Texas Women

Five albums into their fiercely prolific career, The Wilder Blue have grown all the more fearless in their signature alchemy of pure, pedal-steel-soaked country music and the sprawling, cosmic sounds of psychedelia—and found a way to go bigger, bolder, and freer than ever before with Cinco, a five-song EP steeped in the charms of old-school Texas country. “Cinco is an acknowledgement of the Texas roots that have shaped this band,” says Zane Williams, singer/guitarist and the group’s main songwriter. “These are some of the most literal, down-to-earth songs we’ve written, with a lot of honky-tonk feel and an attitude of just having fun.”

The follow-up to 2025’s self-released, fan-funded, and critically acclaimed Still In The Runnin’, Cinco features players Zane Williams (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Paul Eason (lead guitar, harmony vocals), Lyndon Hughes (drums, harmony vocals), Sean Rodriguez (bass, harmony vocals), and Andy Rogers (banjo, dobro, harmony vocals), a lineup that’s just as widely loved for its incendiary live shows as for its faithful showcasing of Texas country heritage. Their latest EP was produced by Hughes and recorded in a barn just outside of Dublin, Ireland, during the long-standing touring partnership between The Wilder Blue and longtime friends Turnpike Troubadours.

Produced by Hughes and The Wilder Blue, Cinco both broadens their palette and crystallizes the telepathy between its five members—with each track flying unbound as the band taps into influences as wide-ranging as the fiddle-propelled funk of “Breathe” to the dreamy eight-minute psych-rock epic of “Chasin’ the Sun.” “There’s so much more I want to try in terms of venturing into psychedelia, and now that we’ve done this we could go anywhere,” says Williams.

While Cinco stands as a powerful testament to The Wilder Blue’s expansive musicality, its songs also reaffirm the band’s deepest loyalties. “Texas Women” in particular aces its outlaw salute to Lone Star living, with a groove straight out of a classic dancehall and a guest appearance by Tracy Byrd himself. “This is a celebration of all those things that have shaped our lives and shaped our sound—these songs are a nod to the dance hall and honky-tonk way of life we were raised on,” says Williams of his collaboration with a country king whose hits span from “Holdin’ Heaven” to “Watermelon Crawl.” “We were so inspired to work with this lineup of musicians,” says Williams. “I wrote it at a time when I was playing a lot of dance halls and honky-tonks, and I wanted it to sound like something you’d hear on the jukebox at an old dive bar where you can still smoke inside.”

In a departure from The Wilder Blue’s past work (including 2023’s Brent Cobb-produced Super Natural), Cinco features Williams’ solo-penned songs alongside a number of tunes co-authored by his bandmates, as well as the group’s first-ever cut from a songwriter outside the band: “Last Chance for Dancin’,” an infectiously feel-good anthem written by Nashville-based artist Phoenix Mendoza. “My tendency is to try to work all these complicated stories or philosophical ideas into my lyrics, but sometimes you just want a song that’ll make people want to get up and dance,” says Williams. And on “Chasin’ the Sun” (written by Eason, Rogers, and Mendoza), Cinco drifts into a sprawling piece of psychedelia, layering its bright-eyed escape fantasy with heavenly harmonies, jangly guitar riffs, and the supremely lush tones of analog synth. “That’s another example of a song I never would’ve come up with on my own,” says Williams. “There’s a lot of depth to the arrangement, and when Travis Bishop got on those vintage synthesizers he just took it into a whole other world.”

With its quieter moments including “The Hunt”—a song adorned with the sorrowful cooing of mourning doves, captured by tucking a microphone into a nearby tree—Cinco closes out on “Only the Years”: a tender meditation on the clarity that comes with hard-won perseverance. Looking back on their journey so far, Williams points to “Only the Years” as a reflection of The Wilder Blue’s collective perspective. “It’s only after years of doing this that you earn the freedom to stop worrying about things like record deals and awards and playing on late-night TV,” says Williams, who partly attributes their self-reliance to The Hideout (a fan club/patron program launched in 2021). “None of that factors into anything we’re thinking about when we’re working on music. The only real focus now is taking the time to make what we want to make, giving every song what it deserves, and being grateful that we get to make a living doing exactly what we love.”