After spending a decade building both a catalog and a fanbase in Texas honky-tonks and dive bars, Flatland Cavalry have an unshakeable foothold in country music. The band’s frontman, Cleto Cordero, calls back to the components of a Texas friend’s two-part test for determining a cowboy’s credentials: 1. Did you work your fucking ass off? 2. Are you the most authentic version of yourself you can be?
“Playing shows with Flatland feels like that,” Cordero tells Rolling Stone. “Riding something wild, and you’re gonna get to the end of it eventually. If we get off the deck knowing that we’ve been walking the tightrope and going for it, loving our audience, bringing people together, and having fun, that’s when we got it.”
Over the past two years, the six-piece from Texas have been doing a lot of that. The same soft-spoken, approachable nature that endeared them to Lone Star State fans has translated to crowds on major arena tours opening for Lainey Wilson. They’ve landed ACM Award nominations, including one this year for Group of the Year, and a gold-certified single. Last month, Flatland dropped the 12-track Work of Heart, the band’s first true studio album since 2023.
“It’s a collection of songs that have been written while we’re touring and taking our songs on the road,” Cordero says. “It’s things we’ve experienced, emotions, and real life. That’s always been our process: Write a bunch of songs, see which ones gravitate together until you have a batch of them.”
When this batch came together, Cordero noticed the word “heart” appeared often. He was dismayed at first and worried that he needed to write more songs. But one titled “Work of Heart” suggested to him that just maybe the idea of the human heart was the centerpiece of the LP. “It was the gravity that was pulling all the other songs in,” he says.
Flatland is Cordero, drummer Jason Albers, bassist Jonathan Saenz, guitarist Reid Dillon, fiddle player Wesley Hall, and keyboardist Adam Gallegos. It has been a tight-knit group since its 2014 inception — Hall joining the group in 2018 makes him the only member not considered a founder.
In mid-March, the band took a break from preparing for an in-store performance at Austin’s Waterloo Records to reflect on their journey and the potential they see in Work of Heart. A few weeks earlier, they had been with Wilson, opening a run of sold-out arena shows in Australia. Kaitlin Butts — Cordero’s wife and one of the fastest-rising stars in country music — also played on the tour. It was a hectic period, to say the least.
“I struggle with living in the moment a lot,” says Flatland’s guitarist Dillon. “I tend to be anxious, looking at the future and looking at the past too much. I was telling Cleto that I’m really enjoying the ride a little bit, and not putting too much pressure on myself. I’m always worried about where we are going. But I look back at all the cool stuff we’ve done and realize that’s happening right now, too.”
Flatland recorded Work of Heart at Matchbox Studios in Austin, not far from where this conversation took place. They worked with Dwight Baker — the same producer who collaborated with the band on 2023’s Wandering Star — to craft an album that at once feels like vintage Flatland and brand-new territory. The band’s motto of “easy on the ears, heavy on the heart” is evident, but there’s also a commitment to elevate the music. The two-four backbeat that first caught the attention of Texas dance halls pushes it all along, as does the twang in Cordero’s voice, but the band is challenging itself. The guitars now have a rock edge; there’s more force to the drums.
“We would all get in a room, a lot of chefs, and a lot of great ideas,” Albers says. “But we were just having a hard time figuring out exactly where to start them. Everyone has grown musically and talent wise. It feels like we celebrated ten years of Flatland Forever and the page has turned. We’re a pro band, straight-up.”
Whether that translates to a string of country hits is, for the most part, irrelevant. Enough Flatland Cavalry fans are convinced this is the best country band in America to keep the group in that conversation indefinitely. During a recent showcase in Nashville, far from their native Lubbock, for Country Radio Seminar week, Flatland drew a rabid crowd at a downtown distillery eager to hear old faithfuls and new songs.
Work of Heart’s first track, “Gone,” is a highlight. It features Cordero reflecting on the places Flatland has taken him — complete with a reference to Butts and getting drunk in Dublin, Ireland — before he reconciles his travels with, “By the time I make sense of it, I’ll be moving on like you ain’t never seen.”
“Whether it’s recording a song in the studio, what song we’re gonna play that day, what town we’re in, what market — am I gonna wear a Texas shirt? — whatever my intuition is telling me, I’m doing,” Cordero says. “We get to live one day at a time, and this is about however we go about living this day. That song is about being gone. We started there.”
That feeling extends to Cordero’s home life. He and Butts have been something of a country music power couple since they moved to Nashville in the wake of the pandemic. Even their dog, Hank Butts, has a solid social media following.
It’s not lost on Cordero that Butts’ star has never shined as brightly as it is right now. Not long after Work of Heart dropped, Butts was featured in a major role in Ella Langley’s video for “Choosin’ Texas.” According to Cordero, their household is a microcosm of what he wrote and sang about in “Gone.” Home has become less of a place to wrap their minds around their mutual success as it is a retreat from the chaos surrounding their careers.
“We have these things in our pockets that open up the world to our domain,” Cordero says, gesturing to his phone. “We just have to figure out the balance. Out of respect for business and artistry and her sovereignty, I kind of stay out of it. But she’s having a moment. I’m just trying to be patient and help however I may.”
Flatland have a whirlwind of a spring on tap in the wake of Work of Heart. Their schedule is full through August, largely headlining but with occasional slots opening for Morgan Wallen and Dwight Yoakam sprinkled in for good measure.
The band says that despite their rush of confidence, they’re not hitting the road with elevated expectations. Cordero asserts that he and Flatland are still in the game for the sake of the song.
“When a strong emotion passes through me, it’s translating that emotion to this thing that someone else can hear and go, ‘Oh, I felt that too,’” he says. “It connects us, and that’s what has kept me doing it.”
Josh Crutchmer is a journalist and author whose book (Almost) Almost Famous is available now via Back Lounge Publishing.
