By Ryan Gueningsman

He truly is “Goin’ Out With His Boots On,” and he’s having a blast with it at the same time.

Winstock fans will be able to see one of Nashville’s hottest new acts when Randy Houser takes the Emerging Artists Stage for two shows Saturday, June 13, at 2 and 6:10 p.m.

His latest single, “Boots On,” the follow-up to his hit debut single and album of the same name – “Anything Goes” – has been continually rising up the charts.

“It’s sittin’ at number 16 this week, and I’m not sure where it’ll go next week, but it’s steadily growing,” Houser said one week before his Winstock appearance. “It’s been really cool. The response has been really, really good from it, so I’m excited about it.”

Some fans may be surprised to know the soulful voice behind the hit “Anything Goes” also co-wrote the Trace Adkins hit “Honky Tony Badonkadonk.”

“I’m not Trace Adkins, and that song was written basically for Trace Adkins,” Houser explained. “I don’t think it was that big of a deal, but I guess it could have shocked some people that I’d come out with something more serious than that. I don’t think that many people at the time knew I wrote the song. I don’t think it hurt me though.”

Having penned the Adkins hit, and then coming out with a ballad for his first single, introduced fans to both the serious side and the light-hearted side of the Mississippi-born and raised Houser.

People also got to know Houser this past winter when he did more than 30 shows on the Jagermeister Tour, opening for Pat Green.

“That tour was awesome, man,” Houser said. “It was the first country tour that Jagermeister ever had, and it was a really cool tour. Pat was just excellent to us and we had a great time. We did 30-something shows and it was just a blast.”

Houser and Green, along with fellow newcomer Rick Monroe, brought the Jagermeister Country Music Tour to the Cabooze in Minneapolis Feb. 19.

With a couple songs under his belt and the summer touring schedule in full force, Houser said he is looking forward to working on his next album.

“I’ve been writing a lot of songs and I’m starting to think about recording a new record,” Houser said. “I’m playing a lot of the fairs and festivals and just continuing at it and looking at putting a tour together for this fall.”

Originally, Houser moved to Nashville to be a songwriter, but he missed performing and again formed a band to fuel that desire.

“I kind of moved to Nashville as a songwriter,” Houser said. “I’d been playing clubs and playing live all my life, but I moved to Nashville just mainly to write songs. I found that when I got there, I really started to miss playing live, so I actually turned around and put a band together and started to play.”

Playing live became a way for Houser to pitch his songs, and said it was a good way to get other writers to come out and hear his offerings.

“The record label came out and said, ‘you know what, you outta be singing those songs,’” Houser said. “That’s how I ended up with the record deal.”

Those songs he was singing stem from years of being influenced in the deep south.

“A lot of it came from my dad who was a musician in Mississippi where I grew up,” Houser said. “He played a lot of blues, rock and roll, country – all of it, so we stayed hip to good music all the time as kids, and we’d listen to a lot of older records all the time and newer things.

He also grew up admiring songwriters such as Dan Fogelberg and James Taylor.

“I’ve just got a wide range of musical influences,” he said.

Knowing now that some may look to Houser now for influence, he hopes new artists, and fans alike, take away from his songs the simple message that Houser believes in what he is doing.

“I hope they take away that I’m a real artist and a real guy and I write real songs,” Houser said, “and I’m singing them from my heart. Believability is the main thing I want people to take away.”

Now that he’s had some successes in the industry, Houser said he is hopeful he can make a career out of it and keep moving forward.

“The main thing is to just have a career,” Houser said. “I know this business is real tough, and I know artists come and go. I hope I’m still around and am one of the people that you go, ‘I remember you 10 years ago when you started out, and I remember talking to you and we did an interview because you’re coming to Winstock.’”

With performances on the Emerging Artists Stage this year, perhaps down the road, Houser may find himself being a Winstock headliner.

“That’d be neat – that’s what I hope to be doing,” he said.

Randy Houser will perform on the Emerging Artists Stage at Winstock 2009 in Winsted Saturday, June 13 at 2 and 6:10 p.m.

Houser called for a phone interview June 4 from Texarcana, TX in support of his appearance at Winstock.

For more information on Winstock, visit www.winstockfestival.com, or call 888-946-7865.

For more information on Randy Houser, visit www.randyhouser.com.

Ryan Gueningsman is at ryan@heraldjournal.com.