The North Texas region has become a national hotbed of craft breweries and general good times that circle around sudsy concoctions. Aside from the growing numbers of top-notch brewers and hops-focused gastropubs of the Dallas area, the burst of can’t-miss beer festivals has been as enjoyable a benefit of the…
It’s Friday night, and after leaving work a bit later than you had hoped to, battling the traffic to get home, and finally making it out the door again for a night of steam-blowing revelry, mapping a night out is often more daunting a task than you’d prefer. It’s late…
Not too long ago, we at DC9 took a look at the value of supporting music with the local tag. It’s tempting to apply the tag to anyone with any ties to North Texas, but how often is it accurate? Two notable releases will be widely, and perhaps wrongly, deemed…
Last night in Oak Cliff, Chris Thile proffered far more than a solo acoustic concert. As it often is when a noted artist performs without an opening band, the show was presented as, “An Evening with Chris Thile.” What an evening it was. Part classical history lesson, part stand-up routine…
This past Saturday night, the Gas Monkey Bar ‘N Grill in Dallas lived up to the name of the television series that features its owner: car repair reality show Fast ‘N Loud. With full sets scheduled from Austin’s Hank Senior-recalling, honky-tonk hero Wayne “The Train” Hancock (on the venue’s indoor…
Perhaps it couldn’t be helped. With somewhat spring-like weather in the Denton air on Thursday afternoon, it was hard to not have festival fever. In years past around this time, when 35 Denton would be taking place, you couldn’t get past Dan’s Silverleaf near Hickory Street before the festival fun…
Yesterday was a really big day for local twang-rock fans. David Ponder of Somebody’s Darling announced the band will begin recording their new album this week, The Old 97’s released a song from their upcoming album. And Madison King let any who made it out to Deep Ellum’s Twilite Lounge…
In the late spring of 2011, Gilmer, Texas-raised Curtis Grimes competed in the first season of the NBC’s ratings-bonanza The Voice. While the show has remained a phenomenon, Grimes made his mark on that trail-blazing season by showing off his smooth, confident baritone vocals. He also showed his competitive-edge by…
The fact that Darkside’s Dave Harrington didn’t spend his life crafting beats or sampling music in his parent’s basement as a young child is a bit of a shocker, given the level of excellence he and Darkside’s leader, Nicolas (Nico) Jarr have achieved in only a couple of years. What’s…
There are myriad reasons The Ticket has dominated Dallas-Fort Worth airwaves for 20 years, all part of a formula that’s proven to be impossible to replicate. One ingredient that builds a sense of culture around the station is the so-called “Drops.” Small sound bites, usually taken out of context, inserted…
If you were to listen the intro to “The Ceiling,” the song that’s garnered some serious praise for Los Angeles-based The Wild Feathers, you might quickly – and prematurely – assume that the fresh-faced five-piece act is yet another entry into the Mumford-fueled folk-rock revival. Of course, after listening to…
There’s a case to be made that Alternative Country, or Alt-Country as it’s more often called, hasn’t ever really been a legit genre. One will be hard-pressed to get any of the artists lumped in with the moniker to claim it as their sonic home, and even the original journalistic…
After Tweeting his way into infamy, former pitcher and sports-talker Mike Bacsik is getting a second chance. Does he deserve one?
In-store performances are tricky, unpredictable little miscreants. Unlike a standard club show, where one typically understands the general, unwritten crowd rules, a record store gig can be awkward or intimate. It’s doubtful that one can be both, and such a show rarely falls in a gray middle. It’s a fine…
Todd Gautreau of Crushed Stars wouldn’t be a natural choice to star in an indie-rock reimagining of the sentimental 1989 Kevin Costner hit film, Field of Dreams. As Ray Kinsella, a failing farmer with daddy issues, Costner’s character blindly followed a random, ghostly voice telling him that “If you build…
It’s less than an hour’s drive from Palestine, Texas to the World’s Rose Capital, Tyler, Texas. Both are considered to be the “Big City,” for the folks living outside of their borders. Though that Dogwood-scented pocket of East Texas isn’t a Metropolis by most standards, there’s a great deal of…
This past June, we provided a list of the 10 best Texas Country/Red Dirt/Whatever tunes in 2013 up to that point of the year. With 2014 looming, we’re still not sure what the nebulous terms slapped onto the songs and bands that made up that list really mean. With an…
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…
