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What downside could there be for a freshman singer-songwriter to be tapped for CMT on Tour 2009, the Country Music Television event that, in years past, has given early career boosts to artists including Keith Urban, Brad Paisley://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/28/entertainment/ca-bradpaisley28 and Sugarland?
"We have to carry so much equipment now that I had to take my bike off the trailer," said Randy Houser, who's Southern California-bound for his show Sunday at Club Nokia with fellow songwriter and motorcycle enthusiast Jamey Johnson. "We're working on getting a new trailer so I can saddle up my motorcycle in the front."
Apart from that tiny hitch, things are good for Houser these days. The 33-year-old Mississippian sounded pretty psyched about getting in front of audiences on this tour with Johnson, both of whom have been lauded as refreshingly authentic new voices in country.
Houser's rowdy "Boots On" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the country singles chart, helped along in no small part by a whimsical video featuring a toddler in the back seat of a car singing and shredding on a toy guitar along with the hard-charging track. It's gotten more than 1.5 million hits on YouTube.
Many people asked Houser if it had been doctored, but he insists it was genuine footage of Drake Dixon, a friend's child who happened to be enamored of the song about a good ol' boy who is proud of who he is.
The video wasn't Houser's idea. "Somebody smarter than I am came up with that," he said with a hearty laugh earlier this week while on the road between tour stops in Reno, Nev., and Sacramento. "It doesn't tell you anything about me or the song, and my first thought was 'What are we going here guys?' But I understand what they were trying to do -- they were trying to open the door. And I guess they did . . . I love the video. It's like they always say, you can't compete with kids or puppies."
It's helped his debut album, "Anything Goes," sell 128,000 copies since its release last November and certainly figures into his two Country Music Assn. Awards nominations, for new artist and music video of the year. Those will be handed out Nov. 11.
"Boots On's" sharply etched lyrics made it more than just another country song about an artist playing up his rural credentials. More revealing were the title track, written by Brice Long and John Wayne Higgins, and “Lie,” which Houser penned.
The latter is a howlingly clever send-up of all those earnest country ballads sung by men in which they vow only to be interested in long-term romantic commitment.
Houser and Johnson, who snagged song of the year honors last spring at the Academy of Country Music's award ceremony for "That Lonesome Song," are unapologetic in their desire to inject more of life's gritty and sometimes brutal truths to a genre that's gotten hooked in recent years on romantic fantasies.
That said, Houser's not going into the CMA ceremony with any fantasies of vanquishing fellow new artist nominees Johnson, Darius Rucker, Jake Owen and the Zac Brown Band, or the other nominated videos by Taylor Swift, Paisley (with Urban), Billy Currington and George Strait.
"I feel like my chances are definitely between slim and none," he said with another laugh. "Of course awards would be nice and all that, but I don't think that's going to become the measure of what our value is."
He's more excited about the influx of new energy into country music. "You know how you can look across a plain and see a storm coming from eight miles away? I think there's a big old storm coming in Nashville," said Houser, who's working on a sophomore album that's due in the spring. "It seems like they're definitely trying to keep as much pop stuff out there as they can by signing up all these young kiddie bands. But it really seems like people are ready for real music again."
randy.lewis@latimes.com
"We have to carry so much equipment now that I had to take my bike off the trailer," said Randy Houser, who's Southern California-bound for his show Sunday at Club Nokia with fellow songwriter and motorcycle enthusiast Jamey Johnson. "We're working on getting a new trailer so I can saddle up my motorcycle in the front."
Apart from that tiny hitch, things are good for Houser these days. The 33-year-old Mississippian sounded pretty psyched about getting in front of audiences on this tour with Johnson, both of whom have been lauded as refreshingly authentic new voices in country.
Houser's rowdy "Boots On" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the country singles chart, helped along in no small part by a whimsical video featuring a toddler in the back seat of a car singing and shredding on a toy guitar along with the hard-charging track. It's gotten more than 1.5 million hits on YouTube.
Many people asked Houser if it had been doctored, but he insists it was genuine footage of Drake Dixon, a friend's child who happened to be enamored of the song about a good ol' boy who is proud of who he is.
The video wasn't Houser's idea. "Somebody smarter than I am came up with that," he said with a hearty laugh earlier this week while on the road between tour stops in Reno, Nev., and Sacramento. "It doesn't tell you anything about me or the song, and my first thought was 'What are we going here guys?' But I understand what they were trying to do -- they were trying to open the door. And I guess they did . . . I love the video. It's like they always say, you can't compete with kids or puppies."
It's helped his debut album, "Anything Goes," sell 128,000 copies since its release last November and certainly figures into his two Country Music Assn. Awards nominations, for new artist and music video of the year. Those will be handed out Nov. 11.
"Boots On's" sharply etched lyrics made it more than just another country song about an artist playing up his rural credentials. More revealing were the title track, written by Brice Long and John Wayne Higgins, and “Lie,” which Houser penned.
The latter is a howlingly clever send-up of all those earnest country ballads sung by men in which they vow only to be interested in long-term romantic commitment.
Houser and Johnson, who snagged song of the year honors last spring at the Academy of Country Music's award ceremony for "That Lonesome Song," are unapologetic in their desire to inject more of life's gritty and sometimes brutal truths to a genre that's gotten hooked in recent years on romantic fantasies.
That said, Houser's not going into the CMA ceremony with any fantasies of vanquishing fellow new artist nominees Johnson, Darius Rucker, Jake Owen and the Zac Brown Band, or the other nominated videos by Taylor Swift, Paisley (with Urban), Billy Currington and George Strait.
"I feel like my chances are definitely between slim and none," he said with another laugh. "Of course awards would be nice and all that, but I don't think that's going to become the measure of what our value is."
He's more excited about the influx of new energy into country music. "You know how you can look across a plain and see a storm coming from eight miles away? I think there's a big old storm coming in Nashville," said Houser, who's working on a sophomore album that's due in the spring. "It seems like they're definitely trying to keep as much pop stuff out there as they can by signing up all these young kiddie bands. But it really seems like people are ready for real music again."
randy.lewis@latimes.com
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