PASTE MAGAZINE PREMIERED “HABBIE DOOBIE” VIDEO
TO APPEAR AT THE AMERICANA MUSIC FESTIVAL, THE PILGRIMAGE FESTIVAL,
AND TO SUPPORT ERIC CHURCH THIS SEPTEMBER
The Texas Gentlemen have signed to New West Records and are set to release their debut album TX Jelly on September 15th, 2017. The 11-song set was cut live in four days at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL and was produced by band leader and organist Beau Bedford. The album was paired down from 28 songs recorded in the 96-hour time span spent at FAME and moves between contemplative and raucous, encompassing the full breadth of the American music experience. Touching on blues, soul, folk, country, rock, and gospel, TX Jelly is real, raw, and righteous. Paste Magazine premiered the video for the album opener “Habbie Doobie” which depicts the band jamming in their Modern Electric Sound Recorders studio in their hometown of Dallas, TX and can be seen HERE. The low-slung piece of vintage country-funk slams out of the speakers and announces The Texas Gentleman as a force to be reckoned with. Paste stated, “If its first track is any indication, Bedford and company’s TX Jelly is going to spread far beyond the boundaries of Texas itself. These Gentlemen are the real McCoy.” This September, The Texas Gentlemen will appear at AmericanaFest, Pilgrimage Music Festival along with Justin Timberlake, Eddie Vedder, Ryan Adams and more, and have also been tapped to support Eric Church’s Texas dates (see all dates below with more to be added). TX Jelly will be available digitally, on compact disc and vinyl LP, and is available for pre-order now via PledgeMusic.
The Lone Star-bred collective is an ever-evolving cast of characters based around the core quintet of Beau Bedford, Nik Lee, Daniel Creamer, Matt McDonald, and Ryan Ake. They take their cues from some of the most iconic acts of the past — the quicksilver brilliance of The Wrecking Crew, The Muscle Shoals Swampers (who backed everyone from Aretha to Wilson Pickett), Booker T. and The M.G.’s, and Bob Dylan’s one-time backers The Band are the most obvious examples. Bedford originally assembled The Texas Gentlemen as an all-purpose backing band for an eclectic array of singer-songwriters including Leon Bridges and Nikki Lane, among others. Last year, the Gentlemen were lured out of the studio to the Newport Folk Festival, where they were joined by iconic troubadour Kris Kristofferson, making his first Newport appearance in more than 45 years. Rolling Stone Magazine called it one of the festival’s “most exciting sets” and Kristofferson so enjoyed collaborating with the band that he enlisted them to reprise their roles in a series of critically acclaimed Texas concerts. Of Kristofferson and The Texas Gentlemen’s appearance at Bass Performance Hall, The Fort Worth Star Telegram stated “The piano, organ, guitar, drums and saxophone would slowly coalesce around Kristofferson’s gnarled but still potent voice, creating an electric sensation of the past fusing with the present. Time and again, the room would seem to bloom – a feeling of dawn breaking, just barely visible but discernible, behind some of the best songs ever written.” Quickly becoming the go-to group of players, The Texas Gentlemen have also backed Leon Bridges, Shakey Graves, Matthew Logan Vasquez of Delta Spirit, Jack Ingram, Terry Allen, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ray Benson, Joe Ely (who described them as “the best backing band I have ever played with. Seriously.”) and many more.
Of TX Jelly, Bedford offered to Paste, “We set up our own version of Rock ‘n’ Roll Summer camp and invited our friends down to FAME studios. We figured at worst, we would have a great time as friends hanging out in one of the most historic studios in America. There was so much mojo once we turned all of the gear on – sounds just started popping out of the speakers, and the songwriters couldn’t help but feed off the energy. TX Jelly is the fruition of years of kinship and a deep hunger by our collective group for American roots music.”
From first track to last, you can feel The Texas Gentlemen reaching deep inside themselves and finding what’s genuine – what illuminates the truth of the country’s rich, complicated and singular artistic history. TX Jelly effortlessly connects way back to what’s next and oozes with skill backed up by hard-won authenticity.
TX Jelly Track Listing:
1. Habbie Doobie
2. Pain
3. Bondurant Women
4. Dream Along
5. Gone
6. My Way
7. Superstition
8. TX Jelly
9. Pretty Flowers
10. Shakin All Over
11. Trading Paint
The Texas Gentlemen On Tour:
September 7 – Austin, TX @ Austin360 Amphitheater*
September 8 – Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion*
September 12-17 – Nashville, TN @ Americanafest
September 23 & 24 – Franklin, TN @ Pilgrimage Music Festival
*appearing with Eric Church