Q: You come from a very musical family. Were there any other outside influences that helped you get started in music?

 A: That’s obviously the biggest one. Dad really got us into it but once we started buying our own albums we started listening to Steve Earl and a lot of other old time Rock and roll and country stuff but I would say that Steve Earl was probably our biggest influence back in the early days.

 Q: What’s it like being able to go on stage every night and share your dream of making music with your brother?

 A: It’s really cool, it’s nice to have a guy on the road with you who you know has always got your back. Making music every night is really cool but to be able to do it with someone who you’ve known your whole life is a really special thing.

 Q: How often do you get to play with Mickey and Gary?

A: We play with those guys quite a bit. They were at the softball game and we get to go out and do tours with them every once in a while. We play with them a lot here and Texas and get to see them a lot on the road too.

 Q: You’re starting to play a lot of shows out on the east coast in places like New York City and Virginia. What’s it like playing out there compared to playing in Texas and other places around the South?

 A: It’s fun. It’s a little bit different crowd. Texas crowds are still good but everyone down here likes country music so I think that people outside of the area get a little more excited about seeing something different just because they’re not exposed to it all the time. It’s a lot of fun because we get to go out there and introduce people to Texas Style country music.

 Q: At the shows down here, it seems like everyone is singing along and knows every word. Do you get that same sort of diehard fans elsewhere?

 A: We have a lot of fans all over the place because we have been getting to some of those places for about 15 years now. People get to hear us on satellite radio and various other methods so we pretty much have fans all over the place now.

 Q: What’s your favorite song that you have ever written?

 A: That’s a tough question but I’ve always kind of liked “Desolation Angels” off of our Under the Table and Above the Sun album. It’s a song that I put together from two or three different song ideas that I had been working on. I was playing around and noticed that they were pretty similar so I put them together and ended up being a nice tune. It took me a long time to write the song so by the time I got it finished I was pretty happy with myself.

 Q: Do most of your songs take a long time to write or do they normally get written pretty quickly?

 A: Every one of them is different but most of them take me quite a while. Most the time I’ll have an idea and work on it in sections but every once in a while one will just kind of pop out there and get written in 20 minutes but that’s pretty rare.

 Q: What’s your favorite cover song to play?

 A: Usually, whatever the newest one is. It’s always nice to do a fresh song, but 1952 Vincent Black Lighting is my all time favorite.

 Q: Good Luck and True Love is on your independent label and you did most of the recording yourself. What is it like to be able to produce your own album?

 A: We’ve gotten to produce our last three records by ourselves and it gives us the freedom to do whatever we want. Cody and Dave have gotten pretty good at the production end of things and I’ve always done most the arranging. The band just goes in there and just knocks it out these days. We don’t have to wait on the producer to get off his phone or show up or anything like that. It’s nice to get in there while the creativity is still flowing. This time it was just all of us sitting in a room and do it without a bunch of over dubs and no one else on the record except us.

 Q: I know you have sort of an Iron Chef style cook off with Roger Creager the last couple of years. How did that get started?

 A: We wanted to do a little BBQing back stage a couple years ago and of course we’re very competitive in everything we do so we called up Creager because they’re all good buddies of ours and offered them a throw down style cook off. Their drummer Matt Maderas has a catering company so they know what they’re doing around the kitchen. We just thought that would be kind of fun and it spiraled out of control from there.

 Q: Are yall planning on doing that again this year?

 A: I think so. We’re planning on doing it but we have to see what time we’re going to show up and see if we can pull it off.

 Q: What’s it like playing a big festival like Larry Joe Taylor with all your friends and all the other bands there? Do you have time to enjoy any of the other shows?

 A: It’s different every time. We have to take off and head down the road to another gig sometimes but a lot of the time at Larry Joe we get there early and check out some of the guys that go on before us and stick around for whoever is after us. It’s cool to get to see some of your buddies. It’s nice relaxing day out there just hanging out back stage and catching up with some of our friends.

 Q: Do you ever have a chance to play the camp fire stage after the show or any of the smaller acoustic sets?

 A: We’ve been known to pop around a little bit and do a little campfire jamming. It’s a good time. We’ll pop over to someone’s camp site, play a little guitar, steal a couple of beers, and move on to the next one.

 Q: What’s LJT like compared to other big festivals such as Steam Boat?

 A: It’s a little muddier than most. It’s an old school grass roots kind of festival. Larry Joe and a couple other people do that all by themselves and it kind of just like a bunch of country boys who wanted to throw a party and it spiraled out of control. Now all of a sudden they’re hosting one of the biggest parties of the year. It’s really cool to see some good ole boys do some hard work out there and watch it pay off.

 Q: What advice do you have for up and coming musicians try to get their feet in the door of the music industry?

 A: Take two weeks off and then quit [chuckles]. Best advice I can give is to practice, do some research and listen to the people that came before you. Keep working at it, pay your dues, and eventually if you work hard enough it will all come together.

 Q: How did celebrity softball Jam go?

 A: It was great. We had a great turn out, a lot of people were there and a great day of music. The weather cooperated and the only bummer was that my team didn’t win. We’ll get them next year. It will be the 5^th anniversary

 Q: You have been pretty busy with that. Are you taking a few days off or are just jumping back into the busy schedule?

 A: Cody and I are playing a show in San Antonio tomorrow but we have yesterday and today kind of off. We had Softball wrap up meeting yesterday but for the most part have today off. We don’t get a whole lot of time off these days.

 Q: Does the business end of your job ever get to be too much and take away from the performing part?

 A: We do a lot of the business ourselves but we have an office manager, booking agents and a general manager that help us out. It takes a lot of time but if you want something done right you have to do it yourself so we keep an eye o everything. We try not to let it affect the live shows because if there’s none of that going on then none of the business is worth while.

 Q: What kind of things do you guys like to do relax when you do get a little bit of time off?

 A: We like to golf and watch a lot of baseball on TV. We go out and see a lot of the live music here in Austin and hang out with friends and do a little drinking.

 Q: What was it like getting to sing the National Anthem at the Ranger’s game on Opening day this year?

 A: It was awesome getting to sing the Anthem for them. We’re going to go back and do a show out there at the ball park at some point this summer. Those guys have been really cool to work with over the years.

 Written and interview performed by Chris Michael