Kathy Tran
Audio By Carbonatix
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Launched in 2020 by singer and Kessler Park resident Floramay Holliday, Music Safari began as a community effort, with local musicians performing on the front lawns of houses in the neighborhood at a time when people were feeling cooped up by COVID. In 2022, Dallas photographer (and Observer contributor) Kathy Tran began helming the festival and hosts some of the sets on her own lawn.
Thirteen performers will perform at six participating houses in a 1.5-mile loop in the neighborhood. Tran’s house often serves as the final stop during Music Safari. Festivities will begin throughout the neighborhood at 2 p.m., and while most of the homes will wrap by 5 p.m., Tran plans to keep her party going into the evening. Among the performers are Scuttino, Cure for Paranoia, Chef Dee and Chloe Hart, the latter of whom won her opening slot in an open-call contest.
“This is our first time running an emerging artist contest,” Tran says. “So we did an open call for artists in Dallas, and then we had 15 people who applied. And then, collaborator Musicade helped narrow down the top four. We ran it on Instagram as a poll, and people voted for the artists, and Chloe Hart won 50% of the votes.”
Getting by With Help From a Friend
Musicade, which launched this past August, was founded by Jerome Dotson. The platform serves as a “marketplace for music operators” to source musicians, instrumentalists, DJs and sound experts for events. Dotson and Tran first partnered for Music Safari last year, months before Musicade officially launched on the App Store. At the time, Tran was considering backing out of Music Safari because the logistics were becoming taxing. Dotson presented a solution to optimize the inner mechanics of the beloved music series.
“[Tran] told me at the time she was thinking about canceling it that year,” Dotson says. “She was like, ‘Well, it’s just a lot of work. I don’t really have the manpower. I could really use a lot of help.’ And so that’s how the conversation started. Like, ‘Well, what would that look like if I were to come on with you and collaborate?’ We just clicked really easily and talked about our goals, our visions and things we do.”
The initial collaboration proved successful, as Tran used Musicade to streamline the booking process and allow fans to tip artists directly. Given the collaboration’s success, Dotson is looking forward to running it back this year.
“A couple times, I heard a lot of the people that bought tickets say that they discovered new artists,” Dotson says. “… To me, that’s the whole point. We’re introducing artists to people here in Dallas and saying, ‘These are artists that are in your city that are often performing and putting out new music, and you should know who they are.’ That’s something I’m hoping to see again, and not just the artist side, but also for sponsors. I heard this group of girls is like, ‘Oh my God, I don’t drink beer, but this is really good.’ And that was a Dallas-based beer as well. The whole thing is about being able to introduce Dallas brands and artists to the community and let them know this is who’s around you.”
Local Lineup
Many of the artists on this year’s Kessler Park stop are returning acts, including Cure for Paranoia, whose lead vocalist, Cameron McCloud, went viral on social media for dropping a verse every single day for a year straight, and Chef Dee, who’s still riding the high of his Best Soul Vocalist Act win at this year’s Dallas Entertainment Awards.
Dee’s Music Safari performance comes ahead of his upcoming album Crossfire, which is set to arrive next month. Dee says the new album is inspired by “love and aggression,” but he won’t be previewing new music at Music Safari, as he wants time to fine-tune the orchestral elements of each song with his backing band, The Taste Experience. Instead, he says fans can expect him to blend cover songs across a multitude of genres.
“One thing that’s unique about my performing is when I do cover songs, I like to mash them up with other songs from other genres,” he tells us. “I do it in my own creative way, so I want people to get that experience as well as hear my original music, which is also very electrifying. I feel like it makes people dance, it makes people listen, it makes people get in their feels, and I want people to get the full experience from my band.”
Music Safari will close with sets from DJ Cozy Campos and a performance by Scuttino inside Tran’s home photo studio. Though there is a lot of footwork involved in planning the annual event, Tran finds the end result rewarding.
“I got to this level, and just want to invite everybody into what I have,” Tran says. “I come from a family who are immigrants from Vietnam. They came from the war. It always tears me up when I think about where I am in my life and having this kind of opportunity to be a part of the artistic community and doing creative things and living my life creatively, because there is no one else in my lineage that has been able to do what I do for fun and out of passion. That’s something that I’m really proud of.”
Music Safari (1411 Haines Ave.) is free to attend, but VIP tickets are available for enhanced access and better views of the after-party shows.
