Yesterday was a really big day for local twang-rock fans. David Ponder of Somebody’s Darling announced the band will begin recording their new album this week, The Old 97’s released a song from their upcoming album. And Madison King let any who made it out to Deep Ellum’s Twilite Lounge…
In the late spring of 2011, Gilmer, Texas-raised Curtis Grimes competed in the first season of the NBC’s ratings-bonanza The Voice. While the show has remained a phenomenon, Grimes made his mark on that trail-blazing season by showing off his smooth, confident baritone vocals. He also showed his competitive-edge by…
The fact that Darkside’s Dave Harrington didn’t spend his life crafting beats or sampling music in his parent’s basement as a young child is a bit of a shocker, given the level of excellence he and Darkside’s leader, Nicolas (Nico) Jarr have achieved in only a couple of years. What’s…
There are myriad reasons The Ticket has dominated Dallas-Fort Worth airwaves for 20 years, all part of a formula that’s proven to be impossible to replicate. One ingredient that builds a sense of culture around the station is the so-called “Drops.” Small sound bites, usually taken out of context, inserted…
If you were to listen the intro to “The Ceiling,” the song that’s garnered some serious praise for Los Angeles-based The Wild Feathers, you might quickly – and prematurely – assume that the fresh-faced five-piece act is yet another entry into the Mumford-fueled folk-rock revival. Of course, after listening to…
There’s a case to be made that Alternative Country, or Alt-Country as it’s more often called, hasn’t ever really been a legit genre. One will be hard-pressed to get any of the artists lumped in with the moniker to claim it as their sonic home, and even the original journalistic…
It’s late in the morning, New Year’s Eve, and most of Dallas is still reeling from another of the Cowboys’ trademark December meltdowns, their team sent home early yet another year. For the city’s vast army of professional sports yappers, Christmas has come again. Inside the Central Expressway studios of…
In-store performances are tricky, unpredictable little miscreants. Unlike a standard club show, where one typically understands the general, unwritten crowd rules, a record store gig can be awkward or intimate. It’s doubtful that one can be both, and such a show rarely falls in a gray middle. It’s a fine…
Todd Gautreau of Crushed Stars wouldn’t be a natural choice to star in an indie-rock reimagining of the sentimental 1989 Kevin Costner hit film, Field of Dreams. As Ray Kinsella, a failing farmer with daddy issues, Costner’s character blindly followed a random, ghostly voice telling him that “If you build…
It’s less than an hour’s drive from Palestine, Texas to the World’s Rose Capital, Tyler, Texas. Both are considered to be the “Big City,” for the folks living outside of their borders. Though that Dogwood-scented pocket of East Texas isn’t a Metropolis by most standards, there’s a great deal of…
This past June, we provided a list of the 10 best Texas Country/Red Dirt/Whatever tunes in 2013 up to that point of the year. With 2014 looming, we’re still not sure what the nebulous terms slapped onto the songs and bands that made up that list really mean. With an…
On the heels of For You, one of the best rock records from a local band in 2013, Dallas’ Dead Flowers (Idol Records) offer up a gift to fans that have provided them with their best year as a band. It wasn’t long ago the group released the well-made, rambunctious…
The last year or so has seen Dallas’ country-folker Ronnie Fauss gather musch-deserved praise from across the country for his 2012 full-length debut I am the Man You Know I’m Not. With 2014 fast approaching, Fauss and the folks at Normaltown Records, an imprint of Americana giant New West Records,…
In 2005, country music hit singer and songwriter Chris Young was fronting the house band at Cowboy’s Dancehall in Arlington. But by the spring of 2006, it seemed as though the No. 1 smash hits would be just around the corner for the Tennessee-born and raised crooner after he easily…
It’s really easy to call Dallas-based country singer-songwriter Troy Cartwright a “young-gun” or a “promising up-and-comer.” Partly that’s thanks to the fact he can write and sing the hell out of a song in his early 20s the way most folk vets might once they’ve been around for a couple…
Since 2003, Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes have produced a catalogue of some of the finest psychedelic rock out there. Led by the husband-wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the group released their stunning Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO earlier this year as the follow-up to 2010’s excellent The…
In 2005, Mitch McBain and Blake Myers, who comprises Houston-based band Rosehill, suffered a tragic loss when they were playing as a part of the group Texas High Life. Keith Binder, the band’s drummer, committed suicide, leaving the rest of group awash in hopelessness. Rosehill was formed in the wake…
Ask three members of Denton country-rock outfit Rodney Parker and Fifty Peso Reward where the band name came from, and you’ll get three humorous, and ultimately, unrevealing answers. “Nowhere,” say bass player Brooks Kendall. “From drunk 22 year-old idiots.” Multi-instrumentalist Danny Skinner adds, “The story is really not interesting unless…
It’s no secret that Denton’s Robert Gomez is one of North Texas’ true artisitic treasures. Currently, he has a few irons in the fire that prove as much. As he tours with Sarah Jaffe as her guitar palyer, he’s also released an EP that is as unique of a concept…
For anyone paying attention, the term “prodigy” has been linked to Sarah Jarosz for years now. Such easy labeling is perhaps fair when you’re an insanely talented teen or a college student with a fantastic album under your belt. But Jarosz, who grew up in Wimberley, Texas and now makes…
IN BLOOM by Greg Schroeder Directed by Josh David Jordan from TWO CANS & A STRING on Vimeo. Since 2008, with his ever-present beard and hat, Greg Schroeder has been one of the great country-folk singer songwriters in the area. Schroeder’s tunes are the kinds that can make the simple…
Hoo boy. On Wednesday night, during a set performed by Alabama’s Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires at the Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge in Fort Worth, the management of the venue felt compelled to close the curtains and then switch off the power completely on the rowdy…
