Waterloo Revival are a duo from Austin, Texas, but they're not Texas country. That doesn't mean that the Texas scene didn't influence their music, however. The duo sat down with Taste of Country Nights host Sam Alex recently to chat about their hometown, their interesting name and their debut single, "Hit the Road."

Cody Cooper and George Birge met in middle school, and the rest is pretty much history, as they've been making music together since. They've spent a good portion of their long friendship writing, even though it's only been a couple of years since the country group Waterloo Revival was born.

“We’re from Austin, Texas born and raised, and back in the day in the 1800s Austin was originally called Waterloo, Texas," Birge explains of their unusual name. "We’re just kinda trying to play homage to our hometown."

"The music scene there really influenced us all through high school and college and we’re just doing our best to do our part to carry the torch and keep the Austin music scene going and, you know, get it out to the world," he adds.

Waterloo Revival are definitely helping to spread the Austin vibe now that their single "Hit the Road" is out. The song was born after they thought they were already done with their album, but their producer had another idea in mind.

“We were working on a record in Austin for the Waterloo Revival project, which we started Waterloo Revival about two years ago," Birge says. "We recorded about seven songs and we thought we were done with the record, and the guy who was producing for us, Ken Tondre, said, ‘I think you’ve got one more song in you and I want you to fly out to Nashville and write with my buddy Dustin James.’ So Cody and I flew out to Nashville for the first time ever. It was our first time writing with somebody outside each other."

It was love at first listen. They wrote "Hit the Road" together, and it didn't take long for any of them to realize it was 'the one,' or as Birge puts it: "We all knew it was something special walking out of the room."

Sam Alex is the host of Taste of Country Nights radio, a syndicated night show which airs on more than 60 Townsquare Media Group stations nationwide.

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