By Jordyn Smith
The Randy Rogers Band is coming back to Hurricane Harry’s on February 5th. The group, comprised of frontman Randy Rogers, Geoffrey Hill, Jon Richardson, Brady Black, and Les Lawless, has been a Texas Country fan favorite since the early 2000s.
Their debut album, Live at Cheatham Street Warehouse, was released in 2000 and in 2002, the group released their first studio album “Like It Used to Be.” Between writing and recording in those early years, the Randy Rogers Band made the rounds playing at the famous Nutty Brown Café and Amphitheatre in Austin and at other various bars and venues in and around San Marcos.
In 2005, they released “Rollercoaster,” which marked their first time on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. They had two singles break the Top 50, “Tonight’s Not the Night (For Goodbye)” and “Down and Out.”
Their momentum began to snowball. In 2006 the group had their first major-label record deal with Mercury Nashville Records. They followed their signing with Mercury by releasing the album “Just A Matter of Time.” It rose to the number eight spot in the Billboard Country Albums Chart. One song, “Kiss Me in the Dark” landed at the number 43 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs, and then went on to become a fan favorite in Aggieland, inspiring many t-shirts that coincided with Midnight Yell.
We asked Randy about some of the group’s accomplishments, including opening for George Strait and appearing on both Letterman and Leno – things that most Red Dirt bands could only dream of.
“I’ve been really lucky, man, to be honest,” said Rogers. “You never dream it would be like this. I never dreamed I would get to open for George Strait at the Houston Rodeo or be on Letterman, those things are virtually unthinkable when you first pick up a guitar and start trying to write songs. As far as things I would like to accomplish, of course I’m not done yet. We’ve never really had any kind of success on national country radio, so that’s still a goal. Quite honestly, I don’t know why it’s still a goal. To me, I grew up listening to country radio and the Top 40 countdown on the weekends. For whatever reason, our sounds hasn’t made it to the national waves yet. We sure are thankful that we have the local and regional radio stations that play our songs, for sure.”
We had to ask how the group continues to put out new material after 15 successful years recording and touring the country. Rogers attributes the success to the diversity of the group.
“It’s because there’s five of us, and we’ve all been together for that long,” Rogers said. “We haven’t had any new band members or any personnel changes within the core group. We all have an equal say when we make the record; we aren’t a dictatorship. It just gels, with the five of us hashing out the direction that we want for the album. We talk about what we want the sound to be like, and as we grow, so does the music.”
Their success continues to reach new heights. The band has just celebrated the release of their latest studio album “Nothing Shines Like Neon” this past January. The album includes collaborations with the legendary Jerry Jeff Walker, Grammy winner Allison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, and singer-songwriter Jamey Johnson. This is the Randy Rogers Band’s most personal collection of work to date. The album flows seamlessly, digging into raw emotion and personal reflection.
Be sure to catch the group for this pass through Aggieland on February 5th at Harry’s.
More information is available at harrys.bcsclubs.com.
