Jason Elmore kicks off “Lone Star Underground” concert series

Mary Jane Farmer | November 3, 2011

Jason Elmore

Story by Mary Jane Farmer, photos by Mark Bickham

Lone Star Underground. The words lend themselves to a promise of the lesser known, hints of the mystique, with a sassy swish of attitude.

Thomas Calyle, the Victorian era writer, said, “”The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.” That’s what happens throughout the Lone Star State’s music corridors, and the new music concert series at Love & War in Texas, Plano, will be bringing the other types of Texas music above ground.

Big Gus Samuelson, KHYI 95.3 radio personality, is organizing the Lone Star Underground concert series, which starts this Sunday, filling the void left when Shiner Sundays ceased just recently until next spring. The concerts will run from 4-7 p.m. every Sunday through the end of year, and the plan now is to move them to Thursday nights at L&W-Plano, from January until mid-July, when Shiner Rising Star kicks off again with its 9^th season.

Jason Elmore & Hoodoo Witch are headlinng Sunday’s kick-off concert. Jason is most well known as a blues picker, but his style is really more eclectic than can be plugged into one genre pigeon-hole. His influences run deep and wide, and what springs from his strings mirrors each of those influence. Chris Waw has been with Jason in the band since day one, and bass playing has a style unique to Chris, but reflective, too, of his influences. For this Sunday concert, Jimmy Morgan, Jim Suhler’s drummer, will make a guest appearance on drums with Hoodoo Witch.

Jason and Chris

It’s one of the last few home concerts for Jason Elmore & Hoodoo Witch, who will be leaving soon for their now-annual trek northward, taking their Texas blues/rock to Canadians in Alberta. The band will be playing in Missouri on the way to Calgary, and then in Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois on their return trip.

Jason released his first CD “Upside Your Head” last year, and then took home the National Blues Underground award as the “best blues-rock album to have come out in years, and the fact that this is a debut release, makes that all the more amazing.”

There’s another CD in the works, with all new, original songs already selected and arranged. The band will be going into the studio to record and then release that CD probably after the first of the year.

Jason has a blistering guitar style, and selects a mix of originals with classics and gives new life to lesser-known songs from decades of blues musicians. He’s been taking care of the business side of the band, and still manages to throw in hours of practice every day, and that is apparent to his constantly-increasing flock of fans who can see growth with every concert. Now, he said, there’s a couple of agents who are working with the band, setting up more national tours for Hoodoo Witch, and that will take some of that pressure off him. He’ll, if following the norm, fill those newly-freed hours with more practice.

Chris Waw

Gus said said the management at Love & War — Ty, Tory, and Courtney — didn’t want to let their Sunday concerts cease with the end of the season’s Shiner Sundays, but they wanted to do something with those Sundays a bit different. At first, Gus said, they were going to produce blues shows every Sunday, but the more he and Courtney talked about it, they decided a good variety of music would be the plan. Big Gus’s talents extend far beyond the radio, being a lead guitar picker himself and his own band, “Swampadelic” and with roots in Cajun, bluegrass, and blues music, just to pick a few styles he’s mastered. And so his connections reach far and wide.

There’s one certainty that is uppermost in everyone’s mind, and that is, Gus ssaid, “We want to keep the talent level at a high standard.” He explained that there are all sorts of Texas music, including bluegrass, big bands, jazz, cumbia and Latin-flavored, folk, and more besides country and Texas country.

Big Gus has two nighttime radio shows on KHYI, “Big Gus’s Orbit Lounge” and “The Lone Star Underground.” The music to be featured at Love & War in Plano will be much like a live version of his underground radio show.

One group big in the area in what they call “the other country music — bluegrass” is the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation, which just last month presented its annual program consisting of the nation’s top bluegrass bands along with some regional and area favorites. This concert concept/series will give local bluegrass bands another venue and a chance to develop more fans.

It’s also not only planned as a variety of the best talent, but also as a place where families can bring their children for a Sunday afternoon. Big Gus, who played at the Threadgill’s World Headquarters in Austin recently, compared the talent coming to the Love & War stage, variety and quality of musicianship, to what is offered in that Austin landmark venue.

Big Gus is developing his line-up and also getting the go-ahead for sponsorship from a great Texas business. More about those later, here in SceneInTown.comand on his radio shows.

Big Gus Samuelson

There will be a door charge each Sunday, but Gus said it will remain at $10 or less. This first concert’s entry rate is a modest $7, and that will get not only Jason Elmore’s band, but also music from another metroplex blues performer, Aaron Burton.

Love & War in Texas, Plano, is easy to get to — just east of U.S. Highway 75 in Plano, at the Plano Parkway exit. You’ll find the restaurant/bar/stage in the northeast corner of that intersection. The patio stage is outdoors, but it’s been surrounded by portable walls and permanent rooftops and there’s space heaters in place against the cold, when it comes.