Cowboy hats, fringe shirts and silver spurs tend to evoke images of country music from a bygone era, ridden with longing and emotional angst. However, France and Austin-based country singer Theo Lawrence brings all of those images and emotions to life in his music, using his crooner-like vocals and wistful guitar instrumentations to create a brimming sound reminiscent of yesterday and profoundly unique today.
On day one of Austin City Limits weekend two, he blew audiences off their feet and transported them to another time through tracks from his LPs – such as Chérie and Pickin’ and Singin’ – and more. A highlight performance was “Come Home to Your Man,” a recent single, which blared through the entire atmosphere at the IHG stage as Lawrence sang longingly about finding a lover, the band accompanying him magnetically.
Following his set, Fabiola Gutierrez, one of our PR directors, sat down with Lawrence and asked him a few questions. Read the interview below.
Fabiola Gutierrez: Your music has this cool vintage vibe. What’s one retro trend you wish would make a comeback?
Theo Lawrence: I wish people would make more instrumental records. I feel like, back in the day, there were a lot of cool instrumental records that you could just listen to while you were doing something. I would like more of that kind of stuff.
FG: Has there ever been a song where the lyrics came from a totally random moment of your life?
TL: A lot of them have been written during very random moments where nothing was happening. In very dull places, not in very romantic settings. It’s difficult to think of a specific random moment though.
FG: If you could host a dinner party with three musicians, dead or alive, who would they be and what would you serve?
TL: I would like Elvis – he feels like an obvious choice – Aretha Franklin, and Alan Wilson of Canned Heat. He died really young and I would’ve loved to have a talk with him. We would probably be eating some Italian food, like lasagna.
FG: Following that up, who do you think portrayed Elvis better: Austin Butler or Jacob Elordi?
TL: I think Austin Butler did a fine job.
Check out Theo Lawrence here!