Do you ‘Love This Life’? Locash is ready for you at Clovis Rodeo

The fact that Chris Lucas and Preston Brust are known as Locash, instead of the Locash Cowboys, comes down to a bit of branding.

The pair needed a cool logo and Brust drew this slick ZZ Top-styled L and a C, and even without the added descriptor, it just seemed to work.

“He hadn’t added the ‘cowboys’ yet,” says Lucas in advance of the group’s performance Friday, April 22, at the Clovis Rodeo. You can see the finished logo for yourself on the main page of the group’s website and its social media.

The name change happened in 2014 and came at a prime time for the band. Last year, the band had a bona fide hit with the single “I Love This Life.” It hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and on the year-end best-of lists for Taste of Country, SiriusXM’s The Highway station, and Rolling Stone. Spotify says Locash is one of the country artists to watch in 2016.

“Once you get a Top 5 single, your life changes,” Lucas says.

It has been almost a decade coming.

Lucas and Brust met as DJs at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville and scored their first big break writing songs for other artists – “Truck Yeah” for Tim McGraw and “You Gonna Fly” for Keith Urban, which was No. 1 on Billboard’s Country songs charts. They kept a few songs for themselves.

As performers, Locash is known for energetic live performances, which fuse an obvious love of gospel and R&B music (the onstage dance moves are telling) with ’80s rock, hip-hop and, of course, ’90s country.

Lucas got into music because of ’90s country music, he says.

Brust is a huge Frank Sinatra fan.

All of that goes into what Locash does, he says.

And while some purists may think the pair crosses a line of what country music can – and should – be, Lucas sees it as a reflection of the current state of the genre.

“It’s fantastic,” he says. “Nashville has grown because country music has grown.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Do you ‘Love This Life’? Locash is ready for you at Clovis Rodeo."