STEADY RIDE
Years of touring paying off for The Cadillac Three
Three years. That’s the amount of time Kelby Ray and The Cadillac Three worked on their album. It’s also the amount of time the trio needed to make its album in between tours.
“It was hard to find studio time,” he says during a recent phone interview. “Since we took so long to put the album together, we had 14 songs that worked together.”
Ray, Jaren Johnston and Neil Mason make up the trio. The band is touring in support of its latest album, “Bury Me in My Boots.”
The three met in Nashville, Tenn., where they were born and raised.
Over the course of its career, the band has steadily been rising in the music industry.
Its current album marks the first effort for Big Machine Records, and the trio has snagged opening slots on tours with Eric Church and Dierks Bentley and currently with Florida Georgia Line.
Produced by The Cadillac Three with Dann Huff and Justin Niebank, “Bury Me in My Boots” is the follow-up to its self-titled 2012 independent debut, which Big Machine re-released after signing the band. But there’s more than just years separating the projects.
“We drove thousands of miles in a van and a bus between these two records. We played hundreds of shows in the past five years and have been through so much,” Ray says.
Ray says that after the current run with Florida Georgia Line is over, the band will head over to the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
Then in early 2017, the trio will head out on a headlining tour across the U.S.
“We toured in the U.K. for nearly three years,” he says. “We’ve grown our fan base there. It’s been expensive for us to go there prior to having a record deal or anything. We put down a lot of our own money in the past. It’s beginning to pay off over there.”
Despite the hectic schedule, Ray says the band is enjoying the ride.
“We’re able to travel the world doing what we love,” he says. “It’s one of the most amazing things in the world.”