When Andrew McWilliams of The Rusty Brothers paid me a visit a few months back, he left with an open invitation to come back anytime he's in Abilene. McWilliams took me up on that offer, and brought more band members with him. Andrew, his actual brother Steven, and drummer Derron Bell stopped by to hang out on the KEAN 105 Afternoon Show.

In part one of my conversation with The Rusty Brothers, Steven discussed what it was like playing in Abilene, opening Cody Johnson's CD release party a couple months ago. He tells us, "That was a good time. That was our first time to play with Cody, too. He was awesome. His band and him...they tore it up. It was fun...". Andrew added, "It was cool to see. He was pumped up. You know, he had a huge crowd (at the Lucky Mule). Sometimes those guys have a reputation of playing it cool, but he was backstage hopping around.".

I asked if the band pick up any pointers from some of the bands who have been in the Texas music scene, and Steven says, "We do it all the time. We play with all these guys around town. We played with Adam Hood the other night, and just meeting with him and playing with him was awesome. But just so on, and so on, we run into these guys, and for the most part they welcome us with open arms." Andrew simply said, "We steal their beer and play for their fans. That's about it."  The Rusty Brothers are also sharing their knowledge with younger acts, sort of. "We also talked about younger acts who are "Then there's people who are trying to be sponges off of us, and we're like 'ah, might not be the greatest thing, we're still trying to learn.' But then it's pretty cool to see the progression going down".

The guys also talked about how happy they are with the progress the band has made in the past few months. Take a listen to part 1 of our visit with The Rusty Brothers:

The Rusty Brothers Interview - Part 1

We took a break from the storytelling to have Steven, Andrew and Derron play a song for us in studio. Take a listen to their live, acoustic rendition of 'Paintbrush' on the KEAN Afternoon Show:

The Rusty Brothers Sing 'Paintbrush'

In the final part of our visit with The Rusty Brothers, we talked about the new single, which also happens to be the title track from 'Revival'. And we talked about how they come up with songs that set themselves apart from other Texas country artists. Andrew McWilliams stated, "Maybe we don't listen to enough music...but...I don't think we listen to other stuff and be like, 'oh, we should write something that sounds like that.' We just write something that we think sounds cool, and it's a catchy little hooky melody." As the newest member of the band, Derron chimed in, saying "Based on what I do with this group and what I hear on the radio from other people, and guys that we play live with, I know that there's like a real honesty when these guys bring in a tune to the band. It's a very honest thing. And they're not trying to sound like anybody else. They're not trying to throw the right number of words like 'trucks' and 'girls' and 'beer' in the song. I enjoy that part of [being in the band]."

The Rusty Brothers Interview - Part 2

The Rusty Brothers are a terrific band on the rise. You can find out for yourself by picking up their CD 'Revival' on iTunes, and keep track of their live shows on their official website. Also, be sure to "like" The Rusty Brothers on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. And hopefully, Steven, Andrew and Derron will pay us a visit on the KEAN 105 Afternoon Show again soon. Thanks, guys!

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