T-365 Days Until Koe Wetzel’s “Full Blown Country Record”

Happy birthday to the one and only Koe Wetzel.

The impact Koe Wetzel has had on the Texas Music Scene is almost immeasurable. His combination of Texas drawl with grungy guitars, heavy basslines and emo lyrics has been a pathway for many people to discover Texas Country and opened an entire new world of music to many more (myself included).

While Koe is obviously doing something extremely right and has no plans of changing his style, there is a part in him that wants to go back to his roots…

Today, he turns 29 years old. And y’all know what that means… he’s just one year away from the dirty 30.

Which is also the year he promised us a full blown country music record:

I don’t know if he needs to start writing for it now, booking studio time, or whatever, but we’re here to hold him to it.

Last summer, he talked about it more in-depth on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast. He spoke about the influences on his music, which we all know are all over the place. Of course, he’s not a decidedly country artist.

He has tons of rock and roll and grunge influences to his sound, which are pretty apparent on his previous full-length records Noise Complaint, Harold Saul High and Sellout.

But, Koe grew up on traditional country music and wants to do it for his mama:

“I grew up on country music. I grew up on ’90s country music and the old… George Jones and Johnny Cash, you know guys like that… so my mama is a huge country fan and I got everything from her so I feel like I just owed it to her to put out country record that she would thoroughly enjoy.

Right now I’m just making music the way I want to… we’re kinda leaning more towards the rockin’ the loud guitars the heavy drum sound right now but that’s just because that’s what I’m feeling right now.

At the same time I’ve always wanted to cut a country record and I don’t think I’ve ever done that.”

Koe doesn’t even necessarily consider himself to be “country”, but a southern accent and touring all over Texas will get you placed within the genre pretty quick.

He goes on to make the promise out loud, not just in a tweet, and I absolutely cannot wait to hear what he comes up with:

“We get thrown in the country genre because I guess the twang and the voice and the places we play and stuff, but I don’t consider us country music per se.

I don’t think we’ve honesty put out a country record yet so the day I turn 30, that’s the day I’m gonna put out a full blown country record. Buncha steel, buncha fiddle.”

Koe Wetzel, a buncha steel and a buncha fiddle…

We’re just one year away, people. Buckle up.

You can go back and download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff,” clicking here, or listen on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.

Koe, never change, but also let’s see what you got in the steel guitar department.

If it’s anything like “Lubbock,” we’re in for a treat…

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A RIFF ON WHAT COUNTRY IS REALLY ABOUT

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