Parker McCollum, Gary Allan, and Josh Abbott Band

Having been on the scene for almost twenty years as a fully-fledged recording artist, Gary Allan’s career has earned him some fantastic accolades over time, seeing this recording artist dominate not only the country charts but the Billboard Charts too. Not only this but he has a live show to match, performing with such charisma and conviction.

It all started at home with his parents in La Mirada, California, where his mother would encourage him to play guitars and then at age thirteen when he began playing in honky tonks with his father. He is truly one of those artists who built a career from the ground up, building up his reputation, starting in bars, and then moving on to clubs. His success story is quite something too, as Allan had a job selling cars and left one of his demo cassettes in the glove box of a truck that he sold. Upon realising that Allan was the singer, they wrote him a cheque for $12,000, which funded Allan to journey to Nashville to record some songs that were on an early demo, which caught the attention of some of the biggest labels in the world, and the rest as they say is history.

It’s no wonder that over the years, Allan has been able to maintain such a successful career, which has had some highs and lows with some devastating twists and turns, but he has always come out fighting with his raspy and unpolished sound.

The band was formed by lead singer Josh Abbott when he was attending Texas Tech University. Josh Abbott was inspired to form a band after he saw one of his favorite bands, the Randy Rogers Band, perform at a local venue. Josh Abbott recruited a few of his fraternity brothers from school to be in the band and by 2007 the band recorded a demo called “Taste”. After a few lineup changes the band consisted of the members: vocalist/guitarist Josh Abbott, banjo player Austin Davis, guitarist/fiddle player Preston Wait, drummer Edward Villanueva, bassist James Hertless, and guitarist Caleb Keeter.

By 2008 the band was already touring regularly and drawing in much bigger crowds than expected. Josh Abbott’s strong work ethic and personable characteristics was a big factor to their success. At one of the band’s first shows in Oklahoma City Josh Abbott invited every fan in the venue to come back to the merch table so he could thank them personally for coming and to give them a free CD. Gestures like this have proven successful for the band and have conveyed a sense of sincerity to their fans.

In 2008 Josh Abbott Band released their debut album called “Scapegoat”. The album followed the genre of country rock and produced the songs “Buried Me” and “Good Night For Dancing”. In 2010 the Josh Abbott Band released their second studio album “She’s Like Texas”. The album did significantly well on the charts for an independent release, reaching the No. 28 spot on the US Country chart and No. 5 on the US Heatseekers chart. The album also was well received by critics and garnered comparison to Steve Earle’s music. The album contained the singles “She’s Like Texas”, “Road Trippin’”, and “Oh, Night”, which was a collaboration with Kacey Musgraves. The success of the album drew in a larger fan base for the band and in 2010 they played their first sold out concert.

In 2012 the band released their third album “Small Town Family Dream”. The album’s style contained the band’s signature country rock sound and produced the singles “Touch”, I’ll Sing About Mine”, and “She Will Be Free”. The album also shows the band covering two songs by one of their favorite musicians, Terry Allen. The songs they covered were “FFA” and “Flatland Farmer”. The album also shows the band collaborating with another one of Abbott’s heroes, Pat Green. The album did well on the charts reaching the No. 5 position on the US Country chart and the No. 2 position on the US Indie chart.

The band released their EP “Tuesday Night” in 2014 through Atlantic Records. The EP achieved success on the charts, reaching the No. 12 position on the US Country charts. The EP also produced the hit single “Hangin’ Around”. The Josh Abbott Band is inspired by the impact they make on their fans and this inspiration causes them to consistently tour in order to make that strong connection with their fans.