Flatland Cavalry, Treaty Oak Revival, and a Red Dirt State of the Union

The Background:

There’s been two huge and highly anticipated Texas Country album releases almost within a month of each other.

Lubbock natives Flatland Cavalry released their fourth album Wandering Star, their major label debut with Interscope, at the end of October while West Texas newcomers Treaty Oak Revival released their sophomore project Have A Nice Day on November 24. I’m a big fan of both but I wanted to take a different approach to covering these two records.

There are two big reasons why I wanted to do it this way. The first was inspired by seeing both bands play one after the other at the inaugural At The Station Fest and seeing how much overlap there was in their fanbases despite how different their sounds are. That sort of leads to the second reason I wanted to review the two records this way. On their face, these two records could not be more different and they’ve made giant splashes for two completely different groups of country fans. But to properly introduce the records, as I’m writing this bit, I just got home from the Thanksgiving holiday, so I’ll use this analogy. After dinner when your family is all together, Wandering Star is the parents gathered around a firepit or a TV. Just hanging out, telling stories, cracking jokes, enjoying each other’s company. Have a Nice Day, on the other hand, is the younger siblings upstairs wrestling, yelling, screaming, trying to hurt each other, but still having an absolute blast.

Wandering Star:

Wandering Star shows Flatland Cavalry at their most comfortable and laid back and while that’s something that some fans haven’t loved, I’m personally all for it. You can tell when a band is stressed and churning out a record because they have to and usually, the results are mixed. On the flip side, you can tell when a band is having a great time and making a record because they’re inspired too and the results of that are usually much better. On Wandering Star, you can hear how much fun the band had recording and there’s no denying that the energy behind this album is a bit different. It’s a bit looser and a bit more carefree and I don’t mean that in a negative way. To use a West Texas example, this album feels like the stretch of the drive I make a few times every year when I go home and back from Sweetwater to Post. It’s an album that’s made to be played loud as the sunset pierces through the hills and canyons along your way.

Cleto Cordero’s pen game may not be as sharp as it’s been on previous records but he’s still running laps around a lot of songwriters in this game. Whether it’s the clever and sad chorus of Only Thing At All where Cordero sings that some days a love interest is the last thing on his mind while other days she’s the only thing on it, the tongue-in-cheek satire of New American Dream, or the absolutely gorgeous love ballad Mornings With You featuring Cordero’s wife, the equally amazing Kaitlin Butts, he still turns out way more hits than misses.

When the band released the Songs to Keep You Warm EP, Cordero had explained that that was their Fall/Winter project. Even though Wandering Star came out in October, it feels like Songs to Keep You Warm‘s summer compliment.

Have A Nice Day:

Have a Nice Day, on the other hand, feels like being shot out of a cannon. Treaty Oak Revival is no stranger to being a high-energy band. I’ve written at length multiple times about how high-energy their live performances are. The biggest fear with any band like them though is hoping it’ll translate in the studio. That’s my biggest gripe with their debut album No Vacancy. Don’t get me wrong, I do really enjoy that album, but it’s a super loud and energetic rock and roll record that’s mixed like a Texas Country album. This time around, with Taylor Kimball taking over the reins on production, my wish came true and Treaty Oak Revival finally sounds fully realized. This is a rock and roll record that rips through your speakers like a rock and roll record should.

Another thing that this album does well is balance. For every all-out rager like the title track and See You in Court, there are softer (using this term very loosely) and more emotional moments to balance them out like I’m the Worst and Chasing My Tail. For a song like Close Encounters that’s super fiery and full of peppy drums and searing guitar solos, there’s a song like Wrong Place Wrong Time that’s a bit slower, a bit heavier, but just as hard-hitting.

If this album has anything wrong with it, maybe it can start sounding a little samey the later you get into it. One of my roommates told me that at a certain point, it all starts sounding like the same song but if I’m being honest, does it really matter if that same song is really good?

Comparing & Contrasting

I mentioned it a little bit in the intro but to finally flesh it out a little bit, these two albums on their faces are very obviously different. Just from the get-go, Have A Nice Day is a rock album and Wandering Star is a country album. There is absolutely no debating that once you listen to both records. There’s also the production of these records. Wandering Star is stripped back, very rootsy, and very warm. Have A Nice Day on the other hand is very loud and in your face but not blown out or compressed at all.

There are also parts of both records that wouldn’t make sense for either band to do. Flatland Cavalry will probably never record a song like See You In Court and Treaty Oak Revival will probably never record a song like Don’t Have To Do This Like That. That’s not a shot at either band, it’s just that the sounds the bands have gravitated towards to this point in their careers don’t have anything in common with either of those songs.

That’s not to completely discount it though and say “Flatland will never make a rock song” or vice versa, “Treaty Oak will never make a country song.” The Provider, which opens Wandering Star, shows Flatland Cavalry cutting loose and rocking out in the studio. Meanwhile, if you strip away the loud rock instrumentals and leave only Sam Canty’s voice and acoustic guitar playing, Chasing My Tail and I’m The Worst are great sad country songs at their core. Those are both songs that I can envision Cleto Cordero singing and similarly, The Provider and The Best Days are songs I can hear Canty singing with Treaty Oak behind him.

And of course, there are plenty of songs about love going right and love going wrong to go around on both records though Cordero’s songs about it are more poetic and give you room to pick the lyrics apart while Canty’s lyrics are very blunt and to the point. Normally I could harp about one album’s writing being better than the other but for two albums like this, it doesn’t really matter because they’re making huge splashes for two completely different niches in country music.

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The Impact:

The world of country music is the most interesting I think it’s been in a very long time. You can say it’s thanks to TikTok or maybe it’s thanks to the rise in streaming. Whatever the case may be, there is so much great country music breaking through to a mainstream audience that may not have had the same success had it tried to get off the ground at the turn of this century.

The country music landscape is evolving a ton and I personally believe it to be doing so for the better. Five years ago, Koe Wetzel and Parker McCollum were playing bars to 1000 people on a great night, Jelly Roll was still a relatively underground rapper, and Zach Bryan was just barely blowing up on Twitter. Now, in 2023, all four are selling out arenas all over the country with ease. Bryan even has a stadium tour on the way in 2024.

But it’s also important to understand the country music landscape in 2018. In that year, three songs inhabited the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart: Meant to Be by Florida Georgia Line and Bebe Rhexa, Lose It by Kane Brown, and Speechless by Dan + Shay. Objectively, not great. This year, you could maybe argue it hasn’t gotten better with Morgan Wallen’s Last Night occupying the top spot for 25 weeks of this year so far but as much as I don’t enjoy Wallen’s music, I’ve always seen him as a net positive for the genre.

Someone who’s never listened to country music at all might hear the song on the radio and like it. Maybe they’ll enjoy it so much that they want to listen to more Morgan and seek him out on Spotify. If they like Morgan Wallen, maybe they’ll hit the “Fans Also Like” tab to find similar artists and there’s a good chance they’ll listen to Luke Combs. If they like Luke Combs then they might find out they also like Zach Bryan. I can keep this going way longer and deeper but the point I’m trying to make is that Wallen is ushering in a whole new generation of country music fans, many of whom probably wouldn’t have listened to the genre in any other circumstance.

Going even deeper on this topic, it’s not just the world of country music as a whole that’s evolved and more varied than ever. Even getting down into some of the genre’s niches, the world of Texas Country and Red Dirt has exploded and is in a super exciting place right now. Like any other genre, you’ll have a breakout star that everyone tries to ride the coattails of and that’s happening in Texas Country. There are a lot of bands and artists who are chasing the grungy and/or southern rock sound that Koe Wetzel, Whiskey Myers, and, going even further back, Cross Canadian Ragweed have helped take to a much bigger stage. Similarly, there are a lot of bands and artists that are chasing the “sad boi” acoustic and folk sounds that Zach Bryan has blown up off of.

I promise that this next sentence is a compliment. My biggest issue with the bands and artists chasing these trends at the moment is that no one is doing it well. I say that because almost all of the bands and artists following these trends still sound unique without sounding like cheap rip-offs of the artists who are leading these charges.

When I listen to a Pecos & the Rooftops or a Kolby Cooper song, I don’t cringe and complain that they’re ripping off Koe. When I listen to Wyatt Flores, I don’t turn it off because he’s trying to be Evan Felker. When I listen to Dylan Gossett or Sam Barber, I don’t groan at them biting the “sad guy strumming four chords” style that Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan have ridden a spaceship to the stratosphere off of. All of these artists have a style that makes them distinguishable.

The point I’m trying to make with all of this is that country grunge/rock and indie/folk-tinged country are both having big moments right now and because they’re having big moments, Flatland Cavalry and Treaty Oak Revival are finding some of the biggest success of their careers. While they’re certainly not directly responsible, the moments that artists like Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan are having are definitely helping bands like Flatland with a similar style and emotional appeal find those greater successes. For a month after the album came out, billboards were plastered all over Lubbock promoting the album. Their show at Cook’s Garage this past April drew in a whopping nearly 7,000 people. A bigger number than Turnpike Troubadours brought to the United Supermarkets Arena a short two weeks later.

The success isn’t only in Lubbock though. In the past few months, they’ve sold out shows at The Factory in Deep Ellum, a 5000-capacity room in Dallas, The Criterion in Oklahoma City, a 4000-cap room, provided direct support for Lainey Wilson at Red Rocks, and spent the summer touring stadiums with Luke Combs and huge amphitheaters with Willie Nelson,. To close out the year, they begin a sold-out two-night run at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth within a few of hours of when this article is published. They’re kicking off next year with two sold-out shows at The Georgia Theater in Athens, GA, and a sold-out debut headline show at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, one of the most revered rooms in all of country music. Their name has crept higher on festival lineups. In 2021, they played Born & Raised Fest in Pryor, Oklahoma. Their name was on the second to last line and they played a 30-minute set on the main stage at 3 PM. This year, they returned as the eighth billed name on the poster and headlined their stage.

In the same lane, the success of artists like Koe Wetzel, HARDY, and Jelly Roll is helping Treaty Oak Revival grow quicker than myself and many others thought they would. Seeing them live, I knew they were bound to blow up someday but the release of Have A Nice Day has expedited that with every song on the album very close to or already surpassing half a million streams on Spotify. In Between has already racked up nearly 1.5 million and opener Stop & Stare is on track to be next to cross the million mark, currently sitting at a little over 908,000. This is even more impressive given this album had next to no pre-promotion and no lead singles, a handful of Instagram posts and Reels leading up to the release is about all the promotion this album had. Most of its traffic has been gained from an extremely devoted fanbase, their reputation of rowdy live shows, and word-of-mouth promotion. It’s a risky strategy but it’s paid off big time.

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In Conclusion & A Plea:

To kind of wrap this up and summarize it a little bit. I think country music is in a great place right now and the fact that both of these bands and both of these albums are having the moments they are is proof of that. If both of these bands had broke or both of these albums had been released any earlier or any later, I don’t know if we’d be having this same conversation right now. Luckily for us, both of these bands put out records at the perfect time and that’s what’s caused the splash they’re making right now. Maybe you’ve read this and you want to get into either band and you’re wondering “Where do I start?”

My advice is simple: buy a ticket and see them live.

Both Flatland Cavalry and Treaty Oak Revival put on live shows that are second to none. Along with that, shocking as it may seem given how opposite their styles are, the energy of both shows is nearly the same. While it’s expected when listening to Treaty Oak Revival that they’ll put on a killer rock and roll show, Flatland Cavalry really shines in the live setting because the songs breathe new lives when they’re played live. A song like The Provider is fun in the studio but when they play it live and everything is turned up a little louder, it’s a rager. The same goes for songs in their back catalog like Honeywine, Stompin’ Grounds, and No Shade Of Green, just to name a few.

Along with that, it’s still relatively cheap to see both bands live still. Tickets for Flatland Cavalry’s most recent main stage show at Cook’s Garage were $25 before fees. Treaty Oak Revival’s show this January on the venue’s indoor stage still has tickets available for $20 before fees. Only time will tell how long those prices will stay that way, but I’d wager it won’t be too much longer.

Flatland Cavalry’s album, Wandering Star, is available wherever you stream or purchase music via Interscope Records. You can also pick up a CD or vinyl copy of the album at your local, independent record store. Treaty Oak Revival’s album Have A Nice Day, is also available wherever you stream or purchase music, though physical options are not yet available. (Fingers crossed they come soon.)