Tucson musician to introduce country side in Congress show

Actually, it’s country-leaning pop, he explained; think Taylor Swift or Hardy.

“I think everyone’s going to really be kind of impressed to see a new version,” he said of Jacob Acosta and the Golden Hearts, who will introduce their country side on Friday, Aug. 8, at Club Congress. “We’re kind of going with a new style. It’s just going to be a whole different performance, a whole different experience.”

Friday’s all-ages show will be recorded for release later this year.

Acosta said the recording is a preview of the band’s first country album, “Wanna Be Your Cowboy,” which he hopes to release next year.

Diving into country is not too different for Acosta when you consider his varied musical career: Over 22 years and 17 albums, he has performed rock, blues, Americana, pop-centric country-folk, deep house, progressive house, folk and indie-shoegaze — a subgenre of indie and alternative rock that features an ethereal mix of guitar distortion and effects against a backdrop of obscured vocals.

He adds Golden Hearts trio — Acosta, Jeff Browning and Barry Young — to his earlier ensembles Mason, Burning West, HYTS and Roll Acosta.

Acosta formed the trio in 2022 when he made the decision to turn his part-time music career of 20-plus years into a full-time venture.

Friday’s concert will draw heavily from the band’s 2024 release “Saint Corazón,” a record that plays with the genres in Acosta’s toolbox, from Latin and pop to Western and a little reggae-esque. It will also include country songs they are working on for the country release, including the lead-off single, the ballad “I Wanna Be Your Cowboy.”

“I love this song because it’s about becoming a country star to give my family a better life,” he said. “This song is about becoming that country star. ... I think this could be our ‘Tennessee Whiskey’.”

Moving into the country space for Acosta is equal parts passion and business. As a full-time musician, he needs to produce music that will draw audiences to his recordings and his live shows. Over the past handful of years, he has seen big-name pop and hip-hop artists release country albums.

“Everybody’s doing it, right? You got Post Malone, you got Beyonce. Everybody is starting to move in that direction to make sure to capture the audiences that are gonna listen to their music,” he explained. “And it is a business for me, so I want to make sure that I’m not missing the boat here. I know I can write some good music. So I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s write a country album’.”

In addition to “I Wanna Be Your Cowboy,” Acosta, Browning and Young are working on several songs for the new album, including the Latin country song “Adónde vas Señorita,” the cinematic Western song “Here Come the Cowboys” and the boot-scootin’ dance tune “Take Me Two Steppin’.”

When the band played that song recently before a crowd of 4,000 at The Corral at White Tank Ranch in the west Phoenix suburb of Surprise, Acosta said the dance floor was packed.

Friday’s 7:30 p.m. all-ages show at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., comes at the tail end of the band’s Southwest “Saint Corazón” tour, which they launched in May; the tour has made 25 stops in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, California and Arizona through July. Tickets are $19.06 in advance at hotelcongress.com. Tucson singer-songwriter Erika Segura opens the show.

Golden Hearts trio returns to The Corral on Aug. 22 to close out the tour. They have one other Tucson show on the books, for Sept. 18 at Oro Valley’s Gaslight Music Hall. Details at gaslightmusichall.com.