Randall King with special guest Eli Alger will be performing at Wooly's on Thursday, July 28th, 2022.
DOORS: 7:00 PM // SHOW: 8:00 PM
About Randall King
Take a seat at any old roadhouse bar and look to your left and right. Some people will be there drinking for fun, and others to forget. But on Shot Glass, the major label album debut from Warner Music Nashville’s Randall King, none of them are drinking alone.
A country-music purist whose style carries on an original American art form – with all its highs and lows included – King is something of a study in contrast, and his album is too. He often sounds like he just stepped out of a time machine, full of upbeat honky-tonk swagger and flashing the thoughtful gaze of Western poet. But he’s also got a thoroughly modern edge, driven to prove timeless tradition can co-exist with the pop-country mainstream. And it all comes together on Shot Glass.
Four years after his independent self-titled album kicked things off, the West-Texas native has now made the move to Music City, marking the start of a whole new chapter. He’s following a pair of visionary EPs with a top-shelf concept album – and in the process, buying all of classic country another round.
“I’m that rowdy honky-tonk artist,” King says with conviction. “But I’ve got music and roots that go deeper than just beer-slingin’ tunes. There’s a lot of depth.”
Inspired by everyone from George Strait and Keith Whitley to Dierks Bentley and Eric Church, King grew up on the endless plains and endless highways of a mythical place in the American story – but its famous ways were never mere fantasy to him. The hardscrabble days, wild nights and heartbreaks were all just part of an everyday cycle, and his music continues to capture that mystique.
Back with producers Bart Butler and Ryan Gore – the team behind contemporaries like Jon Pardi who also guided King’s recent She Gone and Leanna EPs – King refuses to settle for the lowest-common denominator. Each track on Shot Glass reveals another aspect of the only life he knows, and the people who live it. Sometimes that means joy, sometimes sadness. But above all, it’s real.
“If there’s any kind of manufactured, fake aspect to it, it’s not gonna work for me,” says the singer-songwriter, who would have been a third-generation trucker had music not intervened. “I’m not an actor, so I’m gonna give you exactly who I am, where I’m from, and the things that reflect me. My upbringing … my West-Texas roots.”
With 11 songs in total, King co-wrote eight on Shot Glass, each one digging deeper into his world. Not just high times on a Friday night, but also the harsh truth of hard work with an uncertain future, romantic dreams dissolving into mirage and saying goodbye to those you love … far, far too soon.
Further honing the bright honky-tonk textures that feature willowy steel guitars, twangy melody riffs and a dynamic vocal – equally at home on a roadhouse riser or inside a country-church chapel – King and his team continued to serve up the gritty and the beautiful on Shot Glass … leaving extra room for a fiddle chaser.
First track release “Record High” captures the carefree joy of King’s reality, basking in upbeat honky-tonk swing and vocals that exist on a higher emotional plane. King was initially skeptical of the tune – one of the set’s few outside cuts – but found it captured the magic of his live shows, even when COVID-19 forced him six-feet away from his fans.
“I started playing it, and the more I did, I realized this thing is perfect,” he says now.
“You In a Honky Tonk” finds King crooning a slow-and-sexy two stepper, caught up in the neon glow of romance. “Baby Do” injects some ‘90s country bombast into a feel-good love song, and the clever “Roger Miller Lite & Me” tributes an underappreciated country icon, with King using the mantra “What would Roger do?” to medicate a breakup.
But that’s only half of the story.
“Middle of Nowhere Church” slows the pace for a revealing tale of personal redemption, opening with the devastated pure-country lines, “She was right, and I was wrong / I can’t make it on my own.”
Likewise, “Hard Way to Make It Rain” reveals the bitter truth of a touring artist’s tumbleweed lifestyle. The popular “Hey Cowgirl” and “Around Forever” come over from his EPs, and a lump-in-his-throat cover of the gospel standard “I’ll Fly Away” closes the album. It was the song he used to sing his sister, Leanna, back home to Jesus in 2020.
But it’s the title track, “Shot Glass,” which captures everything in a single pour. Written by King’s songwriting hero, Tony Lane, along with hit maker Brett James, it’s a reflective ballad with a loping beat and an instant-classic hook, toasting days gone by with all their triumph and tragedy included. It’s the type of thing a person starts to think about, sitting at a bar with folks on either side, as a lifetime of memory distills down into an empty glass. And it makes you wonder, “How did it all fit?”
“It’s beautiful poetry. But it’s also fresh and relatable at the same time,” King says, not realizing that statement could easily apply to him, as well.
You see, the truth is that country can represent more than one thing, just like a shot glass and those people at the bar. In fact, it kind of needs to, if any sort of balance is to be found. And as Randall King steps into the spotlight, that balance may be ready to shift.
“We’ve got a whole lot of momentum behind us, a whole lot of heat,” he says. “And now the pendulum of Nashville is swinging back toward country music.”
About Eli Alger
“For me, there is no other way to play a show than like it’s your last, I don’t care if I’m playing a dive bar for tips or in front of 10,000 people. I’m always going to be in full character, dressed to the 9’s, and as energetic and interactive with the crowd as I possibly can, there is simply no other option. I would also like to think that I carry that mentality with me off the stage as well because it’s not just an act, it’s a lifestyle…”. - Eli Alger
Eli Alger is a passionate anomaly in his own right. Steeped in Old school/90’s country, He draws heavily from the true Cowboys of country music like George Straight, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Garth Brooks, and Toby Keith. With some influence from the modern troubadours like Cody Johnson, Luke Combs, and Tyler Childers in not only his stage presence but most importantly his songwriting.
Eli does his utmost to emulate the style of his heroes by writing songs with intellectual, deep, and emotional lyrics paired with “out of the box” perspectives and the interesting stories of both life and lore. In his words;
“the "drinking beer and chasing girls" bell has been rung far too many times, I’ve taken it upon myself to write verses leaving people wondering what the next part of the story holds, and choruses expressing how I truly feel about the situation at hand… You don’t see very many artists wearing their heart on their sleeve these days, I try to make up the difference by wearing mine on both.”
The 24-year-old Des Moines Iowa native has spent the last 7 years performing at over 1500 shows. At the beginning of his career, he started performing as a freshman in college on the weekends while attending the University of Iowa where he later earned a degree in Finance. He then formed “The Little Liquor Band” which saw success and showed promise. After just 6 months they were packing venues, selling merch, and playing radio stations. Unfortunately, once “the ball had really started to roll” for the LLB, the trio broke up due to unprecedented circumstances, but this did not stop Eli. Utilizing the following built while fronting The Little Liquor Band, Eli broke out on his own as a solo act. With countless hours of practice, dedication, and the adoption of the headset mic, Eli has been able to develop a solo act worthy of playing “band” venues by himself. Putting on such a high-energy show that he has been able to play the big Honky Tonks around the Midwest all by himself and more times than not, stay late and sell joints out of beer.
Eli has since moved to Nashville TN to take the next step in his music career and has hit the ground running! Since his move, he has recorded and released an acoustic EP and a music video in the spring of 2021, and his debut single "Rednexico", which dropped September, 24th 2021, has been doing extremely well in its own right. Since its release, Elis's social media followings have skyrocketed, it has made its way to over 15 radio stations around the U.S., and with over 130,000 streams on Spotify to date, it does not show any signs of losing momentum.
Eli plans to release a fully produced music video for "Rednexico" in 2022, has performed on his first national tour with his newly formed band "The Faster Horses", and MOST importantly, will be playing his first headline ticketed show at the Wildwood Saloon in Iowa City, IA on November 19th, 2022. He has made a vow to sell the 500 person capacity venue out for the night, and says "it will be a night near impossible to forget".
With no intention to slow his momentum, Eli plans to become a "household" name in his home state of Iowa while he hunts for bigger shows, nurtures his fanbase, and seeks record deal opportunities. Catch him (or the band) at the next show to see what all the fuss is about!
Show pictured above: 3OH!3 & Emo Nite at Wooly's on December 5th, 2018. (Photo taken by Ryan Watanabe)