Review Fix Exclusive: No Dry Country’s Trent Langford Talks ‘Panhandle Music’ And More

Review Fix chats with No Dry Country’s Trent Langford, who discusses the band’s new album “Panhandle Music.”

Review Fix: How did the band get together? Or How did you get started in music?

Trent Langford: The Blue Light Live in Lubbock, TX has been supplying NDC with musicians since 2009. There have been a total of 10 members in that time span. Much more than a music venue, Blue Light and the musical family it has cultivated over the last 20 years has really been the one constant and a true hub for music in the Panhandle.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Langford: For this record, we did our writing and pre-production in Turkey, TX.  Both Bristen and Trent’s families are from Turkey, so we spent a lot of time there growing up.  It’s just shy of 300 people but rich in music history and has been the perfect place for us to isolate ourselves and hopefully find a bit of inspiration.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song on the current album? How was it written?

Langford:
The song I’m most excited for people to hear would have to be SS 14.  It has a dirt surf vibe that sounds like something that could have been on Weezer’s Blue Album, but the story sticks to the album’s character theme, chronicling the daydreams of a BNSF engineer on his run between Clovis and Belen, NM.  This one was actually written entirely during tracking at Yellow Dog Studios in scenic Wimberly, TX and sonically, is different than anything we’ve put out in the past.

Review Fix: What did you learn from this last album? How did it affect your future?

Langford: We learned that Adam J. Odor is a magical, magical wizard behind the glass and that reverb is good and more reverb is always better.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?

Langford: Meet Natalie Maines.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you?

Langford: The Panhandle of Texas has played host to thousands of years of warrior horsemen, ranching pioneers, music revolutionaries, and eccentric artists of all sorts.  A cast of characters set in the most dramatic landscape and violent weather you’re likely to experience anywhere.  Wind chimes tling tlinging on  front porches, creaking windmills and swinging gates, bending and twisting their dissonant metallic sounds in the constant and often deafening wind.  Like the oceans roar,  the violent thunderstorms and massive waves of sweeping dirt pound relentlessly and unobstructed on every man-made structure.  For that reason we’ve chosen to focus on the electric heritage of Texas music.  Our land is loud, and we feel we should be loud as well.
Panhandle Music is an album that tells the story of the people within this landscape, from their deepest despairs to their highest hopes.  Everyone has their mountains to climb, even in a land as flat as ours.  Their illusions and expectations set the stage and tell their bittersweet stories of a place they can’t save and never truly escape.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Langford:
I’d love for people to feel as if their listening to the soundtrack of a movie that was scripted to recount the electric heritage of our landscape.

Review Fix: Why is this new album special?

Langford: It’s a mixture of all the musical ideas that are near and natural to us. This record gave us an opportunity to research our region’s heritage and musical history and hopefully do it some justice by describing the experiences unique to its people.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Langford: We hope this record is successful enough to help us provide for our families and still be able to play shows and continue to grow as musicians and make better and better records.  Our formula has always been to make good music, play it for people who enjoy it, rinse, repeat.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Langford: Treat yourself to Ross Cooper’s new record “I Rode The Wild Horses.” Thank us at a show.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13820 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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