The Texas Gentlemen Find Themselves on ‘Easy St.’ in New Song [Exclusive Premiere]
The Texas Gentlemen are (mostly) living the high life in their new song "Easy St." The Boot's readers are getting an exclusive first listen to to the track, from the band's forthcoming new album; press play below to listen.
Written by keyboard player and vocalist Daniel Creamer, "Easy St." is about living large and carefree -- at least, mostly -- in the city. He found the inspiration for the song in a move into Dallas, after five years spent living south of the city with bandmate Nik Lee and their friend Matt McDonald. "Even though we could make lots of noise there," he remembers of the old house, nicknamed "Mona," "that house felt very separate from the rest of the Dallas scene that we were a part of."
"When we found the new house in Dallas proper near a lot of businesses and friends, it was a breath of fresh air," Creamer explains. "I likened moving into that new house to living on easy street and toyed around with the ups and downs of our new lifestyle."
"There's nothin' to it now, we're livin' in town," the Texas Gentlemen proclaim throughout the song, which is dotted with both the good and the bad that comes with living in a busy spot with your friends nearby. A light, even carnival-like melody adds to the message, and sharp-eared fans will notice a nod to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" near the end of the track.
"When we were recording it, and especially with the addition of the strings, we were really interested in the Americana sound in the older sense of the word," Creamer notes. "People like Aaron Copland and the stuff that Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks were doing with Smile were definitely a big influence."
"Easy St." comes from the Texas Gentlemen's forthcoming new album, Floor It!!!, which is set for release on July 17. The band recorded the project at Denton, Texas' Echo Lab, and co-produced it with Matt Pence. On the 13-song record, "Easy St." is followed by a song called "Hard Rd.," though Creamer admits that he didn't think anything of the two songs being related until after they were recorded.
"That probably sounds ridiculous," he confesses, "but they came from totally different ideas and each blossomed in their own way, and when I realized that the titles went together, I just took it as a happy accident."
Floor It!!! is the Texas Gentlemen's sophomore album, following 2017's TX Jelly. The band's lineup was in flux early on, even through the making of their first record, but now, they are Creamer; guitarist and vocalist Lee; guitarist and vocalist Ryan Ake; bassist Scott Edgar Lee Jr.; and drummer Paul Grass.
"Getting Paul, our new drummer, in the band has been an amazing experience, and we’re all so ready to get on the road and truly initiate him, but unfortunately, that won’t happen for a little while, and we’re learning how to work around that," Creamer says. "We love all the people who have been gracious enough to share the stage with us, but I do think this current formation is gonna last, and that’s something I’m really excited about."
Floor It!!! is available for pre-order now. Physical copies of the album come with a board game of the same name, put together after Creamer and Lee joked at the record's name sounded like that of a board game.
"After that, we sort of just followed the logic of a world in which we create a board game that is part of our album and how we would tie different songs into it and nuggets of our history and inside jokes," Creamer shares. "I still can’t believe it actually happened, but I’ve got to thank the kind folks at [our label] New West Records for backing us up on it."
Listen to the Texas Gentlemen's "Easy St."
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