Photo by Laura Brown

The Eli Young Band shows up at our office at the end of a long day of radio interviews during Nashville’s Country Radio Summit week. Afterwards, they’ll get in their van, stop to pick up some van parts in Mississippi, and make it back home to Denton, Texas some time the following day, for a rare weekend off from their 200-shows-a-year touring schedule. It’s nothing new for this crew who do this day-in, day-out-eight years running. We can’t help but take this into account when admiring their crisp professionalism and impeccable delivery.

In the band’s current single “Always the Love Songs,” there’s a line about sitting around the fire singing songs like “Ramblin’ Man.” After they finish an acoustic, stripped-down version of the song, we ask about their influences, hearing a hint of Allman-esque southern soul for a band that would traditionally be grouped in with mainstream Texas country. It turns out everyone in the band brings something different to the table, a fact that gets mentioned often with EYB. That eclecticism is impressive when the band plays their rock-driven shows for thousands of people, and in turn, breathes a new energy-sweet and soulful-into the same song played in a 100-square-foot office on Music Row. It’s a different environment for them, to say the least, but we think we won them over with our down-to-earth office décor (or lack thereof) and offbeat humor. Each subsequent song they play belies those eight long years of dedication, and the letting go of jobs and relationships in order to write songs and play live. Their skill and familiarity with each other allows for a seamless transition to the raw recording space.

The guys remain courteous and upright after nearly an hour of playing, and depart with warm smiles as they return to the asphalt, ready for home; both parties, we believe, duly impressed by the other.

Read about the gear we used to record them.

Check out the Country Way, Volume 2 tracklisting here.