Savage next generation of Texas country

by Hilary McNamara, entertainment editor

Joseth Savage is “just a old farm boy who occasionally puts on tennis shoes.”

He is the next generation of super star Texas country musicians. Music came at an early age for Savage, as he started a DJ service when he was a junior in high school at Portales, N.M. because he “loved music a lot, every aspect of it.” 

If “I got stressed out about something or worried bout something, I end up writing,” Savage said.

 From there, his music infatuation grew. When he was a senior in high school, he bought his dad an old black guitar from a pawn shop for Christmas. The next fall, his father dropped him off at school and handed him that guitar, telling him to pick it up instead of going out with friends.

“He told me it’s a good habit to have,” Savage recalled.

Amazingly, when Savage got home the next Christmas, he sat down and played that guitar for his dad, and his dad realized he was not horrible.

“That Christmas, he took that old guitar, sold it and bought me a full body Washburn,” Savage said. “I still have that guitar, and I still write songs with it.”

One of the first songs that Savage wrote was called “There’s Gotta Be a Place,” about a girl he was dating while he was at Clarendon Junior College and she was going to Texas Tech University.

“I wrote it because the distance was making things really hard,” Savage said.    

From there, he just kept playing. Savage said jokingly that he was soon known as the “guy that plays guitar,” and people would be in his dorm room every night and just listen to him playing. Eventually, they all began to sing his favorite country music song, and Savage’s career started from there.

After graduating from Clarendon, Savage enrolled at Texas Tech. He wanted to get a band together, and it so happened that one of his roommates who he had never met played the guitar. They also knew a drummer that sometimes played with them. The first show they ever played was at Buffalo Wild Wings at an open jam.

“My hero since I was little has always Chris Ledoux, and that show was when he passed away,” Savage says. “ That was four years ago. After that, I do not think my guitar ever made it to its case. I was always playing.”

Another important aspect to Savage’s music is his guitar.

“I had to borrow people’s electric ones to plug in, and I started to play more and more,” Savage said. For my birthday, my parents told me I could order a guitar in January and my birthday was in June,” Savage said. “I wanted a Takemine, because my dad always said one of these days you might be good enough to play a Takemine. So I ordered this solid black one that Garth Brooks plays. It ends up that when it got there, they sent the wrong guitar. But, the next night I had a show to play, and I was so mad during the whole show. But I loved that guitar. After that, I have never been able to put it down. That is one guitar I will never give up.”

 Savage’s music is not the generic country we hear today. He gives the fans true emotions in each song he sings.

“The reason that music touches people is because it affects them on a personal level,” Savage said. “A lot of people cannot express themselves through any other means than music, so for a song to be generalized is an insult, especially in Texas Country. You write something because something happened to you and that is what you feel.”

Musically, Savage says he will never be content with where he is at.

“I hope I never am content with it,” Savage says. “I hope I always have the passion and the drive to always make it better and take music to that next level.”

That is what he is currently trying to do, thanks to his former boss for a summer job, Walter Moon. Moon decided to help Savage’s career by funding his music and CD. Savage is taking his band “Seth Savage Band” to Austin to make their first independent CD. One song expected to be included is “Wrong Turn,” about a girl who Savage met while working at Texas Tech. After standing her up, they finally hung out, but Savage’s friend told him to be mean, because girls like mean guys. Unfortunately, he took that to heart and was a little too mean, so she stopped talking to him.

Savage has waited to record and release his CD because, “I wanted to gather a fan base so people knew who I was and would want to buy my CD.”

After the CD release, he is working on doing a radio tour, which consists of him traveling around Texas to radio stations playing live on the air, doing interviews, and then having them spin his single. Savage says with certainty that he will never go Nashville.         “ I am not quite high society material,” Savage said.

Look for the Seth Savage Band on Fridays at Bash Riprock’s in Lubbock, starting at 4 p.m. This is one musician who is here to stay.

“I love to play, because that is who I am, and Texas country is probably the truest form of music on the planet,” Savage says. “I would say, there is no sugar coating it. There is no big dreams. It is the way things should be. It’s reality. I like that aspect. While I do have big dreams and great aspirations, I would like to think I am pretty down to earth.”

Joseth Savage of the Seth Savage Band.
Photo by Laura Norris/Plainsman Press