Bozeman Magazine

At some point between Lubbock and Midland, the land shifts from endless cotton rows and rich farmland into pump jacks and mesquite tree filled pastures. Lubbock roots-country outfit Flatland Cavalry straddles that line between the Panhandle and the badlands of West Texas with their bright, earthy country ballads and gritty folk ramblers. Vocalist and chief songwriter Cleto Cordero’s honest, smooth songwriting revolves around the vernacular world of West Texas that he’s constructed with dusty, sun-soaked character sketches, brooding self-evaluations, and candid love songs that all have the ability to turn into singalong anthems. Formed in the fall of 2012, the quintet was rounded up by Cordero after stretches of acoustic outings around the Panhandle town of Lubbock. With guitarist Reid Dillon, fiddler Laura Jane, bassist Jonathan Saenz, and drummer Jason Albers joining Cordero, Flatland quickly garnered the attention of the masses with the release of the debut EP, Come May, in the spring of 2015. Building off the success of Come May, Cordero and company released their full-length follow-up, Humble Folks, in April 2016.