Randy Rogers Band March 1, 2007

TICKET INFO: FREE SHOW!!

OPENER: Jason Boland and the Stragglers

**This is a 21 and over show only!


Down in Texas, folks have known Rogers had the goods that would take him the distance long before he even cracked the regional radio charts. Folks like Kent Finlay, songwriter and owner of Cheatham Street Warehouse in the small college town of San Marcos (halfway between Austin and San Antonio), who pulled a young Rogers out of the club’s weekly songwriter’s circle and told him he could have his own night if he could put a band together. Less than two months after the Randy Rogers Band’s first rehearsal, they cut their debut record — Live at Cheatham St. Warehouse.

That was six years ago and well over 1,000 shows ago. Even on that first record, the songs were all original tunes, and Rogers has always been adamant about sticking with that “Band” part of the moniker. The current lineup — Rogers on vocals and rhythm guitar, guitarist Geoffrey Hill, fiddle player Brady Black, drummer Les Lawless and bassist Jon Richardson — has been together for more than three years now, going back to Rollercoaster (the band’s second studio effort). By then they were already well on their way to being the biggest homegrown force on the Texas scene since Pat Green, who had already crossed over to the national arena. Rollercoaster - produced by fellow Texas maverick Radney Foster - would prove to be the Randy Rogers Band’s own E-ticket ride to the big leagues.

After months of meetings with every label in Nashville, Rogers and Co. signed with Mercury Nashville, sealing the deal at the joint where it all started: Cheatham Street Warehouse. And then they teamed up with Foster again at Austin’s Cedar Creek Studio and got to work making the biggest record of their career to date — with full understanding from the label that they would not compromise their sound or style.

In exchange for that creative freedom (and the luxury of a considerably bigger budget than they’d ever had before), the band and Foster delivered on their end of the bargain. Like Rollercoaster before it, Just a Matter of Time plays like a rock ’n’ roll album with a country heart as big as Texas, or a straight-up country record played by a killer rock ’n’ roll band. But in fine country tradition, it’s the uniform quality of the songs that really steals the show. All but two were co-written by Rogers (four with Foster himself, a potent combo that yielded many of Rollercoaster’s brightest moments, including the single and “Somebody Take Me Home,” later covered by Kenny Chesney for his The Road and the Radio album); the other two were contributed by bassist Richardson (a former front man in his own right) and Foster and George Ducas, who first struck gold co-writing Foster’s first big solo hit, “Just Call Me Lonesome.” Here, they contribute the irresistible “Kiss Me in the Dark,” which was pretty much destined to be the lead single from the very first time the band heard it. “If we were going to cut an outside song, it had to be such a great song that you couldn’t pass on it,” says Rogers, smiling. “It would have to be a single.”

Rest assured, though, it won’t be the album’s only single, just as Just a Matter of Time most certainly won’t be the last time people will be hearing from the Randy Rogers Band. It’s almost irrelevant, really, whether people recognize this as the band’s fifth album or mistake it for their first, because either way, this particular rollercoaster is only just now starting to really pick up speed.

Official Website: http://www.joesbar.com