▼ Music Going Back and Forth After over 20 Years, Randy Rogers wants to make things like they used to be. BY KELLY DEARMORE T hings are different for Randy Rogers these days. It’s a Mon- day morning when we speak, and the popular country bandleader is still feeling the ef- fects of arriving at his Hill Country home late the night before. He spent a week in Key West where he and his eponymous band performed during the annual Mile 0 Fest. Not too long before that, they’d played some headlining shows in Colorado during Mu- sicFest, yet another annual shindig. On Saturday, Feb. 12, the Randy Rogers Band would be performing at Billy Bob’s Texas. So far, 2022 has been a busy year for Rog- ers, but his work is only beginning on this day. His voice is still a tad groggy. At 10 a.m. he’s not only not just waking up, but he’s been juggling tasks he wouldn’t have thought much about when he and his band first began in 2000. “I hit reality this morning at 6 o’clock,” he says. “My little girls woke up, wanted break- fast, and then we got them dressed, got their hair done and got them to school.” They say there’s no rest for the weary, and that certainly goes for a touring musi- cian. But after all these years, Rogers isn’t looking for any respite from the active life he’s built for himself. With the essential help of his bandmates Brady Black (fiddle), Johnny “Chops” Richardson (bass), Geof- frey Hill (guitar), Les Lawless (drums) and Todd Stewart (keyboards), the Randy Rog- ers Band has been one of the most critically Allen West acclaimed and commercially successful of all acts to ever spring out of the Texas coun- try scene. The Way It Used to Be The band released its first record, Live at Cheatham Street Warehouse, in 2000, but this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Randy Rogers Band’s first proper studio LP, Like It Used to Be. A couple of tunes from that initial studio effort including “Lost and Found” and the title track have endured as fan favorites and as songs that Rogers still holds dear. “I remember writing songs on napkins, writing songs on register tape from my job at the Eddie Bauer outlet store in San Marcos,” he says. “I remember the fire that was burn- ing inside of me to have songs that I wrote get recorded. And I remember hearing them for the first time sonically, through speakers in a studio and the joy that brought.” Looking to capture the joy from the first few years of his band’s existence is a part of the reason Rogers has been again working with the revered singer, songwriter and producer Radney Foster. Foster produced the band’s 2004 breakthrough effort Rollercoaster — widely considered to be one of the best, if not the very best, record of the aughts from the Texas country scene — as well as 2006’s major- label debut Just a Matter of Time and the group’s self-titled record in 2008. That trio of albums stands as arguably the band’s most beloved by its legion of fans. Although there isn’t a clunker to be found in the Randy Rogers Band catalog, there’s little denying that the time between 2004 and 2008 is when the group discovered its fast- ball and became a creative and commercial force. Rogers isn’t shy about hoping there’s some gold from that era left to be mined. “We have something that other people don’t, and that’s not an arrogant thing for me to say, I’m being truthful,” he says. “We have some sort of magic and we’re just trying to cul- tivate that again, to make something that peo- ple fall in love with and make a part of their life like they did, especially with Rollercoaster.” Even though Rogers has recorded al- bums with some of the biggest producers in country music, such as Dave Cobb and Jay Joyce, reuniting with Foster, a man he calls a “hero,” felt like the right move. Some songs for the band’s next record, the follow-up to 2019’s excellent Hellbent, have already been recorded in the same Dockside, Louisiana, studio used for the self-titled LP, while the rest of the new collection will be laid down in March at Cedar Creek in Austin. “We did decide that we wanted to sort of return to our roots and record with Radney,” Rogers says. “In those days we weren’t do- ing it for the fame or the glory, we were do- ing it because we all were in love with music and we were in love with the idea of getting to play music for a living.” A Musical Brotherhood It’s one thing to be in a band for over 20 years, yet it’s another thing entirely to be in The Randy Rogers Band is still killing it 20 years in. that band without any departures for as long. Remarkably, the only recent personnel change for the Randy Rogers Band was the addition of multi-instrumentalist Stewart a few years ago. “We roll with life’s punches together,” Rogers says. “Those guys have helped me through some of the darkest shit in my life and have listened to me cry every night on the bus. They’ve picked me up when I’ve fallen down many times. It’s a brotherhood and it’s a lot more than what you see under the lights and on that stage.” Rogers has continued his popular duo, Hold My Beer and Watch This, a project with close pal Wade Bowen, while Richard- son has recorded albums and played shows with his own band, Johnny Chops and the Razors. Rogers sees the side projects have not only helped the band stay alive but have given the group yet another chance to ap- preciate one another. “We’ve always believed in each other and have had the sense that we’re stronger as a unit than we are individually,” Rogers says. “In Key West last week, Geoff and Johnny had their own shows, and I had a Hold My Beer show with Wade [Bowen]. I went to watch Johnny’s show and I looked around and saw our entire freakin’ band and crew there watching him play. Families aren’t perfect, but we are a family.” since 1978! The BEST place for Bachelorettes, Girls Night Out & Birthdays in the Metroplex @LaBareDallas Check Us Out On TikTok! 2102 W NW Hwy • Dallas, Texas 75220 (214) 696-8958 • labaredallas.com 17 17 dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 17–23, 2022
