GAC Nights host Suzanne Alexander with the Randy Rogers Band at Country Thunder 2007 in Waxahachie, Texas.
Oct. 6, 2008 — Two different acts — the Randy Rogers Band and Old Crow Medicine Show — made things interesting this last week in country music. Neither act has had a hit single on the radio, and yet both of them debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Both of them have earned their popularity by touring relentlessly, and they’ve built a following by approaching their music with a certain rebel spirit.
"This record is certainly full of messed-up dudes with bloody gums, and people selling their babies for food, and people selling their souls for a high," Old Crow’s Ketch Secor told The Tennessean.
The band’s new Tennessee Pusher CD — produced by Don Was, who’s worked with Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones and Travis Tritt — debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard country albums list and at No. 1 on its bluegrass chart.
"We tried to take a snapshot of the guy down at the bus station and the America that he lives in," Ketch continued. "The machine that churns out country music is totally removed from the people for whom it was intended. Country music is for busboys and bus riders and hitchhikers and prostitutes. It's for the destitute. It's not for big business, big machines, big sales and big-box stores."
The Randy Rogers Band is a little less anti-establishment. The group actually records for a major label, Mercury Records, but it established itself years ago on the Texas club circuit. Its self-titled release earned a No. 3 chart debut though the band never caved to any pressures to make their music sound like something already proven at radio.
"Country music has let me down for the last decade," Randy told the Baton Rouge newspaper Tiger Weekly. "Country has gone big business. Most of it sounds like pop music, and we want to return country music back to its roots. Our music is edgy, and the topics aren’t as cheesy. It’s almost a rebellious atmosphere."
The first single from The Randy Rogers Band is "In My Arms Instead." A video has been shot for the song, and it’s expected to be released some time this month. And while RRB hasn’t had a bona fide hit, don’t think for a second they wouldn’t mind one. They’re keeping their fingers crossed that "In My Arms Instead" will catch on and find its way to the Top 10 — just as the album did.
RSS Feeds