Paul Cauthen, Ben Chapman
Asher Moss
A close-up of Paul Cauthen.
Paul Cauthen
He might sound like Johnny Cash and look like Hank Williams III, but Paul Cauthen doesn’t pretend to be anybody other than a proud Texas-based outlaw country singer. His fifth album, Book of Paul, dropped in April and contains some of the man’s finest work — including the danceable(!) “Texas Swagger” and the laid-back Southern rocker “Bayou By You.” He’s on a North American tour that will keep him on the road until late November, but this is Cauthen’s only Wisconsin date. With Ben Chapman.
media release: With four albums and 442 million streams to-date, country iconoclast Paul Cauthen propels into a new chapter with Book of Paul, out now on Velvet Rose Records/Thirty Tigers. Fusing classic country grit, gospel power and a rhinestone rock-and-roll edge, Cauthen delivers 13 tracks filled with a booming baritone and personal truth.
With a well-documented distaste for playing by anyone else’s rules, the singer-songwriter known as “Big Velvet” returns to his East Texas roots, writing his own creative code in permanent ink with Book of Paul.
“It’s just being who you are – unapologetically yourself – and that’s every one of my records,” Cauthen says. “Does it dance? Does it make you cry? Does it make you feel? As far as I’m concerned I’ve made it already. I can already do whatever I want musically. And when you get to this point you look back. I have built my whole career going against the grain, and that’s what this record is. The freaking trials and tribulations of Paul. It’s everything I wanted on an album.”
Tapping the strengths of longtime family friend and chart-topping co-writer Ryan Tyndell, Steve Rusch (Jessie Murph, Koe Wetzel), Sam Martinez (Tyler Braden, Carrie Underwood), Fustin (Priscilla Block) plus Nate Ferraro (Beyoncé) for production, they captured Cauthen’s unruly essence with all the charm of a rattlesnake (and the vocal venom to match).
Cauthen co-write 12 of the 13 tracks while also playing bass and drums on select tracks, making sure each song had the twisted backbone he craved. “It’s a nitty gritty, swampy, East-Texas-muddy-roots kind of feel,” Cauthen says with pride. “My claws are deep in it.”
Cauthen wastes no time getting to his point. Led by his burly, vibrato-laden baritone, “Book of Paul” opens the album on a minimalist mix of acoustic guitar and snare, as the troubadour confesses to his wild side, while wrestling with the sin. He spares no detail – and makes no compromise.
“If you look at the Bible, there is no book of Paul,” he explains. “I just wanted to write something that embodies me, because I’m sick of hearing records catered to what’s hot and what’s working. Me, I’ve always been this country boy, East Texas guy. Roots, rock and roll, Texas gospel. If you look back at all my albums, I’m proud to say I meant everything I’ve said.”
Tracks like “Texas Swagger,” which Cauthen will perform on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” today (check local listings HERE), serve as a mission statement, with its bronc-bucking beat, dark twang, and barely contained sense of danger. Cauthen started off with a frenetic guitar riff and some eerie “yee haw” background vocals, then added a strong dose of Big Velvet attitude.
Meanwhile, Cauthen puts his code to the test on “Dark Horse,” a cosmic-Western ballad fueled by epiphany he calls “a long ride on the back of a mule on a bunch of mushrooms.” The lonesome “Road Dog” recalls the bleak resignation of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” with coyote yips and an acoustic-industrial vibe. And with the warm, relaxing shimmer of ‘70s rock, “Cigarettes & Billy Graham” burns with an easy self acceptance – an anthem for those preachers of the open road.
Elsewhere, Cauthen enters a kind of voluntary lockup with the hypnotic, outlaw-country romance of “Ain’t No Crime,” and taps a “Chattahoochee” groove for the hazy, summertime twang of “Tossin’ Back Time” (feat. Jake Worthington).
Soul pop and gospel twang reach a slow-rolling confluence on the East Texas love story “Bayou By You,” and Cauthen teams with Delaney Ramsdell for the aching barstool ballad, “Chain Smoking.” “Breakaway” saunters into the sunset with a supremely casual indie-roots strut. And a colorful, character-driven country throwback unfolds on “Blue Denim & Black Gold” (the album’s only outside cut, written by Tyndell and Jeff Hyde).
Meanwhile, “Texas Gravel Road” unleashes every weapon in Cauthen’s creative arsenal. Built off a slowed-down latin beat, it’s a bellowing tribute to the blood, sweat and tears behind the star’s pockmarked path – a grungy gutter rocker draped in distorted dark twang. And with the album ending on “The Voice Inside (Silence),” Cauthen enters a state of acoustic prayer. With that velvet vocal at its most raw, an anguished internal battle between dark and light unfolds. … Yet those voices may be something else entirely. Knowing them is the key to Cauthen’s code, and the driving force behind his country music.
“That’s what God is. That’s the spirit. That’s you. The un-talked about. That’s the good shit,” he explains. “This record is the Book of Paul, but I would say everybody needs their own book, and the chapters in life create that. What I mean is, bet on your own. Everybody pointing fingers at you because you’re the black sheep, or because you have this trait or that, that’s what actually makes you different. So bet on that.”
Cauthen was taught to sing by his grandfather in a Church of Christ, and Cauthen hit the scene with the duo Sons of Fathers in 2009, before My Gospel, Room 41, Country Coming Down and Black on Black unveiled a vulnerable, fire-and-brimstone songwriter with brazen attitude – craving deliverance, yet possessed by a “bird dog” instinct for theatrical rapture. Cauthen has toured the world, collaborating with Margo Price, Orville Peck, Cody Jinks and Lana Del Rey. Fan favorites include “Cocaine Country Dancing,” “Fuck You Money” and his GOLD-certified collab with Shaboozey,“Last Of My Kind.”
With his nearly sold-out Tonkin’ ‘N Tejas Tour, Cauthen continues to hit the Texas touring scene while adding stops at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 11 and Denver’s The Mission Ballroom on Oct. 9. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit paulcauthenmusic.com.
