Album Review – The Wilder Blue’s “Cinco”

Texas Country (#550.3), California Country (#510.7), and Urban Cowboy (#510.15) on the Country DDS.

Go ahead. Best of luck to you searching for a band with better chemistry than the kind of stuff this Texas music supergroup has tapped into. Beginning under the name Hill Country, then borrowing a line from one of their first songs and naming themselves The Wilder Blue, they’ve gone from being the “little band from Texas that could” to opening stadium shows for Luke Combs. Now what could have been a side project for these respective players or a “one and done” experiment is one of the coolest bands ever to come out of the Lone Star State.

They’re calling it Cinco because it’s their fifth full-length album released over the last six years, and since they’re five guys who found their calling in life making music together. This album’s a total vibe in a “push play and let it roll” kind of listening experience. Where on previous albums they found themselves sometimes exploring jam band moments and jazz-like movements, their fifth album is solely devoted into leaning into what they do best, which is capturing a mood that reminds you of the late ’70s when smooth country and California classic rock were virtually indistinguishable.

Singer/songwriter Zane Williams, guitarist Paul Eason, bassist Sean Rodriguez, multi-instrumentalist Andy Rogers, and drummer Lyndon Hughes have a personal mission to get you feeling good, and it all starts with making melodies and music that finds that perfect balance between the familiar and unique, and then setting words to them that are often charged with setting you at ease. They rarely fail in this quest.

“Sinners and Strays” starts off the album, and feels like their theme song henceforth. “Last Chance for Dancin'” has that ’80s vibe dialed in deftly. “When He’s Out of Sight” is when The Wilder Blue flexes their five-part harmonies. “Leavin’ Town” never made one night stands sound better. The rollin’ banjo of “Wild Western Windblown Band” makes you want to quit your day job and become a traveling vagabond. And “Only The Years” is the perfect little nightcap for the record, flexing the range of frontman Zane Williams’ moods and writing.

In the quest to not get too complicated or upset the intended mood, Cinco also might come across as a little too simple sometimes. Though it’s super cool to hear these dudes singing with country music legend Tracy Byrd on the song “Texas Women” that sure is a honky tonkin’ good time, we’ve heard this song 1,000 times before. You might feel the same about “Good Woman,” though the clever writing of Zane Williams helps save this one to some extent.

But the crown jewel of the entire set, and perhaps for the entire calendar year, and the entire Wilder Blue catalog is the fifth song on the album called “The Hunt.” The melody of this song is so bewitched with musical magic, especially the way the faraway steel guitar is set within it, and the way Zane’s voice sets you right in the moments he’s singing about. The Turnpike Troubadours have set a high precedent for hunting songs that are about so much more. The boys in The Wilder Blue figured out a way to match it.

Cinco isn’t being released on a major label, and The Wilder Blue aren’t anywhere near selling out stadiums themselves. But this is the kind of album that is chock full of songs that if just given the chance to be heard by the masses, they would hit as hard as Ella Langley. They’re still getting along pretty good, and you don’t want to disturb the chemistry of this band by hyper-inflating their status. But if there was ever a band that deserved more ears on them, not because it’s heady and obscure singer/songwriter Americana stuff, but precisely because it’s so accessible and resonant, it would be The Wilder Blue.

8.3/10

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Stream/download Cinco