Zane Williams belives his best days are still ahead of us.
The Texas country singer-songwriter spent about 20 years on his own before fronting The Wilder Blue, where he has one simple goal - make the best music he ever has.
In Andy Rogers, Paul Eason, Lyndon Hughes and Sean Rodriguez, Williams has found the group to do just that. And he thinks their upcoming album is the best yet.
When in Fort Worth to play Billy Bob’s, Williams joined The Cowboy Channel to talk about his career in music, and how he has been around so long, he came back into style after originally moving to Nashville in 1999.
TCC: What lead to the start of the Wilder Blue?
ZW: I just wanted to make the best music I’ve ever made in my life and I was trying to figure out how to do that. Randy (Rogers) says the brotherhood he felt being a part of a band is best part of the music business, moreso than any other money or fame, is what a band goes through together. I was like ‘I want to have that.’ I got lucky guys with the guys I ended up talking into it because we fit together pretty good.
TCC: Your music is full of five-part harmonies, how were you able to find five guys that work and sound so good together?
ZW: It was definitely a fair amount of luck, that was the goal. Andy (Rogers) plays banjo and dobro in our band, he was my bass player in the Zane Williams days and he was my primary harmony singer. I went looking for Paul Eason because I loved his solo stuff, he has three solo albums, he was playing with Kevin Fowler at the time. Paul was like ‘I know a singing drummer, who sings like a bird. He’s your guy.’ So we met Lyndon Hughes. And then we kinda guy the four of us together and then it took a long time to line up a bass player. At the end, we were like I don’t care if they sing, we got like three months before our first gig and we just need someone to bass, I saw online that Sean Rodriguez had stepped away from the Bri Bagwell gig he was playing and I was like ‘wait a second, that guy,he sang high harmony above Bri.’ And he like dances around the stage and everything, I was like that’s our guy.
TCC: Do you think you found that brotherhood you were looking for?
ZW: Yes and that’s where I say I got lucky, because it’s one thing to find people who play well together and then we also sing well together and have a good vocal blend, that’s pretty amazing. Then we also get along, that just kind of makes you like the universe was looking out for you.
TCC: Your band is still pretty young, only five years, but you’ve done some big things, what are some of the highlights?
ZW: A lot of them this year, we played The Opry, we did 12 stadium dates with Luke Combs. In a month or two we’ll be playing Red Rocks with Randy Rogers Band at Flatland Calvary. We have three albums out, we got to do the last one with Brent Cobb. Those are some of the highlights over the last year or two.
TCC: Sounds like it’s been a pretty busy year and doesn’t seem to be slowing down much.
ZW: I’ve doing music for a long time, about 25 years and I moved to Nashville in 1999 to make 90s country, because that’s what I was cool. And it’s kind of been downhill as far as what I consider real country music through most of the 2000s and 2010s and now it kind of feels like the pendulum is swinging back toward rootsier music, more traditional, really just variety. There’s still poppy guys that are killing it, but at least you’ve got room in the world of musical artists for a Zach Top or a Billy Strings or a Sierra Ferrell or a Charley Crockett. For once it kind of feels like the wind is at my back a little bit as far as that goes. I’ve been around so long I’ve almost come back into style basically.
TCC: You talked about wanting to make the greatest music you’ve ever made, do you feel like you’ve done or is there more in store?
ZW: We just wrapped up album No. 4 that we plan to release next spring and right now, this second, I do feel like it’s going to be hard to top that one. We self-produced and there are lot of songs on there that are just kind of epic, we were going for it. It’s going to be a challenge to top album four. I’m excited for what next year has in store for us when that album comes out. I’m a late bloomer and I always hope that my best music is still ahead.
Parts of this interview have been condensed for clarity. You can follow The Wilder Blue on social media here and listen to their music here.