Some artists may battle a bit of writer’s block when prepping for a new release, but that’s definitely not an issue for the Boxmasters‘ principal songwriters Billy Bob Thornton and J.D. Andrew, who have delivered a double-album, Somewhere Down the Road, for the band’s 101 Ranch Records debut.
Thornton says the album, due in early 2015, reflects the band’s bipolar musical personality. “Record one represents one side of us, and record two represents the other,” he says. “That’s why we did a double-record, because we really do play this sort of ’60s pop rock with a late ’60s L.A. rock feeling — the Byrds kind of thing being influenced by the British Invasion. That really is what we sound like. But then when we get moody and singer/songwritery, that’s just how we sound; so we really do have a schizophrenic personality. We’re bipolar as to what we sound like.”
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Somewhere Down the Road leans heavily on their British rock influences on the 12-song first disc, while the 10-song second set has a decidedly more Americana feel, featuring poignant ballads and compelling story songs.
“On that first side, ‘This Game Is Over’ and ‘You’ll Be Lonely Tonight’ are a couple that are very representative of what we feel and sound like,” Thornton says. “On the second record, ‘What Did You Do Today’ is one that’s kind of our vibe. Also there’s a song on there that’s one of my particular favorites on side two.”
Thornton is referring to “Who Can I Tell,” a dark tale of betrayal and death. “When I was growing up listening to the older country music, they used to do story songs,” the Arkansas native says. “I was very influenced by that period Willie Nelson went through where he was doing very thematic things with stories like Red Headed Stranger and Phases and Stages and all that. That’s the kind of stuff I love, stuff that’s very cinematic in a way. So there’s a song on there, ‘Who Can I Tell,’ about a man and an affair with a young woman. It’s a whole story song. Radio people wouldn’t perk up to that one because they’re looking for something that’s catchy, but I still love those songs that tell a story. That’s one of my personal favorites.”
“Away, Away” is another powerful track on the second disc. “I’d taken my son to work before he had his own car. I was driving down the freeway and there was a truck in front of me,” recalls Thornton. “It had a bunch of furniture, a mattress and a bunch of junk all on there, and the truck was kind of leaning to one side. I remembered my poor days growing up in Arkansas, and that was a common sight. When I see people, I always wonder what their story is. When I see people, especially families that look poor and they’ve got some old station wagon full of stuff, I always wonder, ‘Where are those people going and how’s it going to work out for them?’ That song was written right at the height of the bad economy recently. It’s basically an appeal to the people in charge: ‘You do realize we have people on our very own roads out here that don’t know where to go?’
“There’s a line in there that says, ‘Where are that couple and those hollow-eyed children headed?’ And hollow-eyed children is a really strong image to me. I remember it very well. When you want to do songs like that, it’s a bigger hill to climb, than if you go out and find a catchy chorus and do something where people don’t have to think. I feel like it’s your duty to write what you feel and to write about the state of humanity. You can’t let trends dictate what art is, because if you do, there’s no progress.”
In working on the band’s new project, Thornton says they recorded more than 200 new songs, most written by Thornton and Andrew. “Billy writes all the lyrics, and I am totally OK with that because that’s not really something I do. I like to make up music,” says Andrew. “The worst thing you can do as a musician is get in the way of what a song is. Some of the songs start off with music first. Others start off with words first. Whatever they end up being, the song is the most important thing.”
Thornton enjoys the collaborative process and says each member of the band — which also includes Teddy Andreadis and Brad Davis — contributes to the Boxmasters’ sound. “Like J.D. said, ‘We kind of all know our place.’ I guess if we were real competitive with each other, it wouldn’t work out as well,” Thornton says, “but when we’re writing, whether I’m writing a song with Brad or J.D. or all three of us are writing it together, we all know what our strengths and weaknesses are. It just naturally flows. We don’t have a moment where we’re stuck because one person doesn’t agree with something or whatever.
“I’m a rudimentary guitar player, so if I’ve got a pretty nice chord progression for a chorus or verse, I’ll think, ‘What do I do for a bridge?’ I have to ask J.D. or Brad, where can we go from here? … We don’t ever hit a snag where we have a disagreement over it. Everybody steps forward and steps back when they want to. It’s just unspoken. We just always know. Brad is a master musician and guitar player. We may tell him a vibe we want sometimes on a lead solo or whatever. We tell him the type of thing we’re looking for and just let him go. He’s terrific. Then Teddy, as most keyboard players are, they’re usually the most knowledgeable musicians. So far, Teddy hasn’t written a lot of songs with us, but we plan on doing some more because when he writes songs on piano they’re very different than writing songs on guitar.”
Thornton and Andrew founded the Boxmasters in 2007, and the band has released three albums on Vanguard Records, including Modbilly, which topped the Americana charts for two weeks in 2009 and was named No. 14 on the Americana Music Association’s 2009 Top 100 albums of the year. The band coined the phrase “modbilly” to describe their fusion of rockabilly and British invasion influences.
Thornton was an accomplished musician long before he was an acclaimed actor and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. He recorded four solo projects before launching the Boxmasters, and each member of the band has recorded solo and contributed to such Grammy-winning projects as Warren Zevon‘s The Wind and Earl Scruggs‘ Earl Scruggs & Friends.
Andrew and Thornton met when Thornton was working on a solo project. “I got called to help finish Beautiful Door, which was Billy’s fourth record, as an engineer,” Andrew says. “While we were working on that one day somebody had called in to say they wanted him to do a Hank Williams cover for a TV show. So he came in one day and said, ‘Hey, I want you to play guitar.’ We did it. It sounded real cool, and we went from there. We finished Beautiful Door and dove right into starting the Boxmasters.”
Andrew and Thornton connected in their appreciation for British bands and classic country. “Everything started for me with the Beach Boys and the Beatles,” says Andrew. “As a kid I never listened to what was going on, what was current. I grew up in the middle of Kansas and it’s not really a hot bed for trends. I listened to country radio and the oldies channel.
“I remember this show called Solid Gold Saturday Night every weekend. They played all these British invasion songs. That’s what I grew up on. I’ve always been drawn to the stuff that’s really jangly and really poppy, makes you excited, makes you want to dance. That’s what I bring. Billy wants the story to be the focus. Sometimes I try to help him make the story a little more exciting and palatable like, ‘Let’s kick it out a few beats per minute’ or ‘make the chorus bigger, something a little more pop.'”
In signing with 101 Ranch Records, Thornton joins longtime friend Mark Collie on the label’s roster. “With Vanguard, we got as far as we could go. It was a good thing. Our second record, Modbilly, actually went to No. 1 on the Americana charts. We had a great time there,” says Thornton. “We hooked up with 101 through Mark Collie. Mark and I were just checking in with each other. He mentioned this new label. He said, ‘Are you guys recording anything right now?’ I said, ‘Yes we’ve got records in the can.’ He said, ‘We ought to hook up and write some songs together and if you guys are interested in signing with this label we’d love to have you.’
“He explained it to us how they’re very artist-friendly — in other words they’re not a label that’s looking for a number one pop hit where you have to sell millions of records or anything like that. He said it’s about the artist’s vision. A lot of people tell you that, but when an old friend of yours says that, you believe it. They couldn’t have been nicer. They made a great deal with us and gave us a lot of freedom.”
Based in Nashville, 101 Ranch Records was founded by Bob Simpson, co-founder of XTO Energy and co-owner of the Texas Rangers, and his wife Janice. Teresa Vinson serves as VP of Operations for 101 Ranch. In 2012, the Simpsons launched the Christian label RayLynn Records. Tammy Collie is part of the management team at 101 Ranch and also serves as VP/GM of RayLynn.
One of the things Thornton is looking forward to about the new association with 101 is collaborating with Collie for his upcoming record and going on tour.
“Just the fact that we’re going on the road with Mark, it’s kind of a perfect marriage in a lot of ways because out of all the country singers that we know, Mark is the closest to what we do,” Thornton says. “The vibe is just right.”
Thornton says the game plan is to release a single from each side of Somewhere Down the Road and possibly a collaboration with Collie as well. “We wrote a couple of songs with Collie and I think they want to try to put out one of those as a single also,” he says. “Remember when Marty Stuart and Travis Tritt used to tour together? They were kind of linked together. We’re kind of doing that with Collie. We’ll tour together. We’ll put records out around the same time, and we’ve co-written songs and such. We’re kind of making a nice little marriage here.”
In addition to the upcoming Boxmasters album, Andrew and Thornton have also written a play that explores the impact of technology on life and culture. “There’s one guy who’s really interested in making a Broadway show out of it,” says Thornton of “Dinosaur,” which he describes a rock opera in the vein of the Who‘s Tommy. “One interesting thing about the whole rock opera is it has so many different styles of music on it. A good thing about doing a thematic album, a rock opera or whatever you call it, is that you’re not tied to making one sound. You can use a lot of different voices. We just took a bunch of subjects that we were perturbed by and basically, at the end of the day, it’s about people who grew up in the heyday of rock ‘n roll and the heyday of television, movies, books and culture, and everything else. How does a person like that get by these days and times without going crazy?”