Rusty Wier contest, Rd 4, Wk 2, 2/17/13

Chip Campbell

Judges Chip Campbell, Chris Schlotzhauer, Roger Russell, and Brett Dillon put the numbers down on the last six contestants in the Rusty Wier Songwriting Contest, then, when blended those with those scores from the previous six in the semi-finals. After tallying it all up, Brett Dillon (KHYI 95.3 on-air personality) announced the six finalists Tuesday (Feb. 19).

These six, Scott Copeland, Big John Mills, Mark Shelton, Greg Schroeder, Phil Wallace, and Town Walsh will compete for all the marbles this coming Sunday, 4 p.m., at Love & War in Texas, Plano, which is at the ne corner of U.S. 75 and Plano Parkway.

This past Sunday found Byron Dowd, Mills, Wallace, Copeland, Shelton, and Whitney O’Neil belting out their best original songs and one (each) Rusty Wier cover song. And belt them out, the singer/songwriters each did.

Dowd opened, after switching spots in the line-up with Shelton because of Shelton’s work schedule, and after saying the contest was really, for him, about “getting to hang out with some really cool cats,”  sang his originals which included such lyrics at “you sold your soul for a brand new day,” and culminated with an incredible cover of Wier’s “Sophia” including drumming strumming guitar sounds.

Mills, who said he was privileged to have written with Rusty Wier before his death, opened with a song he said was his own, but with a Rusty flavor to it, “Til Dead Do Us Part (Bring Me A Gun).”  After a more serious love song, he chose to cover Wier’s “All My Give-A-Damn Is Gone” with nice clippy lyrics. Mills will be driving the farthest to compete, coming from his home in San Marcos, Texas.

Chris Schlotzhauer

Wallace, up third and sporting a brand new haircut, played, among other originals, his “hardest one, hard because I’m not really a guitar player,” then presented a rendition of a song about life on the run that proved himself an artist. His cover was “I Found Jesus (On A Backroad), and Phil’s voice really stood out on that one.

Copeland brought an accompanist, on the mouth harp, with him, a look-alike but with a different last name. After presenting his songs, including one he sang at a friend’s wedding, Copeland also covered Wier’s “I Found Jesus,” making it sound like his own song, delivering it straighter than Wallace had.

O’Neil, with a smile that lights up any room, delivered one she wrote less than two weeks previously, introducing it by saying she was a little pissed off at the time. A song with a strong voice and the deep emotion and yet humor of broken romanc, every woman in the audience cheered throughout it, even asking when it was over that she sing it again. Somehow, we need to get this song to The Pistol Annies. O’Neil’s cover of  “Cowboy Who Loves To Sing The Blues” was as bluesy as Rusty himself made it.

Shelton chose to open his 4-song set with a Rusty Wier cover, “Coast of Colorado,” after thanking Dowd for the time swap. “I consider him a songwriter’s songwriter,” he said of Dowd. He also said about his songwriting, “These songs don’t all come from me, they come from the Good Lord up above, and then came out with a song he had only written the day before, with lyrics including, loosely paraphrased, ‘like a banker, I wrote the last 7 years off.’

When the contestants were done, and relaxing with one another and with their fans, two of the three singer/songwriting judges, Campbell and Schlotzhauer, each presented one of their songs, and the dancers hit the small but fun dance floor.

Those “marbles” the remaining six will be hoping to take home include a 4-song fully-edited video by Campbell, 8 hours of studio time at Bent Leaf Recording Studio in Denison, season tickets for the 2013 Shiner Sunday concert series at L&W, and an opening spot at one of those Shiner Sundays.

For photographs, click here

Category: 2013, Love & War in Texas