The Plainsman Press - South Plains College

Grayson Thomas, entertainment editor

Jason Boland & The Stragglers are a popular, lively, Texas Country band fighting for the top of the charts and paving a new path at every turn.

After seven consecutive years of touring across the nation, the abrupt collapse of front man Boland brought in a quick and very sharp reality check for the entire band.

From Oct. 17-Nov. 22, the band went on break to re-stabilize the band as a whole and to put some pieces back together in life that might have slipped loose somewhere in the middle.

Band members Roger Ray (lead guitar), Brad Rice (drums), Noah Jeffries (fiddle/ mandolin), and Grant Tracy (bass) used the time to catch up on some much needed rest and relaxation.

Jason Boland & the Stragglers were back in concert Nov. 23 in Corpus Christi. The band is expecting to jam at Wild West in Lubbock on Dec. 30, just in time for the New Year. The concert will be at 10:30 p.m.

The band is expecting to release a new album in 2006, which will be their fifth album. Existing albums include the most recent “Somewhere in the Middle”, 2004’s “Truckstop Diaries”, 2002’s release “Live and Lit at Billy Bob’s,” and their debut album “Pearl Snaps” in 1999.

Boland was born in Oklahoma City and grew up in a little town close by. Boland dabbled a little bit in college in Stillwater, Okla., and as he says, he ”graduated, but I don’t have a diploma…because I got the life experiences that I needed, and I believe that God always puts you where you need to be at what time for what length of time.” But after about 10 years in Stillwater, he decided to head south to Texas.

In 1992, Boland started writing his own songs and started playing publicly in 1995. His first gig was in a place called Key Midwest in Stillwater, where a friend set him up on a Saturday night.

“You’re still nervous in some aspects always” Boland said. “There’s good nervous and bad nervous.” Good nervous would be more like getting ready and being pumped up with a ‘let’s do this’ attitude with the intent and mind set to jam out and pull off a great performance.

Boland says that he pulls the majority of his inspiration for his songwriting from life itself. Boland adds that “a lot of people just brush past everything…it’s all around you. Woody Guthrie said one time that if you don’t have anything to write about, you just need to stop and look around…Inspiration is not fame, but I still want to play the music I write for as many people as I could.” Boland says he remembers the days when he would “play a tennis racket guitar to “Yummy, yummy, yummy I got Love in my tummy,” I was probably four.”

That’s the side of Jason Boland that isn’t demonstrated on stage. He doesn’t just try to cover up an embarrassing story, but he embraces it and turns it into something, as he does with his songwriting. So many artists in different genres are just faces in Hollywood, who just play the songs that they’re told to play or sing just to please the crowd, but have no sentimental attachment to the song and therefore cannot perform it correctly or as well as someone else might who have been there in some way.

Boland says he still always does songs from songwriters that inspire him such as Bob Childers, Mike McClure, and Steve Earl.

“The day I wrote “The Back Side of Blues” was the first day I bought a Billy Joe Shaver album.” Boland said. “[Shaver] is just amazing… I love Johnny Cash, but it’s not my style. I love Merle Haggard, but I can’t sing like that. You just kinda get your own style and people that touch you.”

At the end of the day, Boland’s biggest satisfaction is love and friends. He says that it’s all about people and friends. Hangin’ out and meeting new people is what matters to him.

To perform a giant performance is to appreciate a great performance. Boland says his most memorable concerts included his first concert experience seeing Bon Jovi and Cinderella, and his second concert, which was Run DMC and the Beastie Boys.

“That was a cool concert. I was probably 14.” Boland’s performances blow out those of his competition, such as Pat Green and Cooder Graw.

Boland says that the funniest memory from on stage was when he and a friend stage dived and nobody was there to catch them.

“The crowd was thinning… I laughed my [butt] off.” Laughing, he says that now he always asks the big guys to the front before he dives.

Jason Boland and the Stragglers have been together since the fall of 1998, but when they started out, each of them was starting something new. Boland says that he had never been a front man before, the bass player didn’t play bass, Roger played “mean guitar, but didn’t really play steel,” and the drummer was more of a rock-n-roll drummer. “We’ve been through it,” Boland added, “We used to drive around in a Suburban with no heat and no air conditioning, until I finally just crashed it and broke my hip, I showed that thing,” says Boland.

Boland’s dry humor and charming personality makes it hard not to like him. Things are getting better for the band, and needless to say, they’ve upgraded to proper transportation.

Boland is a prime example of someone who knows how to take the good with the bad and learn from all of it. Even through a trying time in rehab, Boland is always optimistic for the future and says that he is “looking forward to many more years of this extraordinary life that I get to call my job.” He says he just needed a little time to “mend the fences” in his mind.

For a bit of fun, and in order to get to know and show who Boland really is, I found out a few fun facts about him Q & A style.

Q: What’s your favorite word/phrase to hear?

Boland: “Ya’ll Rock!”

Q: What’s your favorite emotion?

Boland: “Passion. Whatever you’re passionate about”

Q: Favorite place?

Boland: “Minus my bed at home? We went to a cathedral in France last summer. You’re in a building older that the country you live in. It’s like you can feel a billion prayers at once. I’m not Catholic or anything, I still went up and lit a candle and had a moment of pause…From the cool air to the stained glass, it was one of my favorite places ever.

Q: Favorite cartoon show?

Boland: “Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny”

Q: Are you wearing pearl snaps right now?

Boland: Yes, I am. I just slept in this one.

Q: Which do you prefer: blondes, brunettes, or redheads?

Boland: “Blondes. My wife is blonde. Actually, all people are beautiful in their own way.”

Q: Favorite sound?

Boland: “The uproar of a crowd”

Be sure to catch Jason Boland & The Stragglers at Wild West where you’ll likely catch great hits from his last album such as “Mexico or Crazy”, “When I’m Stoned,” and “Love Song.”

Boland is one of the strongest artists out there today. At every turn in life, he has always seemed to see the upside to anger and the brighter sides of darker days.