Rogers' 'Neon' shines light on '90s influences

Randy Rogers is feeling his age a little bit.

The singer - frontman for the eponymous Randy Rogers Band, one of the leading lights in the Texas country scene - knows he has begun making the transition between upstart and veteran, and he's using that position to make just the kind of music he wants to.

Thus, last month's new "Nothing Shines Like Neon," which the band is promoting with a tour that returns to Amarillo for a 9 p.m. Saturday show at Midnight Rodeo, 4400 S. Georgia St. Local band Dan Johnson & Salt Cedar Rebels will open, part of the venue's Amarillo Live! Hometown Jam Sessions.

"As a band, I think we're just at a spot where we can ... feel creative," Rogers said. "I don't think we're necessarily the old guys yet, but we've been around."

Rogers hired veteran producer Buddy Cannon - who has worked with the likes of Reba McEntire, John Michael Montgomery and Kenny Chesney - to work on the album, which was designed to be a throwback to the music he grew up with.

"It's a little bit different direction (than 2013's 'Trouble'), and that was on purpose," Rogers said. "We talked about making a record of songs influenced by our adolescence in the early '90s, some of our childhood heroes like George Strait.

"Hiring Buddy Cannon, to me he's like Mr. Country Music," Rogers continued. "He and I wrote 'Tequila Eyes' and 'Pour One for the Poor One,' two of the countriest things we've ever recorded."

Rogers traces "the formation of my musical journey" to listening to acts like Strait and Garth Brooks - and he's still a major fan.

"We have '90s country night on the bus. We get on iTunes and watch videos from that era," Rogers said. "My fiddle player (Brady Black) can sing every word to every Tracy Byrd song. I can sing every word to every Mark Chesnutt song.

"I really enjoy that music still. I think there was this kind of purity to that music at the time," Rogers said. "They were acknowledging the people they were influenced by, instead of just trying to make a buck or make a hit."

The band hit the studio in March, well before country outlaw Chris Stapleton began making major waves in Nashville - which some believe could portend a shift away from the party-hearty bro-country to a more traditional sound. That's a spot Rogers and his band could fill, as well.

"It's awesome to watch (Stapleton) be so successful and have the recognition nationally that his record got," Rogers said. "I don't know that it's going to change anything necessarily, other than bring to light the talent that is out there that doesn't fit into the Top 40 format."

how to go

o What: The Randy Rogers Band with Dan Johnson & Salt Cedar Rebels

o When: 9 p.m. Saturday

o Where: Midnight Rodeo, 4400 S. Georgia St.

o How much: $17 in advance, $20 day of show ages 21 and older and $23 day of show ages 18 to 20

o Information: 806-358-7083 or www.midnightrodeoamarillo.com