Audio By Carbonatix
Keep Dallas Observer Free
We’re $1,500 away from our spring campaign goal!
We’re aiming to raise $10,000 by April 26. Your support ensures Dallas Observer can continue watching out for you and our community. No paywall. Always accessible. Daily online and weekly in print.
According to not-quite-Paul-Bunyan-worthy legend, the first incarnation of the Lumberjack Fest was so named when organizers from Denton literary journal The Porch planned to have a chainsaw sculptor carve a new piece during the event as a tribute to blue-collar artistic ingenuity. The demonstration didn’t pan out, but the name’s gonna stick as the festival becomes a Little D tradition mixing local bands, poets and creative writers. Once again, the fest presents hard choices for those incapable of spending 10 hours in the same bar.
Ryan Thomas Becker, or RTB2, is the most intriguing of the lineup. His songs manage to balance sincere emotion and humor without falling into overwrought emotion or relentless irony. Unnecessary but interesting found sounds and odd instrumentation spice up some of his songs.
With its country-leaning folk and atmospheric, heavily reverbed guitars and pedal steel, Current Leaves could almost be mistaken for a younger, stripped-down Sorta doing story songs. Pinebox Serenade has a darker take on country rock as well as a bigger lineup, adding fiddle, banjo and mandolin to the mix.
Denton institution jetscreamer will amp up the crowd with slide-guitar blues-rock chaos just before the headlining Spitfire Tumbleweeds, Denton’s rock all-star team playing drunken junkyard country.
