Randy Rogers Band
Just a Matter of Time (Mercury)
They’re the hottest thing going on the “Texas Music” scene since Pat Green. Yet listening to the Randy Rogers Band’s major-label debut, Just a Matter of Time, it’s difficult to understand what all the hollering’s about. A product of the scene Kent Finley has nurtured at the Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos, Rogers and band have created as generic a country rock album as is imaginable. They have nothing new to say and, with the usually reliable Radney Foster producing, very few interesting ways to say it. In fact, the uninitiated might find Just a Matter of Time indistinguishable from one of Foster’s albums. It’s filled with songs of the heart and the never-ending battles between men and women, just without any keen insight to accompany the ringing guitars and occasional fiddle. It’s telling the disc’s best tune, the lightly swinging “You Don’t Know Me,” was written by bass player Jon Richardson. Rogers obviously looks up to the likes of Steve Earle, whose vocal style he echoes, especially on the hard-charging “You Could’ve Left Me.” Still, without the piss and vinegar, Rogers comes across just edgy enough to get played on the radio next to Kenny Chesney. (Sunday, 2:50pm, Austin Ventures stage)
This article appears in September 15 • 2006.