Jason Boland and The Stragglers

It's admirable when a musician gets back to his roots, there's no questioning that. But in a lot of ways, it's even more admirable when an artist has no need to do that – having never lost touch with those roots in the first place. Jason Boland falls squarely into the latter category, having spent the better part of the last 15 years entrenching himself in the so-called "red dirt" of his native state of Oklahoma and adopted home in Texas and while spreading his musical branches to cover a remarkable amount of territory.

"I've always thought it was important to keep one foot in tradition and the other pointed in the direction you want to go," says Boland. "I didn't invent the G chord, so I'm standing on the shoulders of the giants that did, and on the shoulders of some great songwriters that have come before me. I'm using an old stencil, but adding my own colors."