Zane Williams @ Lakeside Icehouse

Zane Williams is heading back to BCS on September 4 to perform at Lakeside Icehouse. Zane has been busy since we’ve seen him last, and he has a new single to show for it. “Bringing County Back” is his first single off of his upcoming sixth studio album. We sat down with Zane to get a better feel of what to expect in his new album and what his inspirations were for it.

“The main thing I wanted to do was just make the country-est record I’ve ever made,” Williams said. “So I listened to a lot of early George Strait and I dug into the Merle Haggard catalogue. Merle Haggard was a little bit before my time so I’m not as familiar with his music because I didn’t grow up then and my parents didn’t listen to country music so I kind of missed out on that stuff.”
On the feel of the album, he talked about wanting to get back to a more old-school country feel that highlighted the best parts of his parents’ generation of country with a little bit of a modern feel.

“The more I listen to it the more I like it. So I went back and listened to that year of country – that was kind of the inspiration for how we produced the album. Randy Rodgers and Wade Bowen’s “Hold My Beer and Watch This” album is kind of the same vibe – throwback country – and that’s what I wanted. I was already thinking that direction before they came out with that album so when I heard that album I thought ‘yeah man that’s the kind of album I want to make.’”

Zane didn’t pick up music until his college years around 1995-1999. “I moved to Nashville out of college in 1999. I worked day jobs for about a year and then started doing music for a living in the 2000’s as a solo act on the college coffee house circuit. I’ve been making a living with music one way or another ever since,” he explained.

We also asked him if he had any artists in the industry who he looked up to, “Randy Rodgers is one of my favorites, I feel like he is just kind of the top notch in this scene – Mr. Consistent – he and his band obviously. I am a Cody Johnson fan and Aaron Watson is a buddy of mine – we actually went to school together at ACU. Aaron Watson, Cody Johnson, Cody Jinks – I really like his music – it’s been good to see all of these people. Sam Riggs has a really bright future and we’ve gotten to hang out some. It’s just fun being part of this scene – I like all the artists in this scene.”

We know we can expect some back-to-the-roots country sounds in his new album, and if the rest of the record is anything like the single he just released on iTunes and Spotify, it’s destined to be a hit. Along with the new single, Zane told us that fans can expect some new Koozies and T-shirts at the Lakeside Icehouse on the 4th.