FLATLAND CAVALRY

7:25pm

At some point between Lubbock and Midland, the land shifts from endless cotton rows and rich farmland into pump jacks and mesquite tree filled pastures. Lubbock roots-country outfit Flatland Cavalry straddles that line between the Panhandle and the badlands of West Texas with their bright, earthy country ballads and gritty folk ramblers. Vocalist and chief songwriter Cleto Cordero’s honest, smooth songwriting revolves around the vernacular world of West Texas that he’s constructed with dusty, sun-soaked character sketches, brooding self-evaluations, and candid love songs that all have the ability to turn into sing-along anthems. Formed in the fall of 2012, the quintet was rounded up by Cordero after stretches of acoustic outings around the Panhandle town of Lubbock. With guitarist Reid Dillon, fiddler Wesley Hall, bassist Jonathan Saenz, and drummer Jason Albers joining Cordero, Flatland quickly garnered the attention of the masses with the release of the debut EP, Come May, in the spring of 2015. Building off the success of Come May, Cordero and company released their full-length follow-up Humble Folks in 2016. In January 2019, the band turned heads once again with their sophomore album, Homeland Insecurity, providing an appreciation for all the sharp detail and high-spirited emotions of today. Flatland will be gracing the mountain with these emotions in 2020!

THE PANHANDLERS DEBUT:
Josh Abbott, William Clark Green, Cleto Cordero, John Baumann

8:55pm

Josh Abbott keeps one foot in the Texas music scene and the other in the national country world. Josh won four times during the inaugural Texas Regional Radio Awards with his upbeat brand of country that still leans on classic instrumentation – particularly banjo and fiddle – to affect a raucous, roof-raising attitude. He has launched three singles onto the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart (including “Oh, Tonight” featuring Kacey Musgraves), nabbed a Top 10 album with the 2012’s Small Town Family Dreams and reached No. 12 with the 2014 EP Tuesday Night. Abbott’s latest album, Until My Voice Goes Out, is by contrast, a hopeful look into the future, a roll-up-the-sleeves-and-move forward embrace of life and its potential. Experiencing life at its fullest includes taking risks, Abbott does that successfully in Until My Voice Goes Out, incorporating strings and a horn section for the first time. The approach layered both a glassy classicism and a ragged soul on the well-oiled JAB framework. Abbott is a determined force of nature, and his ability to lead has been a hallmark since inception. Enjoy his rare collaboration with the “806 Crew” plus a “new” project to be announced and performed this January – Only at MusicFest.

General admission tickets are $65.

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