Texas country singer Josh Abbott is calling from Lubbock, where he got his start and where he was visiting his girlfriend of nearly three years, but he attributes leaving the West Texas city with an important step up his career ladder.

The singer-songwriter and his band, who play Friday night at Wild West Waco, recorded their first demo and CD, 2008’s Scapegoat, while in Lubbock, where they had met as Texas Tech University students. They knew, however, they’d have to leave for their next recording. “If we were to do a better record, we had to get out of Lubbock,” he said.

Austin and Denton were logical next steps with their concentration of musicians and recording studios, but there was the matter of the band’s business schedule: Performing Thursdays through Sundays meant any recording would have to be sandwiched into Mondays through Wednesdays.

Which Abbott and his band did for several weeks last year — recording at Denton’s Panhandle House Studio for three days a week, then touring across Texas and Oklahoma the remaining three and four.

“That made for an interesting few months, but we feel like we got the real experience of recording an album: the 12-hour days, living out of a hotel, traveling,” Abbott said.

She’s Like Texas, the CD that came from that project, is showing it was worth the effort. “All of a Sudden” and “She’s Like Texas,” the first two singles from the album set for release Feb. 16, both lodged in the Top 30 of the Texas Music Chart at the same time. In fact, “All of a Sudden” was still enjoying healthy radio listenership after peaking in the Top 10 when Abbott and his business managers decided to pull it to push the title track.

Josh Abbott

“She’s Like Texas,” incidentally, just cracked the Top 20 this week.

Abbott said producer Erik Herbst worked to retain the band’s sound, including the unison guitar lines by lead guitarist Gabe Hanson and guitarist Preston Wait. Abbott wrote or co-wrote the CD’s 12 songs and it’s winning praise from such critics as Robert Oermann, the dean of Nashville music reviewers.

Although he and his band started in Lubbock’s college scene three years ago, Abbott is one of the few players who goes back regularly; two band members now live in the Austin area and four live in or near Fort Worth. Waco’s not only a place where Abbott and his musicians like to play, it’s also an occasional assembly point before heading out for a weekend’s tour.

On the edge of releasing his sophomore CD, Abbott knows what’s ahead for the immediate future. “We’re going to tour our butts off. Festivals, rodeos, fairs . . . We’re excited to play every place,” he said.

choover@wacotrib.com

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