The Josh Abbott Band just released its first full-length studio album in over three years. Titled Front Row Seat, the album is getting some nice reviews across the nation, and rightfully so as it might be the Texas-based group’s most honest record to date. The band’s namesake is very excited about the direction that was taken for the newest collection of songs and recently sat down with Myspace to talk about it.

This album has been getting a lot of attention for you guys. Tell me how you approached the creative direction of it.

It’s essentially about having a front row seat to someone else’s life—whether that’s through marriage or a long term relationship, being intimate allows you to see someone’s life in a very unique way. That was very rhetorical, and representative because it’s a front row seat to the story we’re telling. Songs 1-16 are in chronological order. We took that play on words and split the album up in three acts—five songs per act. Act one was the exposition of characters, the introduction. Those songs are really fun and upbeat. Act two is incitation, which draws the listener in—that’s when you fall in love. Act three is about intimacy and being in that moment of true love and commitment. Act four is disillusionment, which is the ending of the relationship, and act five is the aftermath—dealing with life and moving on after you’ve gone through everything. The songs actually tell a story one through 16. They flow in that order, so you see in the beginning this young guy meet someone, fall in love, end the relationship, and have to move on.

Along those lines, one of the most emotional cuts on the album is “Autumn,” which is told from the perspective of the woman in the relationship.

That’s the oldest song on the album. I wrote that back in 2010. I knew it was great and loved it. I think some of the language in the song was really advanced for me up to that time. But we really didn’t have a place for it, and I didn’t want to force it on an album. I wanted it to have its moment, but here we are five years later, and it has a very significant role in the story that we’re trying to tell. It’s about this girl who has gone through heartbreak and hurt, but she’s decided to move on from it. That voice is so important in the story we were trying to tell. I think a lot of people are going to be able to relate to the album. Everyone’s been through these stages—whether you’ve been responsible for heartache or someone has done it to you, we’ve all been through it. I think that people will respect the honesty and the approach of the album. It really tells that story.

“Kisses We Steal,” which you co-wrote with Radney Foster and Jay Clementi, is one of the more powerful love songs on the disc. Tell us about that one.

Radney’s vision for that song was about how sometimes he steals kisses from time with his wife, and those are moments of time that can never be taken back. Maybe it was that moment that you were supposed to be doing something else, but you grab her and you kiss. It’s all in-the-moment. It’s a very deep philosophy and the song has such a great melody.

You guys are on the road constantly. What is something about the travelling lifestyle that might not be as sexy as it’s portrayed to be?

It’s very taxing for starters. You’re sleeping in a bus that’s moving while our bus driver gets us to the next city. Now, granted, we have a bed, and we lay flat. I’m not saying it’s rough because it’s not—it’s accommodating. But, when your bus driver hits a side guard, you immediately wake up. The hours can be extremely long. Your diet on the road is so hard to maintain. You play a lot of festivals, and you’re at the mercy of what catering is serving—usually pizza or barbecue. It’s an interesting life, for sure. There’s something about the lifestyle that is intoxicating that makes people dream about it, or watch it in movies or read books about it. You want to hear stories about it, so to speak.

Speaking of barbecue, we understand you have a vested interest in the food.

I’m a very small percentage owner of a barbecue restaurant. We’ve got two locations in Texas. I dibble and dabble in it, but I don’t pretend to be an expert in the cooking of it.

When you go to a barbecue place, what do you look for in the way they prepare their food?

I was in Nashville recently and went with the Dry Rub because it’s probably something that is a little more of a specialty— something you find in Tennessee. You don’t really see Dry Rub as much in Texas. It’s mostly a wet rib. There’s a lot of different ways to measure what a good rib is going to be. In a lot of contests, they actually want the meat to stay attached to the bone—not a lot because it would be overcooked. If it falls completely off the bone, that means its’ been on there too long. BBQ is a staple. Everybody loves it, but in Texas it seems that every town you go to has their hole in the wall place. There’s people who will drive for hours to get to their favorite. There’s a place in Austin that has a line that starts at 8 in the morning. They sell out every day. It’s a culture thing down there.