The first half of 2014 has been a strong one for beloved acts with strong ties to the North Texas region. The new albums from St. Vincent and the Old 97’s have sent fans and critics looking for new superlatives, and rightfully so. Now we can add Centro-matic to the…
Any discussion of hard-rock, or even glam-metal, from the 1980’s is woefully incomplete without Pennsylvania’s Cinderella receiving a good chunk of chatter. In 1988 Tom Keifer and crew began an impressive run of hitting high on the sales charts and video countdowns. Monster ballads such as “Nobody’s Fool” and “Don’t…
On the strength of the group’s first full-length effort, Guilty of Everything, Nothing, out of Philadelphia and led by ex-con Dominic “Nicky” Palermo (who spent two years in jail several years ago for aggravated assault and attempted murder), have quickly become perhaps the best of the current crop of blossoming…
To many a country music fan from North Texas, Matt Hillyer is a tried-and-true honky-tonk bandleader. The inked-up lead singer of Eleven Hundred Springs, now nearing his 40s and missing the long ponytail that snaked out from under his cowboy hat a decade ago, is ready to assume a new…
The lead single from Nashville country-rock trio, the Cadillac Three’s, self-titled debut album, “The South,” could easily be a brainless ode to Southern cliches. But it isn’t. Instead, lead singer Jaren Johnston, multi-instrumentalist Kelby Ray and drummer Neil Mason deliver a swampy, thrashing and fun tribute to their native region,…
For many years, Lucinda Williams seemed to have some anger inside of her. Much of that anger was directed towards the men she had fallen in and out of love with over the years. The pain and resentment that went into so many of her songs proved quite fruitful for…
The moment when a festival lineup is revealed is always an exciting one. It’s a split second that’s rife with anticipation, and it can be downright exuberant if it contains unexpected surprises and bucket-list bookings. Conversely, that moment of concert-going epiphany can quickly be deflated if the reality is that…
Texans are a fortunate group of folk music fans. We have legends and emerging artists that have either called the Lone Star State home at some point or are firmly entrenched here, primarily playing and making their artistic livings here so that we have more than ample access to their…
With the mind-expanding psychedelic rock outfit Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Sean Lennon (the 38-year-old son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono) and his girlfriend, model and artist Charlotte Kemp Muhl, have tripped into an enchanting realm. Since their first album, 2010’s Acoustic Sessions, the duo have explored a…
The names of some music festivals are real head-scratchers. “Bonnaroo” and “Lollapalooza” are silly but effective. Others don’t leave much to the imagination. Locally, there’s the upcoming Fort Worth Music Festival: not a ton of mystery there, but at least we know where it’s going down, right? Somewhere in the…
Big time festival season is in full bloom. Most weekends this time of year there’s someplace in Dallas with a major festival. This month alone there’s Psych Fest, Homegrown, and the Houston Free Press Summer Fest, and each on different weekends. But this weekend, arguably the most unlikely township in…
On Saturday, the bustling northern ‘burb of Frisco hosted many thousands of modern-rock lovers at Toyota Stadium for the annual, all-day Edgefest aural orgy (the 24th installment, no less). Saturday’s festival roster proved to be one that, maybe more than any recent Edgefest, bridged the generational gap of those who…
In the splendidly unflinching 2012 documentary Charles Bradley: Soul of America, the Florida-born, Brooklyn-based Charles Bradley openly shares the highs and lows of the point in his life when he has finally found an outlet, and an audience, for his heart-on-sleeve soul music. As a whole, the film is both…
It was late spring 2012, and a scraggly band clutched acoustic guitars and a washboard in the middle of Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s beer garden. As a hundred or so drinkers milled about, basking in the sunshine and sampling the young brewery’s beers, one simple, frantically delivered line caught the…
Scottish post-rock heroes Mogwai is the band most instrumental rock groups that have started in the past decade want to be when they grow up. Beginning with 1997’s epic Young Team and continuing with the release of the group’s eighth studio LP, last January’s Rave Tapes, Stuart Braithwaite, John Cummings,…
The Old 97’s, Black Joe Lewis, Slobberbone, Madison King Annette Strauss Square – AT&T Performing Arts Center Dallas, Texas Saturday, April 19, 2014 On the most pristinely calm night we’ve seen in Dallas in recent weeks, Saturday’s sold-out Old 97’s record release show for Most Messed Up proffered a taste…
Twenty years ago, our local music scene was a bustling cauldron of rock goodness. Whether it be to the surprise of many or to a few, a couple of bands that made Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth proud back then are not only still making us proud, but are selling…
The Eli Young Band is, by now, a household name, at least in households across North Texas, where three of its four members still reside, and in other households whose speakers blare with country. With each single released by the four-piece, formed in Denton in 2000 and led by lead…
Perhaps more than any attribute making Madison King’s songs burst with cochlea-catching appeal is the unvarnished honesty that pops from them. It’s in her lyrics, and it’s in her retelling of significant events from the past few years of her life, especially since the release of her twangy 2011 debut,…
In recent years, the Top 40 Country Music charts have been littered with an increasing amount of songs that now fit easily into an even more specific, sickening realm of modern country music – “Bro-Country.” With frat-boy bravado and an even greater emphasis on sophmoric, ignorant cliches than usual, the…
In a surprising turn, JB Patterson, lead-singer for Tyler-based country band JB and the Moonshine Band, is wide awake and ready to chat when the phone rings at 9:30 a.m. on a recent weekday morning. Such early hours aren’t usually kept by rising music stars. But as with so many…
Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden are coming our way this summer. Make no mistake, this is big news, and not a mere nostalgia trip for for those of us who were in high school or entering college 20 years ago. The announcement of a tour featuring a co-headlining double bill…
