The Lost Trailers, photo by Ryan Smith, courtesy of BNA Records.

Ryder Lee and Stokes Nielson met in a church band as teenagers, and they've been making records together ever since. Their high school friendship begat a country band of five called The Lost Trailers, who have blazed their way through hundreds of honky-tonks, joints, roadhouses, night clubs and concert halls, building a firewall of fiercely loyal fans. They are a band that came together naturally, matured creatively, perform explosively and have poured all of that into Holler Back, their new album on BNA Records.

"Anyone who has ever seen us live is going to hear the first 15 seconds of 'Holler Back' and say, 'There's The Lost Trailers. Those are the guys I saw open for Chesney or open for Sugarland,'" says Stokes, tagged on the band's website as The Writer.

"Music is important and has a lasting quality," adds lead vocalist Ryder, aka The Voice. "But music should be fun, too; there needs to be a balance. 'Holler Back' is a fun song that captures the element of our live show, which is really important to us, as well."

Ryder and Stokes both gravitated towards music in high school, where they convinced another student, drummer Jeff Potter, to join them in a band named Ryder Stokes. Soon, Stokes' younger brother Andrew came on as their bassist, a position now held by the fifth and last member to join the band, Manny Medina (Andrew moved over to keyboards).

The new band caught a break early, as their demo found its way to Willie Nelson, who invited them to perform on his annual Fourth of July picnic. By the time they got to Austin, they had changed the band's name, thanks to some unfortunate incidents involving successive equipment trailers. The 15,000 fans there that afternoon witnessed the debut of The Lost Trailers, and the response was so enthused that Nelson ended up inviting them to open other dates for him.

"What we learned from that experience was that putting on a great show will build a fan base," remembers Stokes. "If you do it night after night, that base will grow. If you earn them early on, they will stay with you for life. Even after all these years, Willie puts on a great show every night, and he takes care of his fans, and we strive for that sort of connection."