MusicRowPics: The Railers Catch A New Groove With “11:59 (Central Standard Time)”

The Railers. Photo: Haley Crow

It’s rare to hear a concertina in modern country music, but new Atlantic/WMN trio The Railers incorporates a variety of such instrumentation into their engaging stage show.

“This was the very first instrument I got,” said The Railers member Cassandra Lawson of her heavily used instrument. “It’s more gaffe tape than squeezebox. It’s kind of like Willie’s guitar, you just want it to keep going.”

The trio of singer-songwriters includes brothers Jordan and Jonathan Lawson, and Jonathan’s wife Cassandra. The brothers met Cassandra in college, and they discovered they all had similar musical ambitions. After moving to Nashville, Jordan became a sideman playing with Josh Turner, while Jonathan got a similar gig playing with Sara Evans. In 2010, the trio quit their full-time jobs to wholeheartedly pursue their own aspirations of becoming recording artists. In 2012, they signed with Warner Music Nashville.

In 2014, they released the EP The Railers: The Geraldine Session, as well as the single “Kinda Dig The Feeling,” which was featured on the television series Nashville.

Now they are back with the groovy, infectious new single “11:59 (Central Standard Time),” and have been on the road for the past two months performing the track for radio station programmers around the country.

The track’s feel-good, breezy melody further elevates party-ready lyrics that include Spin the records round, if we blow the speakers out/We’ll just rock this mother a cappella.

“We looked for a long time to find something that felt infectious and catchy and felt like us,” said Jonathan.

The Railers with MusicRow staff.

During a recent visit to the MusicRow office, The Railers offered acoustic renditions of tracks including “11:59 (Central Standard Time)”, along with “These Hands,” “Just Friends,” which Jonathan says is “about when you are in that stage of the relationship where you are just friends with somebody, but you are both kind of hoping it becomes something more.”

See the trio’s retro-themed video for “11:59 (CST)” below:

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Jessica Nicholson

Jessica Nicholson serves as the Managing Editor for MusicRow magazine. Her previous music journalism experience includes work with Country Weekly magazine and Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) magazine. She holds a BBA degree in Music Business and Marketing from Belmont University. She welcomes your feedback at jnicholson@musicrow.com.

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