Big Sammy Is a Rising Hip-Hop Artist, but a Star Activist

Big Sammy found her voice through rap music. Now, the 20-year-old is organizing protests to help others find theirs. Also known as Sammy Cooper, the artist has lived in Arlington most of her life. She was practically a toddler when she began singing, she says, but took a break for…

It’s a New Age for Dallas Musician Ward Richmond

During quarantine, many people have tons more time on their hands to turn inward. To help combat coronavirus-induced anxiety, some are picking up meditation, learning yoga or spicing up their reading with self-help books. Dallas songwriter Ward Richmond’s way ahead of the self-improvement curve. The former partyer-turned-yogi broaches personal growth…

North Texas Music Venues Take Another Blow With Curfews

Music venues have not been spared by the recent curfews enacted around North Texas in response to recent protests against police brutality. Finally beginning to recover from the COVID-19 closures, the curfews are a second financial blow. Opening Bell Coffee Shop sits right across the street from Dallas police headquarters…

Dallas Musicians Join Blackout Tuesday Campaign in Solidarity With Protesters

The music industry came together on Tuesday to support the Black Lives Matter movement. There were, of course, critics. The Rolling Stones, Rhianna, Drake, Quincy Jones and other artists joined organizations like United Talent and major labels including Warner and Def Jam Records in sharing the hashtag #theshowmustbepaused, a call to…

10 Protest Songs To Get You Through These Times

2020 went from being a year of clamor stemming from COVID-19 to being a year of clamor stemming from social unrest. Social unrest, of course, has been a constant in American history since before America’s founding. In that spirit, we thought it would be opportune to reflect on 10 protest…

The 10 Greatest Punk Albums from North Texas

Punk and metal are commonly perceived as two separate genres, but between the two is an important nexus that remains largely overlooked. For as long as metal and punk have existed, they have built on each other, opening new worlds with new possibilities that are still being explored to this…

The 10 Greatest Metal Albums from North Texas

Heavy metal has gone through two unequivocal golden ages — in the 1980s and once again in the 2000s — and some of the most cutting-edge artists contributing to the genre’s expansion in each era were based in North Texas. DFW has rightfully earned its reputation as a metal breeding ground, and…

Denton Pop Singer Carley Bearden Is a God-Loving LGBTQ Advocate

Denton’s Carley Bearden is keeping her head up. She knows she can always be vulnerable with her fans, whom she considers family, and she and her fans have been checking in with each other and lifting each other’s spirits through the COVID-19 crisis. Bearden started playing guitar at age 12, although she…

Everyone Can Calm Down Now, the Vaughan Brothers Statue Is Fine

Let us backtrack a few years so that you, along with everyone else who has followed the saga of the Vaughan Brothers statue, can properly panic and then calm down. It all started when locals came to realize that despite the fact that guitar legends Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan were…

Synth-Punk Band Seres Embraces the Pandemic With a New Album

Dallas’ Spanish-singing synth-punk band seres (“beings” en Español, and intentionally lowercase) hasn’t always been so angular, robotic and extraterrestrial. The times are just right for it. “When I was living in North Carolina, it was more of a blues-rock sound,” vocalist and synth player Alfonso Callejas says of the band’s…

Local DJs Say They Have A Problem With Virgin Hotels Dallas

Virgin Hotels Dallas helped ring in 2020 with its Avant Eden New Year’s Eve party. In The Pool Club, the hotel’s fourth-floor rooftop bar and pool deck, people sipped cocktails and listened to a set by DJ Sam Blacky. It was a wildly successful night, said Tim Denker, vice president…

As Venues Open Back Up, Musicians Weigh the Value of Exposure Against Risks

When the pandemic silenced the sounds of nightlife, local musicians found resourceful ways to get by, like online busking — performing to internet traffic for virtual tips — and giving remote music lessons. Some started playing curbside delivery concerts in front of homes on residential streets. In the last month, Texas…

Ryan Berg Forms a Pandemic Supergroup With Remy Reilly and Others

Dallas pop-folk musician Ryan Berg woke up one morning in this new world we call “Dallas-under-COVID” and saw that one of his favorite songs was playing, a tune called “Best Part” by pop dynamo Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. As Berg stood, donning his quarantine bandanna — which acts as a functional face…

‘Mozart of Blues’ Icon Lucky Peterson Is Dead at 55

Singer, organ and masterful guitar player Lucky Peterson died this Sunday in Dallas. He was 55. A statement on his Facebook page, posted on Sunday evening, read: “It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of Lucky Peterson on Sunday, May 17, 2020 at 2:25 PM CST in Dallas,…