Texas band performing shows in bigger venues as more people hear their music

Flatland Cavalry, the wonderfully named country-rock sextet, is the latest product of the wide-open spaces of Lubbock, Texas, which had previously given us music stars like Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, Mac Davis and Delbert McClinton, not to mention Bobby Layne, who was the quarterback the last time the Detroit Lions won the NFL championship.

Flatland Cavalry has just embarked on its first headlining national tour, encompassing 37 dates and landing in Boston on Feb. 16 at the House of Blues. (The House of Blues is located at 15 Lansdowne St. in Boston, and the show begins at 8 p.m., with Kaitlyn Butts opening. Tickets are priced from $27.50-$59.50, available at the box office or by checking houseofblues.com/boston, or crossroadspresents.com. Call 1-888-693-2583 for more information.)

Flatland Cavalry’s latest album, “Wandering Star,” was released Oct. 23 on Interscope Records, and promises to propel them even further into mainstream success. Their previous album, 2021’s “Welcome to Countryland,” garnered over 290 million streams, with hot singles like “Gettin' By” and “A Cowboy Knows How,” and it also yielded the tune “Mountain Song,” which raised the bands profile even more when it appeared on the soundtrack of TV hit series “Yellowstone.”

Start planning: There are plenty of opportunities to catch live music this weekend

Before connecting by phone with Flatland Cavalry’s lead singer and songwriter, Cleto Cordero, we checked out setlists for the first few dates on the tour (Boston is the 9^th date), which revealed that they’ve been doing seven tunes from the latest album, as well as the brand-new single “Wool,” which was inspired by the latest "Hunger Games" film, "Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes."

Setlists always on his mind

“I’m literally thinking about our setlists all the time,” Cordero said with a self-deprecating laugh. “In our normal set, we will do at least 15 songs, so eight new ones and seven from our catalog seems right. This is a new tour promoting 'Wandering Star,’ but we went out in October and the way fans reacted to the new music touched my heart. We have a lot of songs now, with four albums and two EPs, so it is a challenge to find the right balance. We want to play the new music, but also some other older things folks may not have heard before, and the older tunes that are more familiar to fans. We may make changes every night, and I’m just trying to listen to my intuition.”

The live sets also feature some tasty cover choices, with an Eagles tune, John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.” There could be other surprises too.

“We added our little tribute to the Eagles at the top of our show, just because it seemed like a good idea,” Cordero noted. “It’s our tip of the hat to them, and also a great way to kick the night off in a fun direction. I’ve always wanted to do that John Denver song, and we add in some elements based on what we do. I’m trying out ‘Landslide’ on this tour, and I’ve always loved that song. ‘Landslide’ comes from my beginnings, playing three hours a night solo in these kinds of places where you got husbands and housewives coming through, and your goal is to somehow get them to stay a while and listen. We have the same goal today, to have fans be in the moment and yet also having fun.”

Having so much recorded music to choose from is a nice problem to have, and perhaps one that Cleto and his longtime friend, drummer Jason Albers, never imagined when they started playing as a duo while at Midland College in Texas. Cordero had been playing guitar and writing his own songs even as a teenager, but the duo’s time at Midland really jump-started their forming a band. A bit later, in 2015 with both now studying at Texas Tech in Lubbock, they added Reid Dillon on guitar, Jonathan Saenz on bass, Adam Gallegos on keyboards, and Laura Jane on fiddle.  Jane left in 2021, and Wesley Hall took over on fiddle.

Story songs resonate with fans

From the time of their self-funded debut album in 2015, Flatland Cavalry has appealed to audiences, both for their melodic country-rock style, but also for Cordero’s literate story-songs, which might be full of telling detail, but also sound incredibly conversational and real.  Songs like “The Provider” are anthems to the working class, while “The Last American Summer” is a ballad about teen romance that’ll stir memories in everyone.

“Mornings with You” is a sweet ballad of love, while “Oughta See You” is a strong bit of encouragement for a struggling friend or lover, with lines like “I tell you the truth, ‘Cause I wish you knew, You oughta see you the way I do …”   And who can’t relate to “Gettin’ By,” which posits its protagonist as “Ain’t rolling low or flying high, Somewhere in the middle, Just gettin’ by …”

Cordero has collaborated with other writers on many of these newer songs, including rock ‘n’ roller Will Hoge, who’s always been a favorite of ours.

“I first connected with Will Hoge through our management team, when we were shopping around for a publishing deal, and they set me up with some established songwriters,” Cordero explained. “Our first two writing sessions were via Zoom, during the pandemic, and ‘The Last American Summer’ is the first one we wrote. We became fast friends and wrote more on this record. I’m lucky and grateful for the chance to work with Will, and I try to learn from him every time.”

Looking back: Stoughton Grammy winner Lori McKenna touring in her home state. Find out where to see her

We noted that Stoughton’s Grammy-winning songsmith, Lori McKenna, is a big fan of collaborations, and frequently co-writes with several Nashville cohorts. Cordero said his contribution to co-writes varies, from mostly lyrics, to sometimes the basic melody and so on.

Writing with others works

“I made a deal with myself when we started co-writing, to not waste my time or anyone else’s,” he said. “I will not hoard my best ideas, but bring them to the table. The best co-writes are just a conversation, where we talk about things in our life. You try to bring it to the surface, and come in as vulnerable and transparent as you can be, and that’s the way to create something meaningful and real.”

“I’m a big fan of Lori McKenna,” Cordero added. “You hear the stuff she writes and you immediately go ‘Oh where does that come from?’ It just feels so real. I love that attitude. You can get trapped in pride or ego in co-writing, and ignore a chance to learn. I co-wrote with Liz Rose (also a McKenna pal), who has written with Taylor Swift, and she was writing things – not line by line – but diagonally across the page, anything that came to mind. She kept saying ‘I keep hearing this word and I can’t quite get it.’ That kind of open and vulnerable approach is how you get to the good stuff.”

With the history of Texas songwriting, and the country-rock sound of the Flatland Cavalry, you might assume Cordero was influenced by artists like Ely, Robert Earl Keen and Jerry Jeff Walker. But his roots go back further.

“I’d say I was mostly influenced by mainstream – George Strait-type – country music in the 1990s,” Cordero pointed out. “That’s music I grew up listening to. Then, as a teenager, my dad popped in a Creedence Clearwater Revival tape and that opened my ears to rock, and I went through Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Something clicked then, and I subsequently got into Texas writers like Jerry Jeff, Robert Earl Keen, and that whole Texas, red-dirt magic had its impact on me. That was one door that opened to me, but I also still love many other types of music, from James Taylor to John Mayer.”

Moving up in the venue

On their only previous Boston-area stops, Flatland Cavalry played at The Sinclair in Cambridge, but the House of Blues is twice – maybe three times – as big, a measure of their burgeoning success.

“We sold out The Sinclair last time through, and each time we played up there it seems there’s more people coming to hear us,” said Cordero. “We have felt a lot of love from Boston-area people, and they seem to really appreciate that there are a lot of different facets to what we do, which is very gratifying.”

A lively night with Greg Abate

Last Friday, I managed to catch the revered Rhode Island jazzman Greg Abate and his quartet at the Narrows Center in Fall River, and it was a lively 100 minutes of jazz. Abate switched among alto sax, soprano sax and flute for different tunes, and his sense of melody and precise articulation was remarkable throughout. Most of the dozen songs would fall into the bop category, but Abate and his foursome brought an upbeat, swinging joy to the music, and people in the back of the room were dancing. The quartet included Matt DeChamplain on piano, Todd Baker on bass, and Gary Johnson on drums and all were superb. Baker crafted some of the most lyrical solos possible on his standup bass, and Johnson’s concise drumming included no solo longer than about 20 seconds, yet his mastery and interplay with Abate was magnificent. DeChamplain looks about two decades younger than his bandmates, but his work on the keyboard was revelatory, with a shimmering kind of easy flow.

A buoyant run through “18^th and Vine” started the show with all four musicians showcasing their talents in short solos. The incessant bop of Kenny Barron’s “Voyage” utilized that uncanny link between the drummer and Abate to create some real fire. Abate played flute on the sprightly midtempo “Jag,” and played soprano sax on the up-tempo torrent of melody called “On the Road.” DeChamplain was exemplary on Charlie Parker’s old “Segment,” as his left hand provided the pounding rhythm, as his right hand seemed to be dancing in front of it with the sparkling melody. Abate’s flute created a fairytale feel for the waltz, “Hazy Moon.” And the romp through Parker’s iconic “Yardbird Suite” was simply a triumphant high point of the night, as Abate glided through the breakneck pace without slurring a note, letting his alto sax deliver all the frenzied melodic beauty of the classic bop standard.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Flatland Calvary graduates to shows at Boston's House of Blues