Thursday, October 19, 2006

CD Review: Randy Rogers Band’s Just A Matter Of Time

By Joel Brillant

Simple. Straight-from-the-heart. Soul-stirring.

That's the kind of music the Randy Rogers Band has been echoing from the hill country and through Texas for three years. Now the rest of the nation has access to this lone star original with Just A Matter Of Time, the group's first major record label release (Mercury Nashville).

While some fans might be apprehensive to see the band signed on with a big-time label, Randy Rogers won’t turn into another country music cliché like Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney.

“We stuck to our guts and our guns and did it our way,” Rogers said. “They pretty much gave us free reign, and they didn’t push any songs on us.”

This son of a Cleburne, Texas, minister is taking his unique brand of music to Nashville for a country music revival. To revitalize. To resuscitate. To resurrect. And it’s been a long time coming. The Randy Rogers Band’s music is piercing and smart - a bastion of reality in a town flooded with the vacuous and bland.

“We’re trying to play country music the way we think it should sound,” Rogers said.

And how should country music sound?

With Rogers singing through raspy pipes, Brady Black playing the dick out of his screaming fiddle, Jon “Chops” Richardson grooving to his deep baritone bass, Les Lawless crash pounding on the drums and Geoffrey Hill strumming Pearl Jam influenced electric riffs. This musical Molotov cocktail detonates through home and car speakers alike when Just A Matter Of Time is spinning in your stereo.

And these ain’t your new-age-pop Nashville songs, the typical one-size-fits-all-IKEA-brand-listen-to-me-whine-about-the-tear-in-my-beer-through-my-faux-southern-accent shit that country fans nationally have been accustomed to. These are tunes that Waylon, Cash and Merle would be damn proud of.

“There is a song on the record for everyone,” Rogers said. “I think there is a song that the young and the old can relate to.”

Just A Matter Of Time is a prime example of what country music was, is and should be; it mixes brilliant songwriting with a hard nosed rock edge that warrants Steve Earle comparisons.

And on stage you won’t see Rogers donning a Stetson or tapping his feet with Tony Lama boots. Instead of the façade you get the real deal. Just a dude with his buddies trying to speak the truth through melodies and words.

The power of the Randy Rogers Band music is entrenched in the lyrics. They make you think and make you feel - in the same ways Bruce Springsteen’s music has a way of taking your thoughts to the Promised Land, Rogers’ music can do the same. Ingrained in the words are common themes: derailed relationships, missed opportunities, regret and eventual revival.

“I don’t think I’ve written anything uninspired,” Rogers said. “Everything you’re going to hear from me for whatever reason I had to write.”

On the title track Rogers belts, “I saw you again last night. I caught you catching my eye. I love to stare at you. Through the smoke and lights I can see that I. I just want to hold you. I just want to know you. I just want to spend the night wrapped up in you.”

The point-blank and plainspoken lyrics are emotions that Rogers carefully morphs into words. Through the lyrics fans can find parts of their own life that mirror what Rogers has already experienced. The words are almost always insightful and definitely incisive. Going beyond the beat and melody and actually listening to the lyrics gives us a window into Rogers’ life when he is feeling down and when he rises back up - something that is unheard of in the Nashville country music scene since most of the artists voice unoriginal thoughts penned by hired-guns. Instead of the magnificently lame lyrics that can be heard on popular country music stations, the Randy Rogers Band’s foundation is rooted in the antithesis. With the band’s emergence on the Nashville scene it’s like Al Pacino meeting Keanu Reeves - to compare their abilities would just be laughable.

While the band has gained a huge following throughout Texas and some of the South, if Rogers or any of his band members were walking down the avenues in New York City you would assume they got their start making a living on Wall Street rather than Cheatham Street. (In 2000 Randy Rogers recorded his first LP live at Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos.)

Well that’s all about to change.

With a little more time, and the financial backing from a major record label the Randy Rogers Band is in prime launch pad position. The question isn’t how. The question is when. And the answer? It’s just a matter of time before the rollercoaster ride peaks and the band gets to where they should be instead of where they used to be.

This story was submitted by a member of the TexasGigs community.

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