th , “Touch” is the lead-off single to the Josh Abbott Band’s upcoming third album, Small Town Family Dream, which is scheduled for release on April 24th . The new single was co-written by Josh, along with Radney Foster and Jay Clementi, and features Universal recording artist Kacey Musgraves on the harmony vocals. Kacey is the female lead on the hit duet “Oh Tonight,” from the Josh Abbott Band’s second album, She’s Like Texas. The new single can be heard on the Josh Abbott Band’s website, www.joshabbottband.com, and is currently climbing the charts. The Josh Abbot Band currently features guitarist Josh Abbott as lead singer and principal songwriter, Preston Wait on fiddle and guitar, Caleb Keeter on lead guitar, Austin Davis on electric banjo, James Hertless on bass guitar, and Edward Villanueva on drums. The Josh Abbott Band, now based in Austin, originated at Texas Tech University in Lubbock in 2004, where Josh Abbott was a graduate student in communications. Having completed his coursework toward his master’s degree, Josh postponed completion of his thesis to pursue his music career fulltime. As Josh sees it, “If I ever decide the music thing’s not goin’ in the right direction, I can go back to college, but when you have a song that’s on the radio and it’s hot, you’ve got to follow up on it because you may not have that opportunity again.” Josh’s instincts appear to have been correct. With the impending release of his third album, the Josh Abbot Band is hotter than ever. Originally inspired to write and perform music after seeing a performance of the Randy Rogers Band at Blue Light Live in Lubbock in 2004, Josh recalls, “It was packed. I watched them play and how they moved on the stage, how they sang their songs, and how they connected with the audience. I literally looked at my friend --and this is the story she tells to this day to her friends --and I said, ‘I think I can do that.’ She was like, ‘What are you talkin’ about ?’ I said, ‘I think I can be that guy on stage, singing and writing songs that people connect with. I think that I can do that.’ She was like, ‘Well, go do it.’ That night or the next day, I started writing country songs.” Shortly thereafter, The Josh Abbot Band was opening shows at the same venue for the likes of Cory Morrow, Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen among others. As Josh relates, “Those guys paid their dues by playing a lot of venues where they probably got paid $500 and a case of beer. Texas music wasn’t really being played on the radio very much. But now because of the hard work of all those guys, over time, it’s become kind of its own genre and now all the stations in Texas and Oklahoma play it, and it’s been able to create a whole new environment of music for us.” Before long, Josh had written enough songs to produce an album. As he says, “”If we play a bunch of covers, we’re going to impress the crowd, but we’re not going to impress the band. I wanted other bands to be talking about us, so I just wrote a bunch of originals and we started practicing ‘em.” Regarding his songwriting, Josh shares, “The most important idea that I write songs with is that they’re autobiographi-cal. Nearly every song I write is a true story of mine, or of someone I know.” One of their early demos, “Taste,” actually became a regional hit in the Lubbock area, and led to the creation of their first full album. Sons of the Desert alumnus Drew Womack co-produced their first album, Scapegoat, in 2009, which yielded a duet hit, “A Good Night for Dancing,” (recorded with Charla Corn), one of the Top 15 songs on the Texas Music Chart for 2009. The band’s next album, She’s Like Texas, was produced by Erik Herbst of Eli Young Band fame, and yielded the aforementioned duet hit “Oh Tonight,” which went to No. 44 on the Hot Country Songs chart last year. As Josh reveals, “In order for the female audience base to really embrace you, you have to do one of two things: you have to either flatter them or empower them. The empow-erment comes from other girls, other lead singers such as Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, who kind of make girls feel like they’re stronger than the man-the if-you-can-do-it-then-I-can-do-it-too kind of songs. I go the other direction, and I try to flatter them. When women come to our shows and they hear the songs, I like to think that they feel like we’re kind of makin’ ‘em feel special.” Having set a pattern of success with the release of romantic duet songs, the new single, “Touch,” from the forthcoming album Small Town Family Dream, promises to be a success as well. .

Josh Abbott Band

James Harvey

In the heels of the release of their new single “Touch,” the Josh Abbott Band will be the featured performers at the Galveston County Fair on Saturday, April 14th. Released to great fanfare on February 14th, “Touch” is the lead-off single to the Josh Abbott Band’s upcoming third album, Small Town Family Dream, which is scheduled for release on April 24th. The new single was co-written by Josh, along with Radney Foster and Jay Clementi, and features Universal recording artist Kacey Musgraves on the harmony vocals. Kacey is the female lead on the hit duet “Oh Tonight,” from the Josh Abbott Band’s second album, She’s Like Texas. The new single can be heard on the Josh Abbott Band’s website, www.joshabbottband.com, and is currently climbing the charts. The Josh Abbot Band currently features guitarist Josh Abbott as lead singer and principal songwriter, Preston Wait on fiddle and guitar, Caleb Keeter on lead guitar, Austin Davis on electric banjo, James Hertless on bass guitar, and Edward Villanueva on drums. The Josh Abbott Band, now based in Austin, originated at Texas Tech University in Lubbock in 2004, where Josh Abbott was a graduate student in communications. Having completed his coursework toward his master’s degree, Josh postponed completion of his thesis to pursue his music career fulltime. As Josh sees it, “If I ever decide the music thing’s not goin’ in the right direction, I can go back to college, but when you have a song that’s on the radio and it’s hot, you’ve got to follow up on it because you may not have that opportunity again.” Josh’s instincts appear to have been correct. With the impending release of his third album, the Josh Abbot Band is hotter than ever. Originally inspired to write and perform music after seeing a performance of the Randy Rogers Band at Blue Light Live in Lubbock in 2004, Josh recalls, “It was packed. I watched them play and how they moved on the stage, how they sang their songs, and how they connected with the audience. I literally looked at my friend -- and this is the story she tells to this day to her friends -- and I said, ‘I think I can do that.’ She was like, ‘What are you talkin’ about ?’ I said, ‘I think I can be that guy on stage, singing and writing songs that people connect with. I think that I can do that.’ She was like, ‘Well, go do it.’ That night or the next day, I started writing country songs.” Shortly thereafter, The Josh Abbot Band was opening shows at the same venue for the likes of Cory Morrow, Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen among others. As Josh relates, “Those guys paid their dues by playing a lot of venues where they probably got paid $500 and a case of beer. Texas music wasn’t really being played on the radio very much. But now because of the hard work of all those guys, over time, it’s become kind of its own genre and now all the stations in Texas and Oklahoma play it, and it’s been able to create a whole new environment of music for us.” Before long, Josh had written enough songs to produce an album. As he says, “”If we play a bunch of covers, we’re going to impress the crowd, but we’re not going to impress the band. I wanted other bands to be talking about us, so I just wrote a bunch of originals and we started practicing ‘em.” Regarding his songwriting, Josh shares, “The most important idea that I write songs with is that they’re autobiographical. Nearly every song I write is a true story of mine, or of someone I know.” One of their early demos, “Taste,” actually became a regional hit in the Lubbock area, and led to the creation of their first full album. Sons of the Desert alumnus Drew Womack co-produced their first album, Scapegoat, in 2009, which yielded a duet hit, “A Good Night for Dancing,” (recorded with Charla Corn), one of the Top 15 songs on the Texas Music Chart for 2009. The band’s next album, She’s Like Texas, was produced by Erik Herbst of Eli Young Band fame, and yielded the aforementioned duet hit “Oh Tonight,” which went to No. 44 on the Hot Country Songs chart last year. As Josh reveals, “In order for the female audience base to really embrace you, you have to do one of two things: you have to either flatter them or empower them. The empowerment comes from other girls, other lead singers such as Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood, who kind of make girls feel like they’re stronger than the man-the if-you-can-do-it-then-I-can-do-it-too kind of songs. I go the other direction, and I try to flatter them. When women come to our shows and they hear the songs, I like to think that they feel like we’re kind of makin’ ‘em feel special.” Having set a pattern of success with the release of romantic duet songs, the new single, “Touch,” from the forthcoming album Small Town Family Dream, promises to be a success as well.

Jonah Ramirez

URL: http://www.jonahramirez.com

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