Country music duo The Powell Brothers are back for round two at this year’s Larry Joe Taylor Festival. Brothers, Taylor and Blake Powell are ready to take the stage again and share their new album “Leave On the Light” that they wrote in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. It was during this difficult time that the brothers worked even harder to create songs that truly expressed who they are as musicians.

“The biggest thing is that we had an EP that we were making at our house. Blake and I were playing every instrument on it. It was coming along great and we were really excited about it. Then, Hurricane Harvey hit and wiped out our studio and all of our hard drives. So, we were about to release a five song EP and then we had to decide do we make this over again or do we take this as an opportunity to make something better?”

Of course this was devastating but the brothers did not let anything stand in between them and their music.

“We decided instead of the EP we were gonna change it and do a 10 song album. So that album just came out about a month ago called “Leave on the Light” When Harvey hit we were playing out in Midland, our tour schedule did not stop. We were Monday-Wednesday tearing apart our house trying to save it and then Thursday-Sunday out playing shows. It was a long year. We lived in our car, we  made all of our meals in an upstairs bathroom.I think one of the big things too is that we’ve always been 100 miles an hour forward but that was a real serious moment. To keep the band going do you do the responsible thing and try to recover and we probably should’ve but instead we just kind of bet everything on this record.. You don’t know how fast you have to go until you have to go that fast.”

Since the album’s release the brothers are confident that it is being well received by their fanbase.

“We’re seeing a lot of people singing new songs which is amazing. The past two years we’ve been playing songs from our previous album. It took us so long to get anything new. Now we’re singing new songs and people are singing to those too. That is the coolest thing when we sing a song for the first time at a venue and people already know it. I think it is going well.”

Since they were young the brothers have been involved in music and have been performing since the early 2000’s.

“Well we’ve been playing music since early high school, late middle school. We’ve been playing in bands for years and about 4 years ago we started the Powell Brothers. So that’s when we went from singing background to singing our own music.”

Although the brothers played with many other bands before forming their own, they truly began to hit their musical stride when they began playing together. The two brothers were not exactly intentional in forming their band. They attribute the idea to encouragement from their father, who grew up loving music and had dreams of being a performer himself.

‘We kind of did it on accident. We had been writing with other artists and we had been writing kind of for fun. We just cut an acoustic record kind  of cause we hadn’t lived in the same place for a long time. So, before he left we cut this record. I think our dad pushed us to do a record together. We just one day went and did one and then kind of never stopped and 4 years later we’re still doing it.”

Taylor and Blake believe that being brothers has only made them stronger as a band.

“ It’s like being in another band but I think the biggest advantage is knowing me and my brother wouldn’t quit. We’d been with so many bands that did really good but they just couldn’t stay together. Since we’re brothers we don’t have to pay each other which helps out. Neither of us are gonna quit doing it. Once we started, we knew we were both gonna just see this through.”

Their passion for what what they do is important while they’re on the road. The Powell Brothers touring all over the U.S. with various musical groups since they were very young.

“I graduated high school 2010. The day after I walked the stage  I flew up to New York and we hit the road and we’d been touring with other bands ever since. Then we went immediately from touring with other bands to touring with our band, The Powell Brothers about 4 years ago. We’ve been doing 150-180 shows every year. Whenever we first started our band we weren’t super busy with the Powell Brothers, we were still touring and we’d play for other bands to pay for our band.”

Being on the road for this long is not always easy but it is part of what makes them love being career musicians.

“We get to meet people basically for a living. Kind of like a modern day storyteller. We get to travel around and meet incredible people that we probably wouldn’t get to meet doing anything else.”

For the Powell Brothers, music is so important to who they are. Thankfully, they get the opportunity to make it a main focus in their lives.

“We have a ton of business goals and musical goals and stuff we want to do. The most basic of those goals was to play music all day every day. We to a degree have done it. We wanted to surround ourselves with great musicians and great people and we’ve been able to do that part.”

The brothers described their sound as “country americana” and contribute their inspiration for their latest album to a blend of artists both old and new.

“The new album has everything from old school Willie Nelson and Ray Charles to more contemporary country. There’s so many different sounds that we love and we tried to get as much of it on this album while still trying to keep it somewhat concise and connected. We grew in the Texas country would but we really feel like we could go anywhere we want to.”

Because of their love for Texas country, they are both very excited to return to the Larry Joe Taylor stage.

“We’re stoked to be getting back to Larry Joe Taylor Festival again.We love Larry. We’ve gotten to meet him several times and he has been so kind to us. Larry Joe Taylor Fest is an institution. It’s such a big thing in Texas and to be a part of it is such a cool thing. We’ve always wanted to do it and we’ve known about it for so long. We did it last year for the first time and got introduced. To be invited back is amazing. We just want to come and have a good time and blow the roof off. If anybody is not going to Larry Joe Taylor Fest they really need to. If you’re into Texas country music it is kind of the place to be.”

The Powell Brothers will be taking the LJT stage by storm for the second year in a row Thursday, April 25th after 12:30 P.M.