On Wednesday night in Dallas, this 38 year-old, balding suburbanite and married father of one (with a second child on the way) did something I hadn’t done before. Though I’ve been canvassing the North Texas musical landscape for over 20 years as a fan and, more recently, as a music…
As great of a year as 2014 was for country music throughout North Texas, many of the headlines were dominated by veterans, both young and grizzled. While 2015 will surely see some fine albums from this area’s better time-tested honky-tonk talents, there are a handful of fresher names we’re particularly…
Understandably, life is a bit crazy for the fast-traveling members of Seryn right now. Even after driving for hours on end following a sold-out show in Telluride, Colorado on Sunday night, making the choice on where to have dinner Monday night wasn’t a completely easy one. Most of them wanted…
Between 1987 and 1989, Nathan Nipper, the Bedford-based author of Dallas ‘Til I Cry: Learning to Love Major League Soccer, was a soccer-obsessed 12 year-old son of missionary parents on the go. In those two impactful years, the Nippers moved from Rose Bud, Arkansas (population 202 at that time), to…
Just because we handed out some trophies last week doesn’t mean we’re done celebrating the best music that came out of our area this year. As a historical matter of fact, North Texas has long enjoyed a rich abundance of country music talent. In 2014, we’ve seen that many beloved…
Since 2006, a Father-Son duo has helped give the suburbs north of Dallas a true beer-nerd clubhouse in the form of Lonestar Beverages in Carrollton. But as of the past week, Sam and Rick Ali have added a seductive new element to craft-beer loving here in the Dallas-area as Lonestar…
I’m a suburbanite. Of course, I do spend a great deal of time in Dallas proper, drinking, eating and going to shows. But I live in Carrollton. I actually love it here, in fact. I’m not saying all suburbs are great – most certainly are not, but dangit-all-to-heck, C-town has…
With the 26th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards finally upon us — in fact, voting just closed last Friday and the music showcase convened in Deep Ellum over the weekend — we’ve spent the past couple month highlighting some of the nominees for this year’s awards. And when we say…
With the 26th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards just around the corner — in fact, voting is open right now — we’re looking to spend the next several weeks taking the opportunity to highlight some of the nominees for this year’s awards. And when we say that these artists are…
Eight years ago, Rhett Miller’s brother, Ross, also a musician, felt compelled to figure out how he and his famous brother could help a friend of his. A wife of one of Ross’s friends was battling cystic fibrosis, so the two Millers got to work on a plan that would…
Last week, Bedhead, the renowned slowcore pioneers from Dallas led by brothers Matthew and Bubba Kadane, saw the re-release of its entire body of recorded work. Chicago-based record label Numero Group, a label that specializes in offering up richly detailed, comprehensive collections from artists deserving of further inspection, released the…
Jeezy 9 p.m. Friday, November 21, at South Side Ballroom, 1135 S. Lamar, 214-421-2021 or southsideballroomdallas.com, $59.50 The Godfather of modern Atlanta trap rap is returning to Dallas. The artist formerly known as Young Jeezy has been a star in the rap game ever since he released Let’s Get It:…
The Black Keys With Jake Bugg. American Airlines Center, Dallas Sunday, November 16, 2014 A quick glance over the past decade of rock music doesn’t exactly produce an over-abundance of true, guitar-driven bands that have climbed up from the club circuit and into the realm of massive-scale arena rock. These…
Music compilations are something of a dying breed these days. Sure, there are some great choices to be had in the Best Music Compilation category in this year’s Dallas Observer Music Awards, but the essence of the compilation has been greatly diminished in the years since CDs were superseded by…
With the 26th annual Dallas Observer Music Awards just around the corner — in fact, voting is open right now at musicawardspoll.dallasobserver.com — we’re looking to spend the next several weeks taking the opportunity to highlight some of the nominees for this year’s awards. And when we say that these…
This week, Dallas-based songwriter Ronnie Fauss released Built to Break, his second full-length effort for the New West Records imprint Normaltown. Of course, that total doesn’t include the handful of killer alt-country EPs Fauss delivered before his 2012 Normaltown debut, I Am the Man You Know I’m Not. Since 2009,…
Daniel Markham is in the midst of a pretty serious addiction. Now 33 years old, the Denton-based singer-songwriter has managed to live an exceptionally lengthy time without tumbling into the otherworldliness of one of the most popular escapes of the past three quarters of a century. The drug he can’t…
Though he hasn’t officially released music in five years, for many of us in North Texas Jack Ingram hasn’t gone away. For starters, he performs around here a lot; he’s hit Plano, Dallas and Fort Worth in the past two months alone. And more importantly, he’s built up an impressive…
This past March, Fort Worth hosted the spring edition of the Untapped Indie Music and Beer Festival. The weather absolutely sucked, but in a weird way, that made the day and evening a fun one, because the beer lines were shorter and the crowds in front of the stages for…
On December 13, The Old 97’s will perform at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Dallas. That combination alone is enough to make for a pretty cool night. One of Dallas’ most beloved bands in one of the greatest rooms our city has to offer will never be an ordinary scenario…
As a child growing up in the tiny town of Niceville, Florida, McKinney transplant and country singer-songwriter Crystal Yates couldn’t avoid the twangy sounds of country music even if she had wanted to. “My mom says I could sing ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ by Hank Williams before I could…
Some songs pop out of a writer’s mind and onto tape in mere minutes. Other songs, however, require a journey with several stops in order to develop into the fully formed statement they need to be. Almost three years ago, during the Christmas season of 2011, popular sports-talk radio host…
