The Fast Times of Big Velvet: How Getting Back to the Basics Led to Paul Cauthen’s Most Adventurous Album Yet

A Harley-Davidson, three good friends and the open road.

That’s the formula – the unorthodox prescription of empty landscape and quiet hours, save the incessant roar of a metallic steed, for five thousand miles and sixteen days – that led Paul Cauthen to Black on Black, the equivocal artist’s fourth studio album, first major label release and most adventurous effort yet.

“It kind of released the rest of my thought process and cleared what I'd say,” Cauthen told Holler of the motorcycle trip out West that would give life to his latest collection of both damning and redemptive songs. “There are moments in life where you have this Etch A Sketch that's got no more room for any more writing on it. You have to shake it. That's what the open road and my Harley-Davidson did for me.”

The journey was vital for the ‘Cocaine Country Dancing’ crooner, a chance to turn off the bullshit and tune back into the world around him.

Since the 2022 release of his third studio effort, Country Coming Down, it has been nonstop for Cauthen, known also by his crazed on-stage alter-ego of sorts, Big Velvet. He has spent the last couple of years touring extensively, climbing festival rosters and releasing a handful of one-off tunes.

One such single was 2023’s ‘25 Tequilas’, a boisterous drinking anthem that Cauthen says was “soft-tossed” to country radio in a failed attempt to garner industry attention. “I don't even sing that song, and I regret ever doing it,” the Texas native shared. “It's just one of those that I'll forever be like, ‘Okay, what the f–,’ because I fell into a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, let's just play to the industry. They want a drinking party song.’”

In the end, ‘25 Tequilas’ was an arguable flop but a necessary one, one that the artist credits with changing his overall outlook. “I was like, ‘You know what? I need to get back to the basics.’”

That’s exactly what he rediscovered on the open road, the basics that would provide the building blocks to Black on Black, a release that captures Cauthen road-worn and wiser, no longer chasing Nashvillian ideals or striving to be anyone but himself.

On the album’s title track and gritty opener, he proudly flexes a freshly cemented resolve, singing “Black coffee and a lit cigarette / I'm gonna burn it down 'til there ain't nothing left / Black coffin when they lay me to rest / In a black suit, black hat, Sunday's best…,” simply proclaiming “I’m black on black” against a stark backbeat.

Still, much like the artist, himself, the collection is mystifying. At moments, it’s dingy and desirous. Songs like the strutting ‘Lavendar Jones’ and the swaggering ‘Hot Damn’ offer a hefty dose of the good timing proclivities that tend to tail Big Velvet, the performer. At other points, tracks feel bright, revelatory, and full of empathy. The sturdy ‘Innocent’ and the delicate ‘Bet On Me’ hold up a mirror to all the complexities that shade Cauthen, the man.

“This record is meaner; it's edgier,” he explains, although adding “It still encapsulates the softer side, as well.”

The artist goes on to describe Black on Black as a “full circle record.” There are glimmers of the artist’s previous releases – the sanguine slant of My Gospel (2016), the delicious grit of Room 41 (2019) and the dazzling lightness of Country Coming Down – throughout, making the album feel like a natural extension of its creator, a bold snapshot of where Cauthen is at this point in his life and career.

Sonically, the record also seems to come full circle, a piling of experience upon experiment that sees Cauthen’s one-of-a-kind sound only amplified. His old-school country-meets-funk-soul style becomes layered with dark, death knolls, pillowy beats and sweeping atmospherics that all lend to these giant, no-holds-barred arrangements and deeply expressive compositions.

“I'm writing about my times,” he shares of the new project, while also reflecting on his mounting celebrity. The wide, open road seemed to offer clarity to all aspects of the artist’s life. “This thing skyrocketed, and we're doing great out here, but at the same time, life is the same. You've got to maintain an egoless life.”

While he admits, as an artist, he’s never truly satisfied, always striving for bigger, better sounds and songs, Cauthen will always be happy simply being “a good old boy from East Texas that likes to go fast on motorcycles, loves dogs and loves his wife. That’s about it.”

He’s found that music is purely his “bird dog trait.”

“Not too many people get to understand their bird dog trait, their thing that just made them jump in the water without being told, and retrieve a duck and bring it back,” he says. “I feel like when I'm on stage, I am that Labrador … I'm lucky enough to feel that I'm doing exactly what I was put on this earth to do.”

In addition to delving into his latest release, Cauthen reflects on his career journey, opens up about the world today, and talks candidly about the pains of releasing a new album.

“The biggest curse of an artist or a musician, I think, is never being satisfied. I try to pinch myself at times and try not to get too into my head about everything.

“My trajectory has been different than anybody else's in the business. I’ve been on the road since 2007 and I haven't ever looked back, and this is my first go around with a major label, so it's just a whole change for me and I'm 38 years old. It's been a slow burn.

“I was talking to Shaboozey the other day. We were playing a festival in Sacramento. We feel that we definitely are the last of our kind, kind of grinding it out, keeping on going, being a chameleon in the industry and just staying on top of what your audience wants.”

“The beauty is within the people that you see when you're going into these places on a motorcycle, and not the people that are all standing around TVs hating on the Left or hating on the Right. The underbelly of America is beautiful. It's just we don't focus on it enough.”

“I can't stand all the hate and drama and shit. People don't hang out with each other anymore because they vote this or that. It's just gotten so abrasive, mean and hate-driven. This record’s about forgetting all that, turning up and just getting on an open road, loving today and trying to bring good times and joy to people's lives.”

“I'm kind of at that point where I'm just pulling my fucking hair out right now. It just needs to come out. It's like, you're ready to have a baby here.

“It always gets better once it's out. It's just the lead-up. I hate to sit around and wait. Once it's out, then the train’s moving and you don't have to keep on chug-a-lugging to get to this day. Now, it's time to go to your destination and hit the road … just have a good time and show people the best show you can put on.”