Randy Rogers Band readies new music

The band, which combines country and a rockier edge, was last heard from with "Just a Matter of Time" in 2006.

"These songs are definitely true, and they're relatable to many different life situations that I've either gone through in the past or will go through in the future," Rogers, the lead singer and primary songwriter, said. "I just tried to create believable characters and relatable characters. I hear from fans that we really have helped them in real-life situations when they've applied the songs to their everyday life. That's what I strive for in the songs that I write."

"We're not old, but we are getting a little bit more mature," bass player Jon Richardson said. "We're trying to be more mature, anyway. And that's something that we can write about a little more naturally now instead of 'Here's a song about how much fun I had' or 'Here's a song about a girl.' That's probably just a natural progression of our own lives being reflected in our songs."

Songs on the set are:
1. Wicked Ways - Jon Richardson
2. Better Than I Ought To Be - Randy Rogers and Gary Nicholson
3.Lonely Too Long - Randy Rogers and George Ducas
4. One Woman - Randy Rogers and Stephony Smith
5. Never Be That High - Randy Rogers and Stephony Smith
6. Didn't Know You Could - Randy Rogers and Micky Braun
7. In My Arms Instead - Randy Rogers and Sean McConnell
8. When The Circus Leaves Town - Randy Rogers, Jon Richardson and Clint Ingersoll
9. Buy Myself A Chance - Randy Rogers and Sean McConnell
10. Break Even - Geoffrey Hill
11. Let It Go - Randy Rogers and Radney Foster
12. This Is Goodbye - Heather Morgan and Clint Ingersoll

The current band has been together since 2003. The quintet emphasizes that it is a band, not only Rogers. "I don't think it's an issue at all," fiddler Brady Black said. "I think when we got together, Randy had already had a band, and his name had been out a little bit, and so we just kind of went with it."

"That," Black said, "and he owned the van..."

The name came rather innocently. Rogers had developed a following, he played open-mic nights, impressing club owner Kent Finlay enough to offer Rogers his own regular night, as long as he found a band to back him. That group might have taken his name, but Rogers had no interest in being just a one-man show.

"I always wanted everybody to be equal, not only financially but also input-wise and creatively," he said. "When we started the band, I pledged to them that I would work every day as hard as I could and try to get us down the highway a little further if they would sign up with me and share in some of those sacrifices, and I think from that day on, everybody pretty much quit their alternative jobs and kinda gave 110 percent to the band."

Recording for the disc took place at Dockside Studios, a bayou location in Maurice, La. "We shut ourselves up for 10 days and had a band-camp set up," Richardson said. "There weren't any distractions. It wasn't like we were all goin' home every night and comin' back the next day. We were just living and breathing it for 10 days or so. We were just completely absorbed by it."