The Will Callers
“What Else Is Left?”

The Will Callers — What Else Is Left?

Self-released on Mystery Egg Records

This often-haunting, 10-song CD project was two years in the making, and worth the wait. The Will Callers won the recording contract as their main prize when taking first place in the KHYI/Shiner Rising Star band contest, 2011.

Jake Murphy and Daniel Slaton, lead vocalist and drummer in the band, respectively, wrote all the songs, and joining them in producer Ray Wylie Hubbard’s studio was ‘Scrappy’ Jud Newcomb on bass and Brad Rice on lead guitar.  With catchy lyrics such as “don’t waste a pretty minute on a heart like mine” and full 4-piece instrumentation that sounds bigger than it is, this band has fully and well represented the Shiner Rising Star goal of getting the best Texas music out there.

This ain’t your mama’s rock n roll. What it is is today’s Texas rock, speckled with classic country twang.

“The Folk Years” — compilation; StarVista Entertainment, (click here to order)  Time Life Music

Peter Paul & Mary

This box set has eight CDs, a DVD, and a songbook jam-packed with the folk music of the very-late 50s, the 60s and into the 70s, the era ripe with recognizable lyrics, harmonies, and guitar licks, an era never since been as romantically or as life-changing-ly duplicated.

The songs are as they were released, with some quality re-mastering using the technology  of today versus that available when the songs were originally recorded. The recordings are clear and as poignant as when they first dominated the charts.

From the famous Peter, Paul & Mary to the lesser-known but equally talented Gale Garnett, this box set features them all, including Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger, Jerry Jeff Walker, Tom Paxton, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Band, the Grateful Dead, Bobby Darin and Bob Dylan, and dozens more. One hundred twenty songs taking one back in time and memory.

This set, available through Time Life Music , timelifemusic.com, or check the videos and recordings out before buying it on YouTube.

For “The Folk Years” video, click here:   This is narrated by my old friend, Noel Stuckey (Paul of Peter Paul & Mary. Met all three of them, had a conversation at length with Mary who became a grandmother only months after I did, and she wasn’t really thrilled with the prospect, saying, “What are we going to call the band now, Peter Paul & Grandma?”) Hi, Noel! I love you! And Peter, too!

Justin Till, 121 North

This originally appeared in the July issue, Buddy Magazine.

This EP, five songs bringing 20 minutes of 121 North’s forceful music to the listener, is loaded with the extraordinary co-lead vocals and harmonies and smooth but  instrumentation of this North Texas band. Songs about life as the various band members have lived it.

One of the four originals, “Moon and Back,” first appeared on the band’s earlier CD. Lead singer Justin Till wrote it, as he did the kick-off tune, “Running Down The Road.” Guitarist Chris Stuart wrote the current release off the EP, “County Line,” and the whole band, including its former lead singer Wade Kilgore, wrote the title song, “Ride Of Your Life”. Their last song is the 1989 Tom Petty hit, “Free Falling,” and as if the other songs hadn’t already showcased Till’s  voice, with him at vocals, “Free Falling” becomes 121 North’s own.

Drummer Johnny Pope said that this 5-song EP is a prelude to a full CD on which they are working now, with the whole band, including new co-lead singer Sean Franks, writing all the songs together. “It will be all new material,” Pope said. He described it as having a  “very rockin’, but current, Nashville sound.” Max O’Neal rounds out 121 North with his steady, progressive bass beats.

By Mary Jane Farmer

“Lonesome” — Cody Shaw & The Rhythm Boys, Self-release

EPs, sometimes called a “Nashville handshake,”  are more in mode today than ever before. “Lonesome” features five new songs of varied beats and backgrounds, and together they offer a clear picture of what Cody Shaw & The Rhythm Boys bring to every live show

Ben and Cody Shaw

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It’s a Jimmie Rodgers-style near-yodel that opens the project, “I’m To Blame,” and that grabs the listener immediately. Friend of the band Ben Atkins wrote that song, as he did the second song, “Walk On,” a ditty about breaking up with a clean split, at least on one side of the failed romance. Then Shaw sings one of the two songs he penned, “Only Friend,” again a reality song about past friends who just haven’t hung around, and “the only friend who’ll stick his neck out for me is the bottle.” Shaw also wrote “Rumspringa,” which features guests players on dobro, banjo, mandolin, and old-fashioned hand-clapping. His dad, ben Shaw, wrote the fifth song, “I’m Lonesome,” and his mom adds some harmonies to it, along with Ben’s guitar and banjo licks and pianist Nick Ghanbari’s keyboards and Atkins’ additional electric guitar.

It’s a first-effort for this band, but it’s the third incarnation of “The Rhythm Boys,” the named used by Cody’s grandfather’s band and then his father, Ben’s, band before this group picked it up. Rounding out the band are Chris Booth on bass guitar and his cousin,  Randy Burch, on drums.

This album is available at The Rhythm Boys’ gigs, or for download on ITunes, Amazon, Spotify, Rhapsody, and “all the usual places you can think of,” Ghanbari explained.