Pecos and the Rooftops have performed in Baton Rouge a few times at, no surprise, The Texas Club.
Led by singer-songwriter Pecos Hurley, the Paris, Texas-based country-rock band returns Friday to headline the annual Federales Fest. The Southern-flavored country, rock and Americana music festival runs from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. at 6300 Jefferson Highway.
“We always have a good time in Baton Rouge,” Hurley said last week, referring to those earlier gigs at Baton Rouge’s country music headquarters, The Texas Club.
In 2019, Pecos and the Rooftops released the debut single, “This Damn Song.” A heartfelt acoustic ballad, the song has since accumulated 600 million digital streams.
Hurley wrote “This Damn Song” in 2018 with the Rooftops’ original bass player, Kalen Davis. It became a surprise runaway success.
“I wasn’t anybody in the music scene then,” Hurley recalled. “We weren’t anybody. And all of a sudden, this thing’s just taking off. I mean, you couldn’t draw it up any better. And we were pumped about it.”
Pecos and the Rooftops save a special spot in their shows for “This Damn Song.”
“We play it last every night,” Hurley said. “I mean, it’s electric. People are screaming it back. We have fun playing it. It’s still very much a highlight of the show.”
The response to “This Damn Song” motivated Hurley to double down on music.
“Once I put that out,” he said, “I was like, well, I guess we’re a band. We need to start practicing. We got to get back in the studio and record some more music for these people. So, I just kept on going ever since.”
About a year after the indie release of “This Damn Song,” record labels set their sights on Pecos and the Rooftops. The band didn’t jump at signing a deal.
“We talked to a couple of labels and it didn’t feel like good deals,” Hurley remembered. “We just kind of said, ‘No, thank you.’ ”
Warner Bros. Records later approached the band in Los Angeles. Reps from the major label attended a few shows, but most of the courtship happened over the phone.
“We got along really well with them,” Hurley said. “They gave us a really good offer that we couldn’t turn down.”
Throughout his contract negotiations, creative control was Hurley’s top prerequisite for joining any label’s roster of artists.
“I wanted to write the songs that I wanted to write and put out the music that I wanted to put out,” he said. “And Warner Bros. agreed to that. Obviously, I have an open ear to the label and management, to get their opinions on songs, but, ultimately, I’m the one who makes those decisions.”
The band formed in Lubbock, Texas, where its members attended South Plains College. Following his Marine Corps hitch, Hurley was a college student for “a little bit, but I wasn’t very good at showing up to class. We were a lot better at partying, at the time.”
Although college didn’t work out for him, Hurley’s move to Lubbock spurred his music making.
“I was like, all right, I’m going to really take a swing at this, and put my head down and work on this craft and get good at it,” he recalled.
Growing up in a rodeo family in east Texas, Hurley gained a solid musical foundation. His mother listened to contemporary country music and the classic country of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, and rap music. His dad favored country and classic rock. His grandmother introduced him to Motown soul.
Hurley took a precocious first shot at songwriting at 6 years old. Leaving the song unfinished, he shortly thereafter heard “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and realized he’d unconsciously plagiarized that classic country weeper.
“I was like, ‘Dang, I almost ripped off George Jones!’ ”
That childhood excursion in songwriting suggests that Hurley, even at the age of 6, knew a great song when he heard it. Decades later, he prioritizes writing songs that people can relate to and be lifted by.
“You can be a good performer, but if you don’t have good songs, what’s the point?” he asked. “My main thing, that I take pride in, is to be a good songwriter. I tell people every night, if this music has helped y’all through something, that’s why I’m called to write and play music.”