JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS ANNOUNCE WEST COAST SWING

JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS
ANNOUNCE WEST COAST SWING AS PART OF
IN-PROGRESS SUMMER TOUR
IN SUPPORT OF CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ALBUM
‘COMAL COUNTY BLUE’

NEW SINGLE “ALRIGHT”
CURRENTLY SPINNING ON COUNTRY RADIO

JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS—who’ve independently released five studio albums and sold over 200,000 albums while amassing critical acclaim—have announced a West Coast swing as part of their in-progress summer tour. The August 18-28 dates will include shows in Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle (see itinerary below).

Fronted by singer-songwriter-guitarist Jason Boland and regarded as leaders of the Red Dirt movement in Texas, the outlaw band are touring in support of their latest album COMAL COUNTY BLUE which features the single “Alright,” now spinning at country radio. “It’s music concerned with people and places, not fame,” says Boland when asked about the Red Dirt sound. “Growing up in Oklahoma under the watchful eyes of Bob Childers, Tom Skinner, and the Red Dirt Rangers gave us a chance to learn from people of the land; not of the bottom line.”

COMAL COUNTY BLUE is the band’s fifth studio release, and also marks Boland’s first release on his own label, Proud Souls Entertainment, in conjunction with the Apex Nashville label and Thirty Tigers distribution.  The band remains fiercely independent. As Boland says: “You get to record the music you hear in your head rather than having someone tell you what they think people want to hear.”  Boland adds: “The sound is first and foremost, Country.  The sensibility is that we are not American Idols.”

COMAL COUNTY BLUE was one of 2008’s most successful independent country releases, debuting #2 on the Billboard National Heatseekers chart, #30 Billboard Country Albums, and #1 iTunes country albums, as well as their first debut on the Billboard 200 at #159.

The infectiousness of the upbeat single “Alright”—inspired by, says Boland, “a gospel song and a peculiar relationship”—is contrasted with a song like ““Bottle by My Bed.” “We all have light and dark sides–it’s dishonest to present one without the other,” Boland explains.  In a review in the Austin Chronicle (November 2008), Doug Freeman wrote:

“…When he sings of a rough, raw hope on songs like ‘Bottle by My Bed,’ it cuts deep with genuine experience. The Okie turned Texan's fifth studio LP opens applying that same defiant bootstrap mentality to the hurricane-hit Gulf behind a low, Waylon Jennings gruffness on ‘Sons and Daughters of Dixie,’ and there's a touch of classic David Allen Coe on the dark barroom ballad ‘Something You Don't See Everyday. Yet Boland also has a polish in his approach that aligns him with George Strait on tunes such as ‘No Reason Being Late’ and Alright,’ his hard drawl working best on subtle, hard-luck realizations like the title track.”

JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS–Roger Ray (steel, lead guitar, dobro), Brad Rice (drums), Noah Jeffries (fiddle) and Grant Tracy (bass)–are known as a potent touring act. “Everybody in the band gets a chance to express themselves through their music,” Boland says. “Given the fact that we have been together a decade, fans have been part of our odyssey.”