Tomball’s Main Street Crossing held one of its biggest shows to date when they hosted Red Dirt country artist Jason Boland for an intimate solo acoustic show Feb. 17.

Boland, who normally can be seen traipsing around the country with his band, The Stragglers, has been a mainstay on the Texas Country and Red Dirt scene for more than 15 years. His contemporary country sound is unique in the genre only because the vast majority of his peers went in a complete opposite direction as Boland.

Less than a decade ago when mainstream country music caught on to the bourgeoning scene in the Lone Star State, many artists followed the well-worn path to Nashville and produced the well-worn music we’ve heard on popular radio stations for years: big guitars, big drums, overdubs, layered voices, catchy choruses and dumb-downed lyrics.

But rather than cater to “the Nashville sound,” Boland kept carrying the torch for the “Willie and Waylon sound” and produced even more stripped-down, contemporary country music that dealt with addictions, failed relationships and the depths of the human condition. 

A listen to a Jason Boland and the Stragglers CD is all at once a trip down memory lane, a late-night, soul-searching journey, and a raucous party.

In some ways, Boland can be called a poor man’s Jamey Johnson, but that’s not giving Boland enough credit. But the similarities are striking. Both have garnered comparisons to Jennings for their tales about struggles with alcohol and other addictions.

In fact, Johnson labels himself in that category in his song “Between Jennings and Jones.” Boland performed “I Can Get Off On You” on a 2004 Jennings tribute CD. Both songs and the performances by their respective artists deal with hard living, hard loving and somehow making it through in the end.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Boland has actually lived the life he sings about. From a near fatal car accident in the early part of last decade, to a stint in rehab two years ago, Boland has bounded into the depths of despair and his songs are a testament to that.

But what makes a Jason Boland show unique, whether it be unplugged or plugged in with The Stragglers, is his ability, despite the tales of woe, to just have fun.

The show at Main Street Crossing was divided into two segments. The first hour was broadcast live on 105.3 FM and saw Boland covering most of the hits, the title track of his latest album, “Comal County Blue,” “Proud Souls, “Drinkin’ Song,” and “Falling in Style,” among several others.

Boland kept the chit-chat, and therefore the tawdry tales and anecdotes, to a bare minimum for the airwaves and the crowd’s cheers were more called upon than spontaneous.

It made for a nice, clean, crisp and introspective show.

As the final minutes on the hour-long radio show drew close, it looked as though Boland had finished his set and would hand it off to DJ Matt Matthews for his closing remarks and sign off. But, ever the showman, Boland sent the radio-listening fans off wanting more, and gave the in-house crowd a taste of things to come, when he immediately tore into “When I’m Stoned,” a track off the band’s Live at Billy Bob’s CD of how his “baby” loves him in his inebriated, and dazed and confused, state.

The call and response chorus from the crowd drowned out Boland’s voice coming out of the speakers and the party was on.

The plan was for Boland to take a 45-minute break after the radio segment, sign autographs and greet some of the fans. But rather than kill the momentum, Boland kept playing. And playing. And playing.

The figurative second half of the show saw Boland roll through more Straggler hits, such as “Pearl Snaps,” “Mexico or Crazy,” and “Tennessee Whiskey.” The die hard fans in the crowd, which made up the vast majority of those in attendance, even knew the deep cuts like “Gear and Dust” and “Dirty Fightin’ Love.”

Boland soon turned to some of his long-performed favorites, such as Willie Nelson’s “Seven Spanish Angels,” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.” He blistered through “Thunderbird Wine,” a Billie Joe Shaver classic he and Shaver cut for Somewhere in the Middle. After professing his admiration for Steve Earle, he played his own version of anti-government-cum-dancehall-favorite “Copperhead Road.”

After nearly two hours of playing, Boland exhausted, or gave up on, his set list and just played whatever the crowd wanted him to play. Of course, after more than two hours, the sold-out crowd had burned through dozens of cases of beer and the requests were either too obscure, too inappropriate or too incoherent.

One of the late highlights of the show was Boland’s take on Danny Flowers’ “Tulsa Time,” the first single from the band’s upcoming live album High in the Rockies. The CD was recorded over four nights in Colorado and Wyoming and will be released, appropriately enough on 4/20, or for those who don’t get the joke, April 20.

And in a big night for one of the hidden live music gems in the Houston area, Main Street Crossing proved to be an ideal venue for the show. Despite it’s sell-out status, the room was not over-filled, and the waitstaff was nearly invisible, which is a good thing in a show such as this. They kept the buckets of beers full while staying out of the way of the spectators.

No doubt word will spread and Main Street Crossing will see more performers of Boland’s status eager to give it a look.

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