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It was in the early spring of 2006 when two musicians' lives would suddenly change at the drop of the hat. Joey (JW) Pruski was asked to fill in for the night at a show in Uvalde, TX. It was that night that he had met Amy Hermes who was also playing her first show with this band. Ironically the two got off to the wrong foot upon first meeting when Amy went to introduce herself to Joey and he walked right past her in the middle of a phone conversation. She didn't think to highly of Pruski until later that night when the show got underway.
Right in the middle of a song, Joey heard Amy play a quick lick on the fiddle, walked up right behind her and said, "It's about time you pulled that bow out of your ass and played something." Within a few hours and a few more drinks, the two befriended. Days later they were inseparatble. They had fallen for each other.
Three months later, the two found musical differences between them and the rest of the band. They were both asked to leave the band immediately even though they had shows booked under their name. Joey and Amy agreed to call some friends and play out the booked shows. Before they knew it, finishing out a few shows was not the way they wanted to end it. The two decided to form their own group. A group that they could bring some really close and really talented friends into and enjoy playing again.
"But what do we call ourselves?" Joey asked Amy. After long talks about the name, Takin' Back Texas was created just a couple days before the first show. "We were running out of time. We went with TBT because it sounded good rolling of the tounge and it related to a lot of the older classic songs we were playing at the time. You know takin' back Texas to the songs of guys like Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Waylon and such."
But originals weren't even in the focus when the band kicked off. The two kept bringing in singer after singer for each show. But they just couldn't find the right guy. Amy looked at Joey one night and said, "Why don't you just do it. Why don't you just front the band and we'll find a bass player." Joey paced the floor for a while and responded, "Cause I'm just not good enough." Everyone in the band talked about it and agreed to give Joey a month to see how he liked it and how his voice was coming along. Soon enough, Joey was fronting the band everynight and TBT was on it's way. "We talked about changing the name many times, but why? Why change it when people were already starting to know who we were? We just kept it."
Although just like most other bands, players came and then they were gone. However, if Amy had only known that the answer to her and Joey's problem of finding the right guys to play was only a few feet from her everyday at the music store she worked at. That's where Travis (JT) Vela and Rudy Diaz also worked at. Joey called in Earl (Huggy Bear) Hinton, and old friend of the road, to play bass and before they knew it. Takin' Back Texas was working on their first album in less than 2 months of Travis, Rudy, and Earl joining the band.
In April of 2007, the group released their first CD called Unexpected. The record contained all original songs written by Pruski and arranged by the band. The record was a success for the band on their first product released and still only gigging as a group for 6 months.
Now days the band consistantly tours south Texas and beyond, packing the halls and lighting up the stage each chance they get. With the departure of Hinton in May, JP Leal, an old friend of Travis and Rudy's, has taken the bass slot with the group. The group has already began pre-production of their sophomore album The Other Side of The Fence. The record is expected to be released somewhere around early to mid-2008. Until then, you can catch these guys on any given night performing their music and sharing their experiences with friends and fans.
