Fernando Garcia
This sextet of West Texas troubadours is embarking on a lengthy tour that will make a stop at Dickies Arena this November.
For anyone familiar with the country/Americana grooves of West Texas’ Flatland Cavalry, it’s easy to see where this band of brothers take their cues from. After all, they hail from Lubbock, a city known for launching Rock ‘n Roll icon Buddy Holly, Pop/Country singer Mac Davis, and one of the “main movers" of Austin’s progressive country scene in the 1970s and '80s, Joe Ely, to name a few.
Since its inception, Flatland Cavalry, which was formed by founding members Cleto Cordero (lead singer) and Jason Albers (drums) in 2015, has relied heavily on a grass roots approach to get its name out to the masses. In fact, Flatland Cavalry’s first claim to fame happened in the summer of 2015 when they were able to release their debut EP, Come May, after raising $5,000 in eight days through a GoFundMe account, a testament to their ever-growing fanbase.
Twenty-sixteen would mark the release of Flatland Cavalry's first full-length album, Humble Folks, which peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Americana/Folk albums chart and number 38 on the Top Country Albums chart. Since then, Flatland Cavalry has released more than a half-dozen records, with a new release, a compilation album titled Flatland Forever, coming out next week. Currently the six members that make up the band are powering through a 14-stop tour that pulls into Dickies Arena on December 31; good news for any and all old-school Flatland Cavalry fans.
For you newer fans, the release of Flatland Cavalry’s latest album is a great place to start, given it includes many new and unreleased tracks that span the band’s 13-year career. This, in part, was the inspiration behind creating this release, according to Cordero.
“I received a phone call from our A&R rep at Interscope (Records), Matt Morris, about this idea he had for bringing old Flatland Cavalry fans and folks that are just discovering us together,” Cordero explained.
The title of the album was inspired by an Omega watch Cordero says was gifted to him by Luke Combs during a tour they were both on last year. The symbol Cordero was most impressed with resembles an upside down horseshoe he thought would make a great album cover.
“Turns out, Omega means the end,” he says. “That’s not at all what I wanted to convey. So, I found a way to combine two Omega symbols to create an infinity sign, hence the album’s name.”
Flatland Forever contains select songs from the band’s entire catalog including several unreleased tracks that didn’t fit the theme of any of Flatland Cavalry’s previous discography.
“I just went through our whole catalog and selected four songs from each record that I thought would be a great way to show someone not familiar with our sound what we’re all about,” Cordero says. “And this album helps to serve as a placeholder until we make our next album, which we have time blocked out next spring."
Per the recording process for Flatland Cavalry, Cordero says he usually goes into the studio with the songs fully fleshed out to save time and money. After presenting the music to the rest of the band, who besides Cordero and Albers consists of bassist Jonathan Saenz, guitarist Reid Dillon, fiddler Wesley Hall, and pianist and jack-of-all-trades Adam Gallegos, add their individual parts to create a cohesive song.
Fernando Garcia
“Everyone's kind of at least familiar with the tunes, maybe not necessarily knowing what they're going to play and all that kind of stuff, but I kind of like that because it allows for creativity to really kind of happen when you haven't done something so many times that it's predictable,” he says. “And so usually, whatever your gut's telling you is, I always love to hear what that sounds like.”
Some of the standout tracks on this fourth-coming album includes “Chasing the Feeling,” a song that talks about Flatland Cavalry’s early days of falling in love with playing live music in the bar scene in Lubbock.
“So that's one that the band did a fantastic job adding the music to it and it’s very Willie Nelson-esque and, it's got a really interesting chord in there,” Cordero explains. “Speaking musically, it's a minor second, which is really just anomalous sounding and it kind of perpetuates the whole emotion of how you're always inching towards something else, and the chords keep changing and you're like, 'Ah,' it keeps your emotions changing.”
Another stand out track on this album Cordero says he’s happy is getting some recognition is a tune titled “Three Car Garage.”
“I've had this one in my back pocket for over 10 years. I’m really grateful this one has a chance to see the light of day and it makes sense in context with this project and another kind of autobiographical tune of how we got started.”
This new comp album is being released on November 8th, with a deluxe album version of Flatland Forever, set to be released in December, which will include more of the band’s work tapes and other extras. In essence, this new compilation is a way for this band to reflect on its musical journey thus far, before embarking on what could be considered its second act.
No longer in close vicinity to each other, each of the band members lives far apart only meeting up for rehearsals or touring. But no matter how many miles or album sales the band achieves, their core sound and reason for jumping into the music game is still very much the same.
It’s all about hearing that applause.
“It's a way of paying you back for giving the audience something that they didn't have,” Cordero says. “I think bringing people together is really... it's a beautiful thing. And I come from a big family, so I have so many memories of just birthday parties and just being there for each other and having fun and making a lot out of nothing. And I think I find that same feeling as I've been away from my family. It’s all about that connection.”
