Randy Rogers Gives Update on Dave Cobb-Produced Album
Ever since The Randy Rogers Band began dropping hints and allegations about working with Dave Cobb on a new album, fans have been waiting impatiently for further news or hard details. There is more news finally, but folks are going to have to wait a little bit longer before the new record hits shelves.
Talking with Cody Starr at Galleywinter, Randy Rogers explains that the band does indeed have 10 Dave Cobb-produced songs in the can, but they’re heading back to Nashville this week during AmericanaFest to cut a few more with the Grammy-winning producer.
“We’re independent artists now, which hasn’t always been the case, so we’ve got a lot of freedom and options on this one,” Randy Rogers explains. “We enjoyed working in the studio with Cobb so much we want to go back. It’s Studio A, a historical place with a great vibe, and was just a great opportunity … He demands your best, plus he’s a great decision maker … We’re hoping to have about 14 [songs] total.”
Randy Rogers also says that he wrote 8 of the 10 tunes they’ve cut so far, as well as a Radney Foster song. He’s also planning preliminarily for a new single to be released some time this fall, with perhaps the new album coming out in early spring of 2019. “We are on this search for this ‘magic thing’ and although I think we’ve already cut some magic, we are still looking for that magic song that will live forever,” Randy Rogers says.
If you think you can’t wait until 2019 for new Randy Rogers music, there’s a wild rumor that one of the members of The Stryker Brothers sounds a lot like him, so perhaps that will tide you over.
September 11, 2018 @ 9:19 am
Why does every single album have to be produced by Cobb? Seriously, do all these artists imagine they are somehow guaranteed a Grammy because of Cobb? I do not get it. No other producers available? Cmon..
Nonetheless, Randy makes great music so I’m pretty sure it will be good. And wish him all the best. He’s one of the good guys we want to succeed , he’s making actual country music.
September 11, 2018 @ 9:36 am
I’m a fan of what Cobb does, but have to agree that this is getting a little crazy and bandwagonish. I guess from the artist point of view, I understand the appeal though. You have someone making old school, more natural, organic and “authentic” sounding records in a historic studio, that at the same time have been able to sell decently (Isbell, Simpson, etc) and extremely well (we all know who that is). It will be interesting to see how long this lasts.
September 11, 2018 @ 11:23 am
……..surely there are dozens and dozens of ‘ old school’ producers around who learned it back when it was ‘new school’ , pioneered it , refined it , lived it , refined it some more , passed it on and would be available to produce ‘old school’ in the same way today ?
why does DC get all the phone calls…?
September 11, 2018 @ 12:51 pm
Name some….?
September 11, 2018 @ 1:15 pm
T Bone Burnett, Ray Benson, Lloyd Maines, Don Was, Matt Ross Spang, Dave Alvin, Rick Rubin, to name a few off the top of my head. These guys do things old school.
Not discrediting Cobb in the slightest but , geez, let other folks get a piece of the pie too.
Anyhow, good comments.
September 11, 2018 @ 2:59 pm
Kevin, you’ve hit on a few that share some similarities, but overall DC is still pretty unique. I can name various records from most of the producers you have listed that are not along the lines of what DC does….the guy literally looked at old Sun Records session pictures for mic placement, records almost always live, and is even a proponent of not using headphones, amoung other things. That is rare, and there is a reason that Sturgill said he didn’t know records could sound like that anymore (when asked about Metamodern). I agree with you that the love should be spread around, and I can name other great producers as well that I love. But I think DC is pretty unique, and people don’t fully understand or appreciate what he has done, or why artists are flocking to him. I’m just glad the flavor of the month isn’t some autotuning, drum replacing “perfectionist.”
September 12, 2018 @ 3:15 pm
Sturgill didnt say that..Stapleton said it after hearing Metamodern.
Sturgill doesnt talk about or work with Cobb at all anymore. Hell he might be the only person Cobb isnt producing these days.
Also, after hearing Sailors Guide and Purgatory by Tyler Childers it made me realize who probably did most of the producing on Metamodern since none of Cobb’s other albums have anything close to that kind of danger or originality. I find many of Cobb’s productions to sound boring and uniteresting including the last two Isbell albums. I think Sturgill might be the better producer.
September 13, 2018 @ 9:18 pm
I could have sworn it was Sturgill but you’re probably right, that’s a memory from 1-2 years ago. I can’t find the quote from either, who / what outlet did he say it to?
September 11, 2018 @ 9:38 am
Nature of the beast, man.
I bet every time a fresh-ish song idea becomes a hit, publishers are turning down 1,000 rewrites of the same idea. I’m not convinced we’re as evolved as we think we are.
September 11, 2018 @ 12:15 pm
Cobb is a known quantity, with cache for filtering and bringing “authentic” artists and sound into the limelight – Simpson, Stapleton, Isbell etc. I personally thinks he’s got good sensibilities, with more hits than misses on his resume.
My interest does pique when Cobb’s involved with an artist, and I’m usually happy with the results. I get why some don’t like it, but live and let live, ya know? For the artist, I’m sure it guarantees more coverage and sales through name recognition alone, at the very least. It’s a smart move when you want to work just below the mainstream, but want that buzz and those album sales/streams too.
September 11, 2018 @ 2:38 pm
I agree! Dave Cobb is a great producer and whenever he is involved in a project I definitely pay more attention to it.
September 11, 2018 @ 12:51 pm
Roots version of Scott Burns. Produces everything in a genre for a short period of time and then burns out (no pun intended).
September 11, 2018 @ 1:28 pm
The current “Dave Cobb” of underground extreme music is Kurt Ballou from the band Converge. He has his own recording and production studio called Godcity, in Salem, MA (spooky, right?).
He’s produced or engineered (and often contributed guitars, drums, or keys to) over 200 metal, grindcore, and hardcore punk albums since the early 2000’s. He’s one of the genre’s best and most prolific producers of the last couple decades. His work is good, and still going strong.
September 11, 2018 @ 2:41 pm
Cool, I’ll have to check out some of his stuff. My taste goes more towards death so Erik Rutan is my idea of a current Scott Burns. He seems to be churning production credits and guest appearances on a ton of stuff in addition to his current band, Hate Eternal, which has an album coming out soon, if not just released already.
September 11, 2018 @ 3:54 pm
Yeah, though Ballou has worked with a bunch of contemporary underground bands, he’s primarily known for ushering in the newer wave of crust-punk/grind and Swedish death revival bands like Trap Them, Nails, All Pigs Must Die, Black Breath, Baptists etc.
That whole wave of bands he produced even took on the derisive genre term “Entombed-core” for a while, because of their heavy use of the HM-2 guitar pedal. I happen to love that old school Entombed sound, so I’m good with that.
September 11, 2018 @ 6:32 pm
Ha Whoopee John comin straight outa New Ulm MN gonna teach those crusty punkers, carrying brother Eddie’s clarinet gonna wish their core was entombed. Bohemian polka revival, ya!
Honey, bring me another Oktillion…
September 11, 2018 @ 3:15 pm
I think in some ways you could draw comparisons between Cobb and Steve Albini as well. Not in the roll he takes in shaping the songs (Albini does none of that). But as far as the sonics go, they are both pretty similar in that they go for more of capturing what the band sounds like, rather than trying to manipulate.
September 11, 2018 @ 4:10 pm
Agreed in a sense, but I think Albini definitely has a singular, easily identifiable, and somewhat unnatural sound. Very dry and muted – especially for the drums. A bit of a one-trick pony for me.
I guess some people consider it a more “natural” sound because he shuns reverb and other sonic embellishments, but it doesn’t necessarily always capture the essence of a band’s natural sound, in my opinion. He’s produced some landmark punk/rock albums though, so credit where it’s due.
By contrast, I think Cobb has shown some variety in his production style tailored to the band and genre as necessary. Yes, natural for sure, recording the entire band in one room playing together, for example, but he can go from minimalist (some of Stapleton or Brent Cobb’s stuff) to wall-of-sound (Anderson East and some
Of Dillon Carmichael’s stuff) as necessary.
September 11, 2018 @ 5:50 pm
Fair enough, to each their own. Though I will say that he uses reverb all the time, usually captured by room mics though, not added artificially. Listen to the drums on Surfer Rosa (one of things he is most famous for). Can’t get much more ambient and less dry than that. In comparison to others though, who add a lot via plugins or other, perhaps that is dry though…depends on your benchmark. Also, hard for me to think of his sound as anything but natural. His hands off approach, reluctance to process dynamics, edit, tweak, tune, change the sound of the band…if that isn’t a natural sound, I don’t know what is. It is “singular” though, I will give you that.
September 12, 2018 @ 8:10 am
I would kill for a Cobb-produced Margo Price album.
She’s absolutely unreal live, but her proper albums haven’t lived up to it.
September 12, 2018 @ 2:02 pm
Not that long ago, it seemed like Charlie Peacock’s name was on a ton of high-profile album releases (Civil Wars, Holly Williams, Lone Bellow, etc). Then, he just disappeared and Dave Cobb became the guy.
I liked a lot of Peacock’s albums, dating back to early Switchfoot. I wonder whatever happened to him.
September 11, 2018 @ 6:33 pm
Lloyd Maines can’t be beat in my opinion
September 11, 2018 @ 9:37 pm
I could care less who the producer is. A new Randy Rogers Band album is coming. Life is good. Their album Rollercoaster is still one of my all time favorites.
September 12, 2018 @ 4:45 am
Rollercoaster still goes down as my favorite every album right ahead of Pat Green Three Days.
September 12, 2018 @ 4:54 am
Sorry for being out of topic again. But I’ve got a question that I just have to get an answer to…
I’ve got this tweet this morning, https://twitter.com/FirstAidKitBand/status/1039722289737162754 If you move the mouse over the hashtag #blaze_movie, this text comes up:
“A film about Texas outlaw music’s unsung legend.
From director Ethan Hawke”
I assume it’s about Blaze Foley My question is: Is film about the outlaw era in general
or is it only about Blaze Foley? (I am of course hoping that Willie and Waylon also is part of it. 🙂 ).
But If it comes out on DVD which I assume it does. I’m gonna buy it anyways I love this kind of films and if its only half as good as this documentary about the Carter family https://filmstreams.org/films/the-winding-stream then It’s worth buying… 🙂
September 12, 2018 @ 3:48 pm
Kent,
This is the first I’ve heard about the Blaze Foley movie. I’m sure it will be interesting as he was a colorful character, though not a major name in the scene. Lucinda Williams memorialized him in her song Drunken Angel.
There is a fantastic doc film about the Outlaw era coming though. I saw a portion of it at country music Hall of fame Outlaws and Angels exhibit. It’s really something. Jessie Colter was there that day to introduce it.
September 13, 2018 @ 3:38 am
Thank you very much for your reply. This movie is not a documentary as I’d hoped. But it may still be good though. I didn’t recognize the guy standing between the girls so I googled his name. His a movie director.
I’ll keep a watch out for the documentary you mentioned and hopefully Trigger will write an article about it. 🙂
September 12, 2018 @ 6:02 am
The song Can’t Slow Down is the perfect country song.
September 12, 2018 @ 6:28 am
Hoping there’s a review coming up of Ruston Kelly’s Dying Star record. So good.
September 12, 2018 @ 7:37 am
He was just on our 890am TALK radio station doing an interview (not our local Country station…no shock there) They asked him how he felt about the current state of Country music and he evaded the question. He did however give a big shout out to all the people at Joe’s here in Chicago for taking care of him for many years. He’ll be here at Joe’s Live Saturday night. Looking forward to it!
September 15, 2018 @ 9:40 pm
Randy and the band were great tonight, had an enthusiastic crowd of about 700 that was there to see real Country music. Thanks to Randy and the band for coming, Chicago appreciates it!
Can’t wait for the album.