Hit and mess Come And Get It — A Tribute To Badfinger Various Artists Copper Records Do Me Baby! Austin Does Prince Various Artists Fume Records Forget, for a moment, that artist-based compilation albums are very much a disease foisted upon the listening public for a variety of generally greedy…

The concept of the Guitar Hero has left a bad taste in the mouths of critics and music fans ever since punk stressed feeling over technique. America’s appreciation for bigger-faster-harder guitar playing has waned ever since, but Dallas’ Andy Timmons may well change all that. He’s grinning hugely on the…

Tim Locke, felled by the season’s latest and nearly ubiquitous strain of flu, still manages to sound excited through the coughing and sniffling. Locke is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and main muse behind Grand Street Cryers, the Dallas pop quintet that’s enjoying the fallout of a magical bit of radio…

Birds of a feather Deep Fantastic Blue Darden Smith Plump Records Baptist Hospital Boo Hewerdine Discovery/Warner Brothers Darden Smith and Boo Hewerdine are the Hardy Boys of the modern singer-songwriter set. The two pals–who frequently tour and record together–utilize silken tunecraft, cotton-candy melodies, and crisp, mountain-air vocals to solve the…

The lunchtime clientele is about what you’d expect for a semirural rib shack not too many miles from Texas Stadium. There are a couple of telephone repairmen, a table of secretaries giggling over a pitcher of beer, and an isolated sales guy trying to keep barbecue sauce off his rack…

Paul Prudhomme and Marie Laveau–even if they were blazing on crystal meth and working ’round the clock–couldn’t begin to figure out the recipe for the gris-gris gumbo that is the Neville Brothers. After all, in New Orleans, a city where funerals are an excuse to party, it’s rumored that the…

Spot–the pop trio that blossomed from the scorched patch of earth once known as Mildred–is sneaking up on rock stardom with the philosophical ferocity of Thomas Aquinas and the childlike wonder of Opie Taylor. Or it would be if its much-ballyhooed joint deal with indie label Ardent and major Interscope…

Up on stage, sliding coolly in a juke joint pas de deux, Elvis T. Busboy is decidedly not your average R&B crooner. With his linebacker’s physique, slicked-back Bobby Darin hair and a Mephistophelean goatee that predates slacker fashion, Busboy looks like some boyish union of Wolfman Jack and a pro…

Robert Earl Keen was country when country didn’t want him. It still doesn’t, as a matter of fact, but that’s OK: Nashville wouldn’t know a country singer if one crawled out of Hank Williams’ coffin. But pockets of rabid Robert Earl fans, multiplying like beer-swilling viruses across the country, know…

Album Producer North Texas appears to be the latest Happy Hour of Talent luring thirsty A&R reps from major labels all over America. But for every CD or demo that drew the attention of some A&R schlub, there had to be a producer behind the scenes to get the sound…