Concert Recap and Photo Gallery: Flatland Cavalry Throws a Homecoming Party at Cook’s Garage

One of the most beloved bands to come out of the Lubbock Texas Country scene, Flatland Cavalry kicked off Cook’s Garage’s outdoor concert season on Saturday night.

I do want to say something real quick before I go in-depth about the show. There are going to be a lot more pictures than I usually post and there are two reasons for that. The first is that as an early birthday present, my parents got me a Canon Camera to take better pictures with. The second is that Cook’s Garage was nice enough to grant me and the station’s Technical Producer and host of Gettin’ By, Zach Sorrells, media credentials for the show. I can’t thank the staff of the venue enough for their kindness and the opportunity to cover this show in an even cooler way.

The show started at 7:15 p.m. with music from JoJo DiSalvo who was fun and definitely was self-aware that he was the first person to play. He took that in stride though and made sure to have fun with the people that did care to listen to him. Before one of his songs, he said, “I’m gonna do something that’s never ever been done before!” An audience member behind me yelled, “SURPRISE ME MAN!” to which JoJo responded, “I got you man! I’m gonna blow your socks off.” He then proceeded to do a mashup of Merle Haggard’s Workin’ Man Blues and Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. His set did mainly rely on covers but he still had some solid solo material along with being super fun on stage. He threw stickers out to the people who got there early, encouraged a sing-a-long to his cover of Broken Window Serenade, and made the most of his early slot.

After a set change, Ian Munsick took the stage and tore it up for his hour-long opening slot. I was familiar with Munsick and kind of knew his music going into this show but he blew me away. He is a natural-born entertainer and his set was just so. much. fun. He really knows how to get a crowd going and he was so enthusiastic on stage. He was also really passionate about being a part of the country genre. About 3/4 of the way through his set, Ian came on stage after a fiddle solo and asked the crowd, “Texas! Don’t you think there needs to be a little more fiddle in country music??” That single sentence got one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night.

While I do think a lot of Munsick’s studio material is pretty cheesy, these songs translated incredibly well live. Munsick opened his set with Mountain Time and Humble, both of which the crowd loved. While walking up to the suites to take more pictures I watched him play Cowboy Killer which had a lot of people in the back and far sides dancing and enjoying themselves. He also had a lot of people singing along to Long Haul and Horses Are Faster, both of which are great songs and during the latter, I had to move out of the way as too many people were two-stepping around me. Oh, yeah, I also have to mention that Ian threw in a really fun and unexpected cover of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. I can’t say more about it than that he killed it and I support more country artists covering Fleetwood Mac songs.

After Munsick left the stage, the PA played some house music and whoever the DJ is, I need to give them props because they had a solid selection. They went from Tyler Childers to George Strait to Turnpike Troubadours and they did a great job of keeping everyone energized in between sets.

As 10:15 rolled around, fans started chanting the band’s name as JR from The Red Dirt Rebel took the stage to introduce the band. However, he wasn’t the only person to introduce them as he brought a friend out on the stage. His friend was none other than Texas Tech’s new Head Football Coach, Joey McGuire.

I truly and honestly cannot wait for football games this season if he’s going to be keeping this same energy up. He seems to truly love this city and love this school. I can also brag and say both me and Zach got to meet him in the suites while we were taking pictures and he is an incredibly nice guy. He took time to learn our names, ask about what we were doing, and was excited to see how excited I was about the upcoming football season. Oh, and of course, he couldn’t leave without doing a “Raider Power” chant:

As McGuire took the stage, the lights on stage turned red and Flatland took the stage before launching into Dancin’ Around a Fire, one of my favorite songs from their latest album, Welcome to Countryland. For the next hour and 45 minutes, the band proved an opinion that I’ve believed to be true since the first time I saw them live last October. Flatland Cavalry is one of the best live bands in the Texas Country scene today. Seriously, they are almost untouchable. In a scene that’s as big as this one is to the state, there are a lot of bands that I’ve loved on record but then seen live and just been disappointed. Flatland is different. I could probably count on one hand how many times I looked and saw frontman Cleto Cordero not smiling. The band as a whole is full of talented musicians and from the looks of it, they all love their jobs. There was just so much positive energy coming off the stage as they played and the crowd was equally as responsive.

Another thing to note is that Flatland is one of those bands that can take a song you aren’t crazy over or a song you think is just good and make it great when they play it live. And if you already love the song, you’ll love it even more. A song like …Meantime is an example of the first point for me because I was never crazy about the song but to see them flawlessly pull off all of the key changes live made me appreciate it even more. For the latter point…where do I start? I could spend the rest of this writeup talking about songs I loved already sounding even better live but to keep it short, Stompin’ Grounds, Old School, and Some Things Never Change were probably my favorite performances of the night.

Also fantastic was the crowd. There were a lot of huge sing-a-longs, especially to the songs Tall City Blues and one of their biggest hits, One I Want. One of my favorite moments of the night, however, was during the song Country Is… where Cordero split the crowd in half and gave too simple instructions. If you were on his left, sing the line, “that ain’t country!” and if you were on his right, say the phrase “HELL NAH!” The results were spectacular and it was even cooler to hear from behind the stage.

If there are any complaints I have about Saturday night’s show, it has to be the setlist. It wasn’t bad by any means it was just, in my opinion, confusing? For starters, 4 of the band’s 5 first songs were from the new album, Welcome to Countryland which I’ve always maintained that unless the songs were giant smash hits, it’s always weird to jump out of the gate and open the show with a new song. I was also surprised that Traveller’s Song and A Life Where We Work Out, two of the band’s biggest songs, were omitted from the setlist. I can understand why the latter was cut, possibly because Cordero’s wife and the female voice on the song, Kaitlin Butts, wasn’t able to make it. However, Traveller’s Song not making it in just hurt. I did however enjoy most of the other inclusions. I finally got to hear Honeywine live, one of my favorite songs of theirs. And that 5th song not from Welcome To Countryland was Stompin’ Grounds which I’ve already said is great live and is perfect in the opening run.

The show ended with the band covering Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? by Waylon Jennings which was a fantastic way to end the night, mainly because it was really neat to see Cordero not just band an electric guitar but also play a solid solo while dropping to his knees to close the song out.

However, my favorite and the coolest moment of the night was after the show. As the final notes of their Waylon cover rang out, the band came out to give away setlists, drumsticks, guitar picks, and shake hands with people but there was an eventual domino effect which then led members of the band to sign autographs from the stage, taking selfies on peoples phones, and recording videos either sending messages to friends or to family members. Multi-Instrumentalist Adam Gallegos even signed one fan’s Taco Bell gift card. They all had giant smiles on their faces and probably would’ve stayed and talked to people until the sun came up if they could’ve.

What struck though while getting to talk to a few of the guys from the stage was just how nice they are. While another buddy and I were one of the last 10 or so people to get to talk to Cleto, he still talked to us like we were old friends and still was happy to record a video wishing a friend Happy Birthday through video and take a selfie with me. He also recorded a liner for the radio station from the stage for Zach (listen out for it on the radio) and told me news about the upcoming Panhandlers album that I don’t think I’m allowed to explicitly share, all I can say is that this summer is going to be pretty great.

So, just to reiterate, Flatland Cavalry is an incredible live band and if you like country music and haven’t had the chance to see them yet, I highly recommend going to their website and seeing when they’re playing either in or near your city.

Flatland Cavalry’s Setlist:
Dancin’ Around a Fire
It’s Good To Be Back (‘Round Here Again)
A Cowboy Knows How
Stompin’ Grounds
No Ace In The Hole
Tall City Blues
…Country Is
Pretty Woman
Goodbye Kiss
Other Side of Lonesome
Come Back Down
Old School
No Shade of Green
…Meantime
Some Things Never Change
Callin’ Baton Rouge (Oak Ridge Boys Cover)
Gettin’ By (Three Little Birds by Bob Marley outro)
One I Want

Encore:
Honeywine
Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way (Waylon Jennings Cover)