The JTAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 200, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 20, 2019 Page: 4 of 8
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We have a song on the album that’s
really, really country,” Brown said. “Then
we have one that is pretty rock and then
we have one that is like a soul groove to
it.”
Like any other band, Cottonwood Crows
just wants to get their music out there
and to expand their fanbase and they
continue to do so.
“I think the fan base is definitely
growing at a pretty good rate,” May said.
“We get to go play new areas, we had
people drive two hours to see us the
first time we ever played west Texas and
people everyone are like ‘we’re huge fans’.
We’re definitely expanding which is a
great thing to see.”
“I think that our music with listeners
is going good,” Hartman said. “We have a
little thing where you can see like where
plays are coming from, whos listens
where, it helps out a lot to where we can
be ‘oh there’s a lot of listens in Houston
we can go play in Houston’ and it’s a good
deal to where we know we’re actually
connecting to people, we’re not just
playing to nobody.”
When they guys started the band, no
one expected it go the way it has gone.
Just a group of guys wanting to jam to the
same group of guys playing at LJT.
“I remember it was always a goal like
to play, like that was the main reason
to be at LJT,” May said. “But like the big
thing back then, when we started, was if
you got to play City Limits that was to us
you kind of made it around Stephenville
if you got to play at City Limits and then
we did.”
“Even when i joined i didn’t feel like
we’d be here today,” Brown said. “Now
you got the ‘Twist’ and that was a thing
and now its Larry Joe Taylor.”
“It just keeps coming, more stuff keeps
coming that seems so far fetched you
know that four years ago we couldn’t have
imagined,” Gomez said. “It was just more
about having fun and playing music and
just really that’s all it was, we did not
expect to be where we are today.”
With LJT coming up fast, Cottonwood
Crows are just ready to get on the stage
and perform at a festival they use to go to
and dreamed of playing one day.
“It’s a big deal to us to play this
event,” Brown said. “Having a band in
Fest, we got stuff in the summer time
with Wade Bowen and just a few other
pretty big stuff coming up and festivals.
Festival season, thats always a good time
to actually be apart of it this year, bigger
festivals we always attended to but never
played and now we actually get to be
apart of.”
“There’s a new album coming early mid
summer,” Hartman said.
“We also have a single coming out,”
Gomez said. “Coming out real soon.”
With new music coming out, the band
puts their own twist on their sound; it’s
not like any other band.
“I think we sound like the Cottonwood
Crows,” May said. “Everyone has their
own musical preference of who they grew
up listening to and everybody kind of
draws from that so with that combination
we kind of get our sound.”
“There is really no way to describe it,”
Gomez said. “It sounds different live than
on the record but the record also has its
own sound, it’s really weird. It changes all
the time, it is just whatever we are feeling
at the time, can’t really describe it.”
Stephenville and starting here, this is the
ultimate thing it doesn’t get better than
this in Stephenville, Texas.”
“We’re excited just to play in general,”
Hartman said. “We’re also all still kinda
young, we’re babies compared to everyone
else.”
“Yeah, we’re still the babies of the
scene which is kind of great for us,”
Gomez said. “It’s a great feeling that they
would even think of having us out, it
was an awesome feeling when i saw the
email.”
From Bostocks to LJT, Cottonwood
Crows owes their success to those who
have stuck with them since the beginning.
“Thank you, gracias, thank you in every
language,” Hartman said. “We opened for
Chris Knight at Bostocks when we had no
business opening.”
“We sucked when we started out, it was
bad,” May said. “Our original drummer
had never played drums in his whole
life, he started on a cajon and then we
got a drum set like a month into it. We
had to kind of teach him how to play and
there was one beat he could play and
everything had to be centered around
that one beat and it never changed.”
“And by teaching him, we didn’t know
how to play drums either so we didn’t
really teach him,” Gomez said. “Thank
you to everybody that stuck around, I’m
sorry we sucked so bad.”
“We definitely had humble beginnings,”
May said.
As the Cottonwood Crows look forward
to playing at LJT and continuing to
tour and adding venues to their list of
achieved places. They all one day want to
perform at Red Rock, main stage at LJT
and Austin City Limits. Cottonwood crows
urge listeners to go check out a live show
and to look for new music coming soon.
“Well then one day me and Matt met
each other when we moved in and it was
that first weekend of move in and that
Sunday they had an open mic night at
Bostocks and me and Matt went up there
to play and there’s a guy that booked on
Wednesday nights and came up to us and
asked me if we wanted to play and we
were like yeah sure and he was like well I
need a name and I was like ‘oh crap’ and
so I started texting all my friends from
back home and my brother’s bass player
was like just say Cottonwood Crows and I
was like we’ll take that and change it later
or something and it just never changed.”
With 2019 already in full gear,
Cottonwood Crows has a busy year ahead
of them. To new music, festivals, concerts
and even school for a couple of them.
Hartman says it’s going to be a busy year
and Gomez and May agreed it being busy
and busy with school.
“We got some really good stuff
coming up,” Gomez said. “We just got
the confirmation for Larry Joe Taylor
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The JTAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 200, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 20, 2019, newspaper, March 20, 2019; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1177363/m1/4/: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Tarleton State University.