On the heels of For You, one of the best rock records from a local band in 2013, Dallas’ Dead Flowers (Idol Records) offer up a gift to fans that have provided them with their best year as a band. It wasn’t long ago the group released the well-made, rambunctious…
The last year or so has seen Dallas’ country-folker Ronnie Fauss gather musch-deserved praise from across the country for his 2012 full-length debut I am the Man You Know I’m Not. With 2014 fast approaching, Fauss and the folks at Normaltown Records, an imprint of Americana giant New West Records,…
In 2005, country music hit singer and songwriter Chris Young was fronting the house band at Cowboy’s Dancehall in Arlington. But by the spring of 2006, it seemed as though the No. 1 smash hits would be just around the corner for the Tennessee-born and raised crooner after he easily…
It’s really easy to call Dallas-based country singer-songwriter Troy Cartwright a “young-gun” or a “promising up-and-comer.” Partly that’s thanks to the fact he can write and sing the hell out of a song in his early 20s the way most folk vets might once they’ve been around for a couple…
Since 2003, Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes have produced a catalogue of some of the finest psychedelic rock out there. Led by the husband-wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the group released their stunning Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO earlier this year as the follow-up to 2010’s excellent The…
In 2005, Mitch McBain and Blake Myers, who comprises Houston-based band Rosehill, suffered a tragic loss when they were playing as a part of the group Texas High Life. Keith Binder, the band’s drummer, committed suicide, leaving the rest of group awash in hopelessness. Rosehill was formed in the wake…
Ask three members of Denton country-rock outfit Rodney Parker and Fifty Peso Reward where the band name came from, and you’ll get three humorous, and ultimately, unrevealing answers. “Nowhere,” say bass player Brooks Kendall. “From drunk 22 year-old idiots.” Multi-instrumentalist Danny Skinner adds, “The story is really not interesting unless…
It’s no secret that Denton’s Robert Gomez is one of North Texas’ true artisitic treasures. Currently, he has a few irons in the fire that prove as much. As he tours with Sarah Jaffe as her guitar palyer, he’s also released an EP that is as unique of a concept…
For anyone paying attention, the term “prodigy” has been linked to Sarah Jarosz for years now. Such easy labeling is perhaps fair when you’re an insanely talented teen or a college student with a fantastic album under your belt. But Jarosz, who grew up in Wimberley, Texas and now makes…
IN BLOOM by Greg Schroeder Directed by Josh David Jordan from TWO CANS & A STRING on Vimeo. Since 2008, with his ever-present beard and hat, Greg Schroeder has been one of the great country-folk singer songwriters in the area. Schroeder’s tunes are the kinds that can make the simple…
Hoo boy. On Wednesday night, during a set performed by Alabama’s Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires at the Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge in Fort Worth, the management of the venue felt compelled to close the curtains and then switch off the power completely on the rowdy…
All too often in the world of indie-rock, pretense dominates the conversation. Thanks perhaps to the bombast that goes into the music of the Brooklyn-based noise-pop duo Sleigh Bells, that’s not a problem you’ll find while listening to any of the group’s three studio albums, including their brand new release,…
As he nears 60 years of age, Steve Earle is a bearded musical buddha. He’s also most certainly one of the greatest living songwriters. His career hasn’t been as lengthy as that of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Merle Haggard, but since he hit the scene in the mid-1980s with…
“Hello! Here we have calf-fries with a touch of Tabasco, would you like one?” asks an attractive female server wearing tighter-than-tight jeans and boots. For the first time in this Texan’s life, the answer was yes, and it’s a good thing it was (spicy wild boar meatballs and juicy shards…
If the title of Charlie Robison’s brand-new album, High Life, is to be taken literally, it would make a great deal of sense. The Bandera-raised Robison continues to do things on his own terms. With a dedicated fan base and a stellar album yet again reminding people why he’s one…
The Randy Rogers Band has now been around long enough to serve as an influence to a new generation of Texas country artists. Since their breakthrough album, 2004’s Radney Foster-produced (and darn-near perfect), Rollercoaster, Rogers, Brady Black, Less Lawless, Jon Richardson, and Geoffrey Hill have been on a roll, indeed…
Kylie Rae Harris, a native of Wylie, has chosen a deliberate path to this week’s release for her new EP, the country-folk-pop gem Taking it Back. For those who frequent shows at Love and War in Texas, The Capital Bar, Hat Tricks, and venues like them, the supremely gifted Harris…
Gimmicks and insipid meme-generating fare can rockets a video into viral heaven, but it can also pigeonhole the video’s creator. Austin’s The Possum Posse are a crack band of roots musicians that, thanks to an ingenious mix of comedy, musicianship and pure silliness, have millions upon millions of YouTube views…
Fort Worth resident and Texas-country flag-bearer Pat Green has spent the last 18 years creating some of this region’s most popular and polarizing music. Green has more than a dozen national top 40 singles to his name, making him arguably the state’s greatest musical success story of the past two…
While nationally acclaimed acts such as Denton’s Sarah Jaffe went from folkie to dance-party host and Midlake went from Fleetwood Mac revivalists to flute-piping British balladeers, True Widow have remained inside their gloomy, pounding world of ominous reverb since 2007. Reinvention of one’s sound can be admirable, risky and, in…
While Dallas-Ft. Worth is a massive media market, and we certainly have our share of beloved faces and voices that we’ve welcomed for many years. For fans of Texas Country / Red Dirt Music, there might not be a personality in North Texas more revered than Justin Frazell. What makes…
In the past decade, the Randy Rogers Band has rocketed from the smallest stages in Texas to headlining the biggest festivals and causing the biggest lines at Will Call than pretty much any other band currently performing under the massive Texas Country umbrella. Sure, Rogers’ superb songwriting and signature rasp…
