Country-pop rockers Chris Lucas and Preston Brust are loving life, and it doesn’t hurt that they know somebody.
The Nashville duo hail from Baltimore and Kokomo, Indiana, respectively, and comprise the band LOCASH (formerly known as the LoCash Cowboys). Last summer, they released a third studio album, “The Fighters,” which includes the hit songs “I Love My Life” and “I Know Somebody.”
On Thursday, LOCASH will perform at 8 p.m. in downtown Reno’s Cargo Concert Hall. Tickets for the all-ages show are $23 in advance or $27 at the door. The opener is David Luning, an Americana/country artist who grew up in the Gold Country town of Forestville, California.
“Taste of Country” magazine called Lucas and Brust “country music’s comeback kids,” initially known as hit songwriters and now taking their own show on the road. They co-wrote Keith Urban’s No. 1 single “You Gonna Fly” and Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah.” LOCASH dropped the Cowboys from its name in 2015, and by year’s end had released “I Love My Life,” which eventually topped out at No. 2 on the Billboard country chart. It’s pure country:
“I love my boots broke in, I love my camo hat/ Don’t mind a little paint on my jeans, yeah I roll like that…/ I love my small-town world,/ I love a country girl/ I love a Friday night/ Man, I love this life…”
Then they reached the very top of the chart with “I Know Somebody.”
“Girl I’ve never seen you in this town/ If you need somebody to show you around, well/ I know somebody/ It’s a little too loud to talk in here/ And your eyes are sayin’ you wanna disappear, well / I know a place and I know somebody/ Somebody with a gassed up truck sittin’ right outside/ It’s ready to roll if you’re ready to ride…”
Currently, “Ring on Every Finger,” a third single from the new album, is garnering plenty of airtime on country radio.
Thursday night will mark a Sierra Nevada homecoming of sorts for opening singer David Luning, who has appeared several times at Moody’s in Truckee.
Luning was drawn to music as a young child, and began to play piano at age 5. He had a number of bands in high school, and then attended U.C. Santa Cruz, studying music. In 2007, he transferred to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. It was there that he first became acquainted with Americana music, hearing the likes of John Prine, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bob Dylan and Guy Clark.
“I hadn’t heard any of this music,” Luning told Tahoe Onstage in a 2015 interview. “I was like, ‘holy shit,’ I need to do this as a career.’ The only thing that I can say is when I heard it, it clicked with me. It just felt real — the humor, the wit, the heartfelt lyrics. It connected with me in such a way that I just knew that it was what I had to do.”
Luning eventually dropped out of Berklee to pursue performing and recording. He jokes that John Prine made him do it. On Feb 20., he will release a new album, “Restless.”
Related story: David Luning on the move. LINK
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