Flatland Cavalry - Homeland Insecurity (2019)

The future looks bright for Texas music, and that’s partly due to the promising prospects of groups like Flatland Cavalry. Led by singer and songwriter Cleto Cordero, the Lubbock-based band gives your ears something to feast on when you’ve worn out your Turnpike Troubadours records for the moment, but want to hear something familiar. Grabbing people’s attention with their debut album Humble Folks in 2016, they’re now readying their new release Homeland Insecurity for January 18th, which finds them singing about the difficulties and insecurities of jumping into adult life.

“We’re all just out of college,” says Cleto Cordero. “We’re in our mid-twenties. We’re all told growing up that by the time you’re out of school, you’ll have it all figured out, but that’s not really how it is. You’re still out there trying to find yourself. I think at some point, you feel like you need to grow-up, but you don’t know how. You’re searching for that path though. You’re overturning every rock trying to find the secret that gets on to the next. I’m not trying to be a teacher or anything. I just wish someone would have told me earlier on and saved me the heartache of it all.”

Like a lot of Texas music, the melodies might be infectious, and the music might groove. But songwriting is always at the heart of what’s happening, as well as a tie to the musical lineage through the cut of the fiddle.

“I had a lot I wanted to say,” says Cordero. “I knew there was a better way of saying it. I didn’t want to write at the same pace I was at during ‘Humble Folks.’ And I don’t want to write at this pace in the future. Everything I’d written before, it was always just something I had to get out. It was always spurred on by an emotion, but that doesn’t mean the lyrical side was rich. I have to really say something. Everything has to be purposeful. I can’t get stuck.”

Homeland Insecurity will be the first record from Flatland Cavalry since fiddle player Laura Jane Houle left the band, being replaced by Wesley Hall. The group also includes Reid Dillon on electric guitar, Jonathan Saenz on bass, and Jason Albers on percussion.