Eleven Hundred Springs

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Category: Band Genre: Country

About the Band

There are bands that play country, and then there are country bands. Some would say it boils down to authenticity – and in this day and age that is increasingly hard to find. But when you drop the needle on an Eleven Hundred Springs record, or find yourself at a show, you’ll know you’re listening to the real deal. That’s not a thing one can imitate, and the boys in Eleven Hundred have the pedigree to match any of the all-time greats. It’s about honesty and lack of pretense, a commitment to the true soul of country music – what Steve Earle calls real country music.

Listening to the band is like pulling out your favorite country albums. They may not look like the average contemporary country act, but the love of tradition and hardscrabble spirit that make up true Americana is easy to see. When guitarist/singer Matt Hillyer and bassist Steven Berg first started the band way back in 1998, some folks reduced their sound to imitation – amalgamations of Merle Haggard, George Jones, Hank Williams and the like. But over the course of twenty years and eleven albums, Eleven Hundred Springs has proven time and again that it’s not imitation, it’s everything that makes the classics so timeless: amazing songwriting, great performances, and distinct personality.

Twenty years of constant performing, traveling, recording, and releasing albums of original material is a hard-earned life. Thus, in 2017, just before celebrating their second decade as a band, Eleven Hundred had reached a crossroad. They decided to breathe new life into the band, starting by booking the live shows they all truly felt good about playing, introducing excitement and fun back into the equation. This decision also led to bringing in new members to the Eleven Hundred brotherhood, introducing Chad Rueffer on guitar and vocals, Ray Austin on pedal steel, and Christian Dorn on drums.

With the new lineup and outlook in place, the band set about recording new material, releasing The Finer Things in Life in 2018. They also diversified, publishing video segments on a YouTube channel focused on happenings at their studio, the distinctive Cadillac Barn. The Barn even became the setting in which they recorded their newest record, which feels as much like a rebirth as anything. Aptly titled Here ‘Tis, it’s the perfect distillation of what continues to make Eleven Hundred Springs one of the best country/Americana bands out there today. While working on the album, the band struck up a friendship and, ultimately, working relationship with the folks at Dallas’ State Fair Records. Here ‘Tis will be released on SFR in 2020, making now the perfect time to get onboard with Eleven Hundred. It’s another instant classic that will slide right in alongside all your favorites.