Kevin Fowler

While country-pop dominated the airwaves, Kevin Fowler built a strong regional following across Texas by delivering straightforward honky-tonk country aimed at everyday listeners. Born and raised in Amarillo, the guitarist began on drums and piano before leaving Texas at age twenty for Los Angeles. There he enrolled at the Guitar Institute of Technology. He soon returned to his home state, settled in Austin, and joined the hard-rock outfit Dangerous Toys. After that experience he formed his own Southern hard-rock group, Thunderfoot, yet ultimately decided his West Texas background pulled him toward the country music of his youth.

In 1998 he assembled a country band and launched a weekly Tuesday-night residency at Babe’s on Sixth Street in Austin. Within two years he had begun releasing recordings and scored a regional breakthrough with the self-issued Beer, Bait and Ammo (2000). The project moved roughly thirty thousand copies in Texas and earned steady radio play, especially for its title track, which became a local anthem performed live by Mark Chesnutt and later recorded by Sammy Kershaw. Fowler followed in 2002 with High on the Hog, an album that featured guest appearances by Willie Nelson and David Lee Garza.

Throughout the 2000s he continued to expand his audience via constant touring and two Equity releases, 2004’s Loose, Loud & Crazy and Bring It On. By 2010 his growing profile attracted major-label interest; Lyric Street signed him in January, yet the imprint closed soon afterward and his contract moved to Disney. That year he scored two charting singles, “Beer Season” and “Pound Sign (#?*!),” both included on the year-end compilation Best Of…So Far. In 2011 he issued his sixth studio album, Chippin’ Away, which spawned four singles, among them “Hell Yeah, I Like Beer” and “That Girl,” the latter peaking at No. 45 on Billboard’s country chart. Preceded by the singles “How Country Are Ya?” and “Love Song,” his seventh album, How Country Are Ya?, arrived in March 2014 and became his first to reach the Top 10 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. Two years later he returned with Coming to a Honky Tonk Near You, introduced by the single “Sellout Song.”