| B-SIDES | t Music What Pandemic? In the past two years, things didn’t go the way the Vandoliers wanted; they went even better. Rico DeLeon BY KELLY DEARMORE I t’s safe to say that the pandemic has been hard on just about everyone, re- gardless of their line of work. But the sudden way in which COVID-19 an- nounced itself in March 2020 really hit working musicians with a mighty wallop. Gone were the gigs in clubs, halted were the recording sessions for new records. The Vandoliers, one of the most exciting bands to come from North Texas in recent years, re- ally felt the sting. Thanks to the shutdown, a scheduled Eu- ropean tour went down in flames, and the band’s fourth album sat in limbo for months. On top of all that, the band was set to per- form its energetic blend of punk and Texas country during the 2020 Saint Patrick’s Day Flogging Molly concert in Los Angeles. But of course, that never happened. Speaking with Vandoliers leader Joshua Fleming now, it’s difficult to look back on that era and think anything negative about what the group endured. “In 2020, we were going to be one of three bands on an outdoor stage outside of the venue where Flogging Molly was play- ing on Saint Patrick’s Day,” Fleming says over the phone. “But this year, we were one of three bands on an entire tour with them, and we also played on their cruise. That’s kind of the way things have been lately. Whatever I thought we lost with COVID, we’ve gotten back tenfold.” To add to the good news, the record that was put on hold in 2020 is being released Friday, Aug. 12, with a hometown album-re- lease concert at the Kessler in Dallas that night. But to be clear, the self-titled album that fans will hear soon isn’t the one Flem- ing and the rest of the band including bassist Mark Moncrieff, drummer Trey Alfaro, fid- dler Travis Curry, electric guitarist Dustin Fleming and multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves had in mind over two years ago. Fleming used the time to write additional songs and to have the album art redone. Overall, it’s bigger and better now, with a sound that more closely resembles the ram- bunctious signature sound the group con- veys in concert, which has been heard on previous Vandoliers albums. As difficult as navigat- The Vandoliers are finding success in 2022. ging Molly and roots-rockers Lucero, Flem- ing now appreciates having full control over his music. When they finally made the trek overseas ing the pandemic was, the Vandoliers also had to deal with the implosion of their record label, Bloodshot Records. In the summer of 2020, the influential label responsible for helping popularize alternative country — while helping notable acts such as Dallas’ own Old 97’s, Neko Case and more gain prominence — became entangled in sexual harassment allegations as well as ac- cusations of financial impropriety before eventually being sold. After Fleming failed to find any other re- cord label willing to take on their album, he opted to start his own label, Ameri-Kinda Records. Thanks to the help of friends and musical heroes from bands including Flog- “THAT’S KIND OF THE WAY THINGS HAVE BEEN LATELY. WHATEVER I THOUGHT WE LOST WITH COVID, WE’VE GOTTEN BACK TEN-FOLD.” - JOSHUA FLEMING for that long-awaited European tour, instead of playing to near-empty clubs as the band might’ve expected in 2020, Fleming found their shows were packed with fans who had been waiting for them every bit as anxiously as the band had been itching to go. Packed festival dates in Stockholm, Oslo and Copen- hagen to start the tour were encouraging signs, but Fleming says he and the band weren’t ready for how welcoming Spain was in late June. “We had been waiting for things to go downhill,” Fleming says. “We figured people would have some- thing else to do on a Satur- day night in a city like Madrid than to come see us play. But when we pulled up to the hotel in Madrid, the promoter was waiting for us, which was weird, and he told us the show was sold-out, and there was a line at the venue to get in. The guy who intro- duced us at the show was the DJ who had been playing us for the past two years, and the crowd knew every word to every song. We had no idea!” On top of everything else, the Vandoliers have also now found themselves in the mid- dle of perhaps one of the biggest stories in country music this year. When the insanely popular Oklahoma outfit Turnpike Trouba- dours returned to the stage after a three- year hiatus, the Vandoliers were picked to open the first Turnpike Troubadours con- cert, back in April at Tulsa’s historic Cain’s Ballroom. And when The Evan Felker-led country band performed at the also historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in July, Fleming and the boys were once again on hand to open the festivities to yet another sold-out audience. Couple the Turnpike Troubadour love with continued airplay on Outlaw Sirius XM, and the band’s 2021 single, “Waiting on a Train,” recorded with Texas legend Bruce Robison for his Next Waltz label, and you have a hard-to-define band reaching a big- ger Texas country and red dirt music audi- ence — one that doesn’t exactly stretch its own boundaries too much. Fleming sees the shift as a natural progression for a band that is happy with who they are. “You can’t claim authenticity and then go and change yourself,” Fleming says. “The thing I love about country music and why I fell in love with it is the authenticity. Every- one is unapologetically themselves.” Fleming can think of a few prime exam- ples of artists who made their own way by refusing to conform. “The outlaw movement wasn’t Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson conforming to a specific sound,” he says. “They were told ‘no’ a million times, so they went to Austin and Califor- nia and found other people who liked their sound. You do something long enough and you stick to your guns and you’ll find the people who recognize what you do. The punk scene started to recog- nize us this year.” When talking about the new record and the process of getting it to where he and the band were happy with it, Fleming could also be describing his career up to this point. He takes what life has given him, and instead of letting unfortunate events derail him, Flem- ing looks to make things better, to make things work. His optimism is paying off for the Vando- liers. “This record has been like a hot rod or an old truck,” he says. “You keep tinkering with it and one day you get it on the road and it fi- nally works. That’s how this band has been for the last two years.” Cocktails • Beer • Live Music Traditional Hungarian Fare Best Bloody Mary and Best Brunch Best of Dallas 2022 Vote For Us since 1978! 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