Don't be fooled: Mandarin is a real Texas band. Its name is Chinese, and it certainly doesn't play straight country music or sport 10-gallon hats, but its music sounds just like Texas looks and feels--scorching, expansive, leisurely. Being a Texas band is not about singing with a twang or about getting back at your two-timin' ex, as the Dixie Chicks or Pat Green might have you believe. No, Texas music is characterized by guitars that sizzle like tires on a stinging gravel road, strokes of steel guitar that glisten like a heat wave and songs that prove that it's not where you're going, but how you get there that's important. With Mandarin, the ride is always more significant than the destination. Mandarin makes songs that fill wide-open spaces. Each note is a step along the journey, one that could take miles to finish. In that way, Mandarin is a... More >>>