Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen – “West Texas Rain” (audio) (premiere)

Texas singer-songwriters Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen have achieved a great deal of solo success over their long careers, but they’ve really found their voices by working together. For years they’ve toured together and only last year released their debut album, Hold My Beer, which received high marks in the music press. Given that their best work together has been their live performances, the duo is about to release Watch This on June 3rd via their label Lil’ Buddy Toons.

Packed with 19 acoustic live tracks, Watch This is a superb concert recording mainly from the House of Blues in Dallas. The strength of all of these tunes is enhanced by striping the sound down to acoustic instruments. Like many of Rogers and Bowen’s songs, “West Texas Rain” is a plainspoken, honest song crafted with the utmost of care. It’s an approach we hear so often from Texas singer-songwriters like Joe Ely, the late Guy Clark, Steve Earle, and so many others. Wade Bowen says, “‘West Texas Rain’ is about as honest as I can get. It defines so many things in my life… some bad,some good. But life is too short to not enjoy it. Tries story all the way around.”