Customer Reviews

Rollercoaster

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With a voice that's part Steve Earle, part Jay Farrar, Randy Rogers just can't help but to grab your attention. And on Rollercoaster, once he grabs hold, he and the Randy Rogers Band don't let go until the 51-minute ride is over.

With the help of songwriting friends Cody Canada, Wade Bowen, and Radney Foster (who also produced the album), Randy Rogers and company craft an intricate story arc on the album's first half. Beginning with "Down and Out" and continuing into "Somebody Take Me Home," we glimpse our heartbroken protagonist at his wits' end: Out of this bar, out of this heartache / Out of this world, I just keep breaking down / I keep breaking down. A chance at reconciliation follows in "This Time Around," and we see the magnetism that continually attracts him to his mercurial lover in the beautiful "Love Must Follow You Around." But in "Lay It All on You" our protagonist makes it clear that it's not up to him to keep the flame alive: I never know if you're gonna leave / I say it's the last time, just like I always do / I give you another chance and I lay it all on you. The Texas Music Chart-climbing "Tonight's Not the Night (For Goodbye)" draws the arc to a close...for now: This is your love song baby...Sometimes it's not easy / Sometimes love can scare you half to death / But I'll give it my best / Yeah we'll find a way to make it.

The second half of the album isn't quite as strong as the first, but that's a tough act to follow. There's a version of "Again" that is superior to Cross Canadian Ragweed's attempt earlier this year on Soul Gravy. And strengthening the echoes of Steve Earle, the band decries central Texas sprawl on Kent Finlay's "They Call It the Hill Country."

The closing track, the acoustic "I Miss You with Me," serves as a postscript to the opening story arc. It's months since we last glimpsed our tempestuous lovers, and unsurprisingly they are together no more: I know we had our fights / But nothing since has felt that right / I live my life from day to day / If I don't think too much everything's OK. But a live bonus track of "Like It Used to Be" from the band's previous album hints at yet another reconciliation: We'll shoot the lights out / So no one else can see / Yeah we'll close our eyes / And wish it was like it used to be.

From beginning to end, the Randy Rogers Band delivers a powerful set that's sure to continue the San Marcos group's rapid ascent in the Texas Music community. The songwriting is crisp. The vocals are raspy yet moving. The instrumentation is consistently driving throughout. Everything works.

Rollercoaster is quite simply the best Texas Music release of the year thus far. Period.

This album is by far the best so far from RRB. The songs are well written, performed and recorded. Down & Out, Somebody Take Me Home, and Tonight's Not the Night are all in rotation on Texas country radio stations.

My favorite tracks are Down & Out and Can't Slow Down. Ten Miles Deep is also a standout for me, a song that Waylon would have been proud to record. If you get a chance to see RRB live, take it. Even their acoustic sets are awesome.

With so much growth between albums, it will be hard to wait until the next RRB studio album. Get this one now, while there's still room on the bandwagon!

I just had the major pleasure of seeing these fellows live in Lubbock, TX at the Bluelight, and belive me..these dudes are cool. This was my first Randy Rogers Experience and I am very much hooked now. I was out of the country scene for a long time becaue mainstream music was boaring and repetitive. This band breathes new life into the music and does magic.
With Randy's consistanly good and smooth vocals, Brady's Charlie Daniel's like fiddle jamming, and the rest of the bands excellent support and solos, The Randy Rogers Band is a hit. If they are close to you (with in 200 miles) find a way to get to see them. Oh yeah..and buy thier albums haha.

The Randy Rogers Band has tapped into something that has always lurked just underneath the surface of country music: rock 'n roll. While staying within their country boundaries, they have broadened the sound of country, mixing fiddle and acoustic with charging drums and driving electric guitars. Producer Radney Foster, a credible singer/songwriter in his own right, seems determined to help these guys harness that sound and make the most of it.

Tracks such as "Down and Out," "This Time Around," "Can't Slow Down," "Ten Miles Deep," and "Again" have an undeniable beat. Others, such as the haunting "I Miss You With Me" and "Love Must Follow You Around," are smoother and gentler--but no less intoxicating. Rogers's voice is gravelly enough to add grit to the honky-tonkers, and sensititve enough to bring heart to the ballads. And with co-writers such as Foster, Wade Bowen, and Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada, he's crafted some fine songs, performed by this one-of-a-kind band. ROLLERCOASTER is one of the best country releases so far this year, because it is raw and uninhibited--the way country music was always meant to be.

This is without a doubt the best texas music album I've ever heard, and quite possibly my favorite CD I own. I just don't get tired of it. There's simply not a weak song on the album, and there's a good variety of upbeat songs as well as slower, more somber ones. Pick this one up.

I fell in love with this band on vacation in houston a few years back- now I'm hooked on the TEXAS RED DIRT sound- only I have to listen on line to get it here in Oregon! Every album The Randy Rogers Band puts out is great-
They are my ring tones even-
Cant wait for this wknd as they are playing here in Oregon!!!

Untill about a month ago I had never heard of the Randy Rogers Band. I did a search on the internet looking for new music to listen and found an article titled, Randy Rogers Band, the best band you have never heard of. Being from Michigan, the title was true for me. I have never seen them on cmt or heard them on the radio, but I sure am glad that I found that article on the net. They are now my favorite band.
My favorite songs on the album are Somebody take me home, Hill country, and Ten Miles deep. I like all the songs but these ones just seem to stick out more to me. It is hard to catoragize the style of music these guys play, kind of country rock alterative I guess. Rogers has a rough whiskey soaked voice along with a great guitar, and the fiddle player is also very good, although more fiddle whould be better, if you like hard rockin' country with a ballad every now and then, I think you will love this album, also if you like this group you should check out a group called Cross Canadian Ragweed, they have a similar style.

I heard a couple of tunes on Pandora, really liked it and then I saw that Radney Foster produced the CD. That's all it took. Congrats Randy Rogers Band, thank you Pandora.

They will probably never rock like this again with the major label and Radney Foster influence. The next album is more countrified and not as good. This is the Randy Rogers you want in your collection.

I don't understand how artists as good as Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, and DAN COLEHOUR aren't at the top of the charts. You're missing out!!!