In November, less than a week after Texas rock band Treaty Oak Revival released their second album, Have a nice day, the group took the stage in front of approximately 2,000 fans at JJ's Live in Fayetteville, Arkansas. At one point that night, they started playing “See You in Court,” an indignant track that makes divorce sound like trench warfare. The song's opening line throws the listener into the middle of the melee: “Boy, you're done now/ That's what she told me.”
The JJs crowd “shouted us,” singer Sam Canty recalls. Have a nice day it was only six days old, but “it didn't take long for people to memorize the words.”
Six months later, Treaty Oak Revival routinely sells more than 5,000 tickets in top Texas markets, and the band's catalog earns more than 15 million streams a week in the U.S., according to Luminate. Their path is decidedly old-school: In an era when many artists garner attention through viral moments on social media, Treaty Oak Revival win over fans by “playing[ing] the craziest, loudest, most fun shows we possibly can,” as Canty puts it.
Labels from each of the three major record companies are now interested in the band. “Everybody's after us,” acknowledges Eli Kidd, who co-manages Treaty Oak Revival. “We're from Odessa, Texas – this kind of thing isn't supposed to happen.”
The band's ability to build “slowly but surely, largely by word of mouth, couldn't be more impressive,” says a major label executive interested in signing them. But the Treaty Oak Revival aren't so sure they need help.
While the band hails from Texas, known for its “red dirt country” live scene, Treaty Oak Revival blasts hard-hitting bar rock — at times their sharp riffs are reminiscent of early '90s Neil Young. Sometimes they make the tastes of an early 00's pop-punk group. That combination fits the band members' backgrounds: bassist Andrew Carey formerly played in an entertainment outfit in Abilene, guitarist Jeremiah Vanley enjoyed a stint in a classic rock cover band, and drummer Cody Holloway has a metal background. (His nephew Jeremiah Lance completes the line-up on rhythm guitar.)
“People want to see the Texas country band in Texas, but not a lot of people say, 'Oh, I want to go see this rock show,'” Canty explains. “So we used the Texas country name to get people in the door” — the band's name pays homage to a remarkable tree in Austin — “and then we started playing our originals.”
The success of this strategy makes sense at a time when the flimsy wall that once separated country from rock has been virtually torn down by artists like Jelly Roll and Hardy, who have enjoyed country success while also topping the mainstream charts. Rock Airplay and Hot Hard Rock Songs, respectively. . (Many acts traded in muscular hybrids before these two—think Brantley Gilbert—though they didn't find, or perhaps sought, the same recognition in rock as they did in country.)
Of course, the Texas scene has its own home-grown fusions. When Koe Wetzel, who grew up in Pittsburgh, Texas, was released Noise complaint In 2016, the goal was to make something like “country grunge,” according to Taylor Kimball, a producer with a metal background who oversaw the album. “We cut it and it started blowing up and that opened doors for other artists,” Kimball continues. “The whole genre has changed quite a bit since then.” (Wetzel announced that he signed with Columbia Records in 2020 and is currently enjoying traction on TikTok with his new single “Sweet Dreams.”)
Treaty Oak Revival took some time to master the style that has become their calling card. Canty describes the group's first album, There is no vacancy (2021), as scattered; this is partly because he had started writing many of the songs years ago while he was “on a country kick”.
New bandmates opened up new musical possibilities, leading Canty to write “Ode to Bourbon,” a foaming guitar shredder, and “No Vacancy,” a lonely, lonely wanderer. He considers this pair of tracks “the two that we started to get into our style.”
Between There is no vacancy and Have a nice day, Treaty Oak Revival criss-crossed West Texas, playing to steadily growing crowds. When Andrew McWilliams, founder of Evergreen Artist Group, became their booking agent, “that's when it really started to take off,” according to Canty. “I work with a lot of bands in this scene, and I was just hearing their name,” adds Kimball.
The Treaty Oak Revival also inspired fervent acts of devotion even when they were relatively fresh. one fan drove 14 hours from South Dakota to see them early. When the band discovered the extent of her commitment, “we were disappointed,” Kidd recalls. (Kidd has been a contractor in the oil and gas industry for more than a decade and still works two weeks a month in the oil fields; he co-runs the band with Bob Doyle & Associates, whose roster includes Garth Brooks and Zach Top.)
By the time Treaty Oak Revival were ready to record a second album, they had played enough gigs that they knew what they were aiming for. They mostly produced the album themselves, while also tracking drums and vocals with the help of Kimball, who mixed the record.
Apart from the vicious 'See You in Court', the other explosive high note Have a nice day it's “In Between,” an unruly track about a one-sided relationship that crashes and burns. Throughout the album, Canty's narrators often struggle. “I wish you'd take a moment to feel bad for me,” he sings on “Wrong Place, Wrong Time,” where the lead singer seems ready to volunteer for a prison sentence — “the only damn way to keep myself straight is having a hard time ». (“Many of his accounts are simply different,” notes Kimball.)
When backed up against a wall, however, Canty characters are more likely to take jabs than fall over. Sometimes the target is an ex. “Have a Nice Day” has a kind title, but this line follows a kiss: “I hope the swinging door hits you on the way.” The revulsion of the narrators is often turned inward as well. one song is simply titled “I'm the Worst”.
The band uploaded Have a nice day and its streaming service predecessor Distrokid — which only charges artists a small annual fee to put up unlimited music — meaning the band will keep all of its rights as it compiles games. Plus, Texas has enough avid listeners that artists can build substantial live careers there without a national profile. The Treaty Oak Revival has already grown outside the area as well. In the following months, they will play to sold-out crowds in St. Louis, Missouri (around 2,000) and Des Moines, Iowa (over 2,600).
But under the right circumstances, Kidd believes Treaty Oak Revival can benefit from the reach of the majors: “If we're going to do this globally, then it's time to find a partner with boots on the ground in these other places his world.”
The group has some leverage in negotiations because it has already proven that it can build an audience, which is the biggest challenge in the music industry today. Actors in this position usually want to retain ownership of their recordings and enter into a profit-sharing agreement with their label.
While negotiations progress, Treaty Oak Revival plans to re-enter the studio in July to re-record some songs in a “rootsy” style. Before that, of course, there are more shows to come.
As the band plays, Kidd likes to watch the crowd. “Whenever they perform a song from the new album, you'll see people screaming every word,” he says. “And then they play a song from the first album and you'll see some people looking around like, 'I don't know those words.'
Kidd finds this confusion encouraging. “This is a new fan,” he explains. “That's great: we're reaching more people.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/treaty-oak-revival-texas-band-major-label-1235689284/
