Lift to Experience made big news for North Texas music fans, especially for those who attended high school in the Clinton-era, in March when the band announced it would reunite for a show in London. the trailblazing psych-tinged act, led by Josh T. Pearson, also announced plans to perform three…
For those waiting to hear new music from John Dufilho, the second half of 2016 will be as loud and busy as the first half of this year was quiet and still. For a guy with as many musical connections as Dufilho, such a distinction is odd. But the lead…
James Richard Anderson, better known as Big Dad Ritch, the growling lead singer for Texas Hippie Coalition, is as much of a country boy as he is a metal head. As far as he’s concerned, his band, formed in Denison and perhaps the most successful North Texas metal act currently…
Crystal Yates was listening to a sermon at Cross Timbers Church in Argyle when she had a musical epiphany. “Stop trying to separate the secular and sacred by treating everything as sacred,” implored the pastor, Toby Slough. It was then that the country singer-songwriter from McKinney realized her love of songwriting…
For a city so laden with Western stereotypes — the cowboy hats, the boots, the big hair — Dallas isn’t necessarily a city of country music fans. But it’s a city that has richly contributed to the history of country music, so at least a basic understanding of the genre…
For well over 30 years, Dallas resident Skip Hollandsworth has been an all-star storyteller as a contributor and editor for Texas Monthly. Whether he’s writing about a vicious motorcycle gang, a tragically injured high school football player or a wealthy women’s wild-ass closet, Hollandsworth’s longform stories are packed with engaging…
Beach House The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, April 9, 2016 On Saturday night at The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum, Baltimore dream-pop outfit Beach House was all about prettiness. Each song was pretty. Victoria Legrand’s vocals were pretty. But there were too many aspects that fell pretty flat. It wasn’t…
When Merle Haggard died yesterday at his California home at the age of 79, he left behind not only one of the grandest catalogs in American music history, but a collection of songs that pointedly addressed the feelings, conflicts and everyday trials of the common man. There aren’t many Country…
There might not be a more appropriately titled show on television right now than The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, Showtime’s new weekly documentary series where two reporters and a political strategist follow the presidential candidates on the campaign trail. The show’s resident strategist, Mark McKinnon, the…
They don’t make music festivals in North Texas like they used to. Or at least they don’t make them like KHYI 95.3 FM’s Texas Music Revolution, the longest-running Texas country and Americana festival in the area. Celebrating its 20th installment this weekend, 95.3 The Range’s festival, known as TMR to the…
Josh T. Pearson is one of the most revered musicians to come out of Denton in the past 15 years, but you wouldn’t know it by how often he plays there. It’s been more than a decade since Pearson, the leader of influential post-rock trio Lift to Experience, has performed…
Today’s the big day for KISS fans of North Texas: Nearly eight months after plans were first unveiled, Rock & Brews, the restaurant franchise owned by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, opens the doors on its newest location in The Colony. The newest addition to the quickly growing Grandscape development,…
A more fitting album-opening line has rarely been offered by a band, local or otherwise, than the one on Lift to Experience’s The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads: “This is the story of three Texas boys busy minding their own business,” sang Josh T. Pearson, “when the Angel of the Lord appeared.” Better yet, it…
Murder City Devils With Riverboat Gamblers Granada Theater, Dallas Friday, February 12, 2016 On Friday night at 9:50pm, one question that was likely being asked around the crowded floor of the Granada Theater was “So, can the show actually get any better?” The Riverboat Gamblers had just blistered through a…
Perhaps more than anywhere else, the world of music loves a good comeback story, and after a surprise appearance last week, we are hopefully witnessing the beginning of another dramatic resurrection. Randy Travis, arguably the most distinctive voice of country music in the 1980s, was on hand February 3 for…
In boxing and mixed martial arts, it’s common to hear the term “best pound-for-pound fighter” when someone is discussing the merits of a dominant fighter who is in one of the smaller weight classes. Such a clarifying term is necessary because it’s doubtful that Manny Pacquiao, as lethal as he…
In the middle of Pleasant Grove’s new album, The Heart Contortionist, a titular three-song suite details the beautiful highs and the dramatic lows of relationships. It’s not a stretch to suggest the three songs represent the three stages of Pleasant Grove’s life as a band: birth, death and resurrection. A…
Later this year, The Colony — of all places — will welcome arguably the most ambitious music venue opening in North Texas. Lava Cantina, a 28,000-square-foot restaurant and live music depot, will become the brightest star in the promising Grandscape development. If all goes according to plan, The Colony could…
On April 19, 2014, the Old 97’s were celebrating the release of the band’s stellar album, Most Messed Up, with a show that also featured a number of other acts the group had toured with before. With a sold-out crowd enjoying the gorgeous weather on the lawn of the Annette…
About a year ago, we took a look ahead into the immediate future of local country music and pointed you in the direction of a few fine North Texas talents we thought would be worth keeping an eye on in 2015. Those artists indeed made their fair share of noise,…
Dave Rawlings Machine Majestic Theatre Friday, January 8, 2016 For the most part, the eighth day of the year is far too early to crown anything as the best of the year. But Friday night’s Dave Rawlings Machine show at the Majestic Theatre made it feel like the best Americana…
Texas country has always been hard to define, but at the end of 2015, the task seems harder than ever. As Texas artists start to see more success in Nashville, other music scenes are bleeding into the genre. The lines between Americana, Texas country and Nashville country aren’t as neatly…
