Flatland Forever

By Texas Tech University

October 14^th, 2025

An accountant and an occupational therapist walk into a bar… Isn’t that how the joke goes?

Except this time, it’s not a joke, it’s just a funny story. The accountant is Cleto Cordero, the occupational therapist is Jason Albers, and the bar is The Blue Light Live.

When Cleto arrived in Lubbock, he was on a mission – to appease his family and get a degree, yes, but also to start a band. Luckily, he already had a drummer.

Jason and Cleto had been friends since the eighth grade. The pair grew up together in Midland, Texas, jamming to Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit.” After high school, they both attended community college in Midland before transferring to Texas Tech.

While Cleto was studying accounting and Jason was studying occupational therapy, the pair spent their free time dedicated to their dream of playing music. They played open mic nights, went to singer/songwriter night at The Blue Light, and integrated themselves into the local music scene, making connections and gaining experience playing their songs in exchange for free beer.

These connections eventually led them to the rest of the band, and just in time, too, because Cleto had already booked their first gig.

“I’d booked the show at The Blue Light, like three months out, and didn’t have the band together yet,” he recalled.

The looming deadline was exactly the motivation they needed to fill their roster. In short order, they found a fiddler, a guitar player and a bass player.

Now, Cleto found himself jamming with both old and new friends in the three-car garage of the duplex he rented with Jason. The band had been formed, the songs had been written, and their first gig was approaching rapidly. Everything Cleto had worked so hard for was just around the corner.

The day came – June 4, 2014 – Cleto walked out onto the stage… and was disappointed.

“I had big hopes that it was going to be a sold-out show for some reason,” Cleto said. “I just saw it in my brain, but it ended up being like 13 people that showed up and we made like 63 bucks at the door.”

Despite the initial disappointment, nerves and awkwardness, they had finally taken their first big step, and it wouldn’t be long before Cleto’s vision of a sold-out crowd and screaming fans became reality.

After their debut at Blue Light in 2014, they spent the next year honing their craft and solidifying their sound with the help of Scott Faris, owner of Amusement Park Studio.

Scott remembers the early days of the band fondly, thinking back to when he first met 18-year-old Cleto looking to record his first studio demo.

“I went home to my wife that night and I went, ‘Man, this new kid came in, and he’s not very good yet, but there’s some magic in him. If he sticks with it, he could do something.’ And sure enough, two years later, he called me again and wanted to record his first band, which was the beginnings of Flatland Cavalry.”

Scott welcomed the young band with open arms and open ears. They recorded the band’s first EP, “Come May,” and it was at the CD release party in 2015 that Cleto walked out on stage at The Blue Light and finally saw what he had always hoped for.

“I felt like we made it,” Cleto said. “That image I held in my mind prior to that of a sold-out show – which didn't happen, and I was discouraged – actually manifested. It was a sold-out show just one year later”

Scott knew his initial feeling about Cleto had been right.

“He had this fire,” Scott said. “He had a spark in his eyes, and you could see it. You could literally look him in the eye and go ‘Yeah, this guy has something. He’s got something special, and he’s going to do something. He might change the world.’ And I think he did.”