Lucky Ned Pepper — New Faces

Artist: Lucky Ned Pepper

Sounds Like: Randy Travis meets Little Big Town

Hometown: Bakersfield, Calif.

Why We Dig Them: Former Smokin' Armadillos members Rick Russell and Josh Graham have once again taken the plunge into country music with Lucky Ned Pepper. With the recent addition of singer Joy Sampson, the trio may draw a lot of comparisons to male/female trio Lady Antebellum, but that's where the similarities end.

They call themselves Lucky Ned Pepper after brainstorming ideas while trying to come up with a "western" sounding name. "Lucky Ned Pepper is the name of Robert Duvall's character in 'True Grit,'" Josh tells The Boot. "I thought it sounded fun, and who's going to knock a name of one of Robert Duvall's characters? That's strong right there! Nothing is more western than a John Wayne movie. It's a little fun and little quirky."

Lucky Ned Pepper's fresh take on modern country music showcases the chemistry between Rick, Josh and Joy, which went a long way toward helping the group produce a stellar debut album packed with tunes from A-list Nashville songwriters including Dean Dillon, Ashley Gorley, Wade Kirby and Larry Bastian.

"We're not traditional country, but we're country," Josh says of Lucky Ned Pepper's music. "We're just right down the middle country. It's something different. We do have the advantage where we get to jump into a place where we don't have to start from scratch, but we're still starting over in a lot of ways. We started off with hopes that this would just be fun to record something, and whatever happens, happens. Now, we really want to do it again. We want to play, we want to do shows, we want the record deal, we want an ACM award ... You've got to set goals and go for them. It's something that we want to do for the rest of our lives."



Listen to Lucky Ned Pepper Songs