Brand New Album “Here ‘Tis” Releases on January 17th
Nashville, TN – There are bands that play country, and then there are country bands. Some would say it boils down to authenticity, and in this day and age that is increasingly hard to find. But when you drop the needle on an Eleven Hundred Springs record, or find yourself at a show, that distinction is perfectly clear. What is also crystal is the intense enjoyment in the actual art of playing that these North Texas music scions exude, with shrewdly written songs that allow room for top notch instrumentation. This is the epitome of indigenous country music. That’s not a thing one can imitate, and the boys in Eleven Hundred have the pedigree to match any of the all-time greats. On January 17, 2020, these rooted Texas sons will release their new album “Here ‘Tis” on State Fair Records. A special documentary featuring the making of the album and a celebratory scrapbook-style pilgrimage of the band’s twenty plus year career will be premiered at their record release party at the Granada Theater in Dallas on Saturday, January 18th. https://statefairrecords.com
Listening to Eleven Hundred Springs is like pulling out your favorite country albums. Heavily influenced by the Bakersfield sound, and the rockabilly stylings of the Reverend Horton Heat, The Derailers and Junior Brown, Eleven Hundred Springs may not look like the average contemporary country act, but the love of tradition and hardscrabble spirit that make up true Americana is easy to see. When guitarist/singer Matt Hillyer and bassist Steven Berg first started the band way back in 1998, some folks reduced their sound to imitation – amalgamations of Merle Haggard, George Jones, Hank Williams and the like. But over the course of twenty years and eleven albums, Eleven Hundred Springs has proven time and again that it’s not imitation, it’s everything that makes the classics so timeless: amazing songwriting, great performances, and distinct personality.
Aptly titled “Here ‘Tis,” this album is the perfect distillation of what continues to make Eleven Hundred Springs one of the best country/Americana bands around. While working on the album, the band struck up a friendship and, ultimately, working relationship with the folks at Dallas’ State Fair Records. The band had kept a leveled eye on the upstart indie label that was cultivating some of the best new music and artists coming out, especially in the North Texas scene. As Hillyer puts it, “There was something going on in our neighborhood, and we wanted to be a part of it. There has always been great music coming out of North Texas, and it never got the attention it deserved. State Fair was nurturing artists coming out of our talent pool and really lifting them up.”
“Here ‘Tis” is another instant classic that will slide right in alongside all your favorites. The album kicks off with the first single “This Morning It Was Too Late,” a remorseful reverie that is the side effect of a most rude awakening. The song was originally written and intended for an album Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers were putting together, but in the hands of these guys, it is vintage Eleven Hundred Springs powered by the soulful crooning of songbird Matt Hillyer. “All Jokes Aside” comes in at a quicker pace to reveal one of the more surprising aspects of this album, which is the addition of Chad Rueffer on lead vocals. What seems like a cautionary tale about the life of a touring band is really a sentiment about true friendship in the throes between thick and thin. “Fair Weather Friend” brings western swing and big band parlance together in a way that perfectly demonstrates the charm of this album. It’s this kind of sound that has always been a part of the band’s unique fingerprint. The autobiographical “Looking Back” depicts the journey of this band 20 years down the road, ripe with the kind of sweet fruits that only sour times can yield. The final word of the album is the tongue in cheek “Nobody Cares.” We are living in an age of selfdom, with miles of personal rants on social media, the obsessive compulsion to track your “likes” and “shares,” and worrying about your appearance or your awkward behavior. These trivial things eventually lose their potency with the passage of time, and Eleven Hundred Springs does a good job here reminding us that the beautiful thing about age and wisdom is the humorous insights we inevitably earn. One in particular is that at the core of it all, nobody gives a damn, so just relax and enjoy. This is the goal of Eleven Hundred Springs circa 2020. Relax and enjoy. It’s not very different from their goals when they started this ride 20 years ago. Only difference is that these days, those ripened fruits are simply much sweeter.
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Track listing:
1) This Morning It Was Too Late
2) All Jokes Aside
3) Miles Apart
4) Fair Weather Friend
5) Let’s Move Out To The Country
6) The Song You’ll Never Hear
7) Looking Back
8) Let Me Be Your Man
9)Let Tomorrow Wait And See
10) Nobody Cares