MusicRowPics: The Roosevelts

It’s hard to categorize new Texas duo The Roosevelts, who blend soulful harmonies, acoustic music and deft songwriting. “Our music is a good crossover of folk, rock, Americana, Country and soul,” says The Roosevelts member James Mason. “There are elements of all of those styles. The closest thing that might describe it is organic pop. We are still trying to figure out what you call it. No matter what kind of music audience we play for, they seem to like it. There is so much genre-blending now in music, anyway.”
The process for determining the duo’s distinguished band name was similarly organic. “The first day we went into the studio, it was President’s Day,” says Mason. “We were throwing out names to our producer, and we couldn’t believe no one had come up with that band name yet. So it stuck.”
Houston native Mason and Birmingham-bred Jason Kloess met after each moved to Austin, Texas,  in 2008 to pursue music. They met through a mutual musician friend, and found Jason’s harmonies and songwriting sensibilities complemented James’ rugged lead vocals. Countless bar performances and wedding singer gigs solidified their tight-knit harmonies and genre-bending sound–as well as their extensive repertoire of cover songs. “We did a lot of Motown and hip-hop, mixed with “Last Dance with Mary Jane” and Coolio. It’s was a bit of everything,” says Mason.
In 2013, they recorded the six-song EP, Cold Sheets, at Matchbox Studio in Austin.
The duo performed three songs during their MusicRow visit, including “Don’t Wanna Let You Go,” “Baby You Can Break My Heart,” and the current single, “Cold Sheets.”  They revealed more of their soulful influences on a cover of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).”
The video for “Cold Sheets” debuted this week on CMT. The clip was filmed near Houston, Texas, with director Brad Linton. Kloess and Mason take on leading roles, portraying army soldiers whose relationships are torn apart by war. The video marks the first time either acted in front of a camera, though Mason says he drew on his previous theater experience for the role.  “It’s just learning to forget the camera isn’t there,” he says.
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