This Saturday will be known as the National Day of the Cowboy. There’s very few country artist who know as much about being a cowboy as Chancey Williams. That’s because Williams has been a rodeo cowboy.
Williams explained that he was rodeoing full-time and playing music part-time. “We just started getting booked for more shows that I had intended, so it was cutting into the rodeo world a lot,” he said, adding that he had to pick which one he wanted to do. He had played music all through high school, but didn’t think about making it a career. “I was just kind of dreaming of riding bucking horses forever,” Williams said.
Other than Chris LeDoux, Williams is the only cowboy to participate in the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and play on the main stage there. Played main stage at Cheyenne Frontier Days -He said Cheyenne Frontier Days is the biggest rodeo in the country and it’s the biggest musical state you can play in Wyoming.
LeDoux was a major influence on Williams and his music. When we were just starting out, he really helped us out.,” he said. “He let us come open for him a couple times when the band was real young…Chris went out on a limb and helped us.”
Other artists who have influenced Williams include George Strait, Dan Seals, and Dwight Yoakum. “Dwight kind of had that West Coast sound, that Bakersfield sound. I always kind of enjoyed that. George Strait obviously is one of the best ever,” he said.
Much like his influences, Williams style of music is more traditional. “We just try to write stuff that still sounds like country music, but also sounds current,” he said. He and the Younger Brothers Band don’t play the pop-country or bro-country that has become popular in mainstream country in recent years. Williams said he thinks music is coming back to being more country-sounding with artists like Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and Midland.
A lot of Williams’ songs are rodeo songs and travelling songs. “We’re all based out of Wyoming, so we try to write songs that people can relate to in our part of the world,” he said.
Williams and the Younger Brothers Band released a new single earlier this month called “Tonight We’re Drinkin'” and the song debuted at number six on the iTunes New Country chart.
Williams said things like iTunes and satellite radio help a lot being an independent artist. “What’s neat for us is being able to look at those charts and see our stuff on there, knowing that everything we have accomplished on our own has made that happen,” he said. “We don’t really have anybody pushing our stuff on there. It’s all true fans going out there and buying it and streaming it, which is pretty rewarding because we know it’s our true fans. We’ve gained those fans over the years.”
Although he is finding success as an independent artist, Williams said he would be interested if the right record deal came along, adding that it would help them out a lot to have national distribution and major radio airplay.
Williams and the Younger Brothers Band are working on a new album. Williams said they have released a couple singles in the last few months and they will be recording the back half of the album on Sept. 3.
More information about Williams and the Younger Brothers Band can be found at www.chanceywilliams.com. They are also active on social media and can be contacted there.