Sundance Head

First printed in The Paris News, 11.24.19

Story and photos . by Mary Jane Farmer, Scene In Town

Friday night’s concert at Heritage Hall (Paris, Texas) left concert-goers completely satisfied, and eager for both Sundance Head and Trey Rose to return for a repeat performance. (November 15, 2019)

It was actually a repeat concert for Sundance Head, who appeared with his trio last year. Head, who won Season 11 of The Voice, didn’t have a chance to show off his guitar skills on the reality television show, since it centers around contestants’ singing voices. But his talent on his Fender electric equals that winning singing voice. He travels and plays with a bass player and a drummer, and together they bring the best out-of-the-box music, varying between country, rockabilly, rock and roll, and a bit of blues.

Trey Rose

Trey Rose undeniably delivers musical food for the soul and for the mind. This songwriter was also on The Voice, having made it into Season 15’s knockoff round. He presented an equally varied song list Friday night, and it was when he and his trio played a country song that the dancers got up and made the floor shine.

Rose, who had moved to the Houston area, has now relocated around his native Hugo/Paris area, as has his guitar picker, Steven Pina. For this show, they added local drummer Jason Pruett, and the trio slayed the audience with its upbeat, energetic splash of smooth southern vocals and instrumentals blasting out Americana, rock, pop, and that bit of country.

Trey Rose can’t be destined for anything but success in this, his chosen field, and grows nearer to that achievement with every performance.

For this event, Heritage Hall owner JoKyle Varner brought in a food truck to provide non-alcoholic beverages and a variety of foods for patrons. And his bar was open as well.

Next up, concert-wise, for Heritage Hall, is November 29, when Texas rising magical musicians Kolby Cooper and Chris Colston take the stage with their respective bands. This show will also have the dance floor available to any boot-scooters who want to take advantage of it. Music starts at 8 p.m. and more details can be found Online at HeritageHallParisTx.com.

                               Jon Wolfe

Jon Wolfe played Heritage Hall in Paris Friday night, (5.24.19)with Kevin Jackson and his band setting the stage (quite figuratively-the actual stage was already set) for Jon and his group. Jon played hits and other cuts from several of his albums, plus a few from his upcoming album, still in the works, and the crowd scooted across the dance floor to almost every tune. Co-writer Tony Ramey was in the audience, and Wolfe quite often pointed him out. This is the story that appeared first in The Paris News. Story and photos by Mary Jane Farmer, except one noted as having been taken by Crackers & Cucumbers.

“2019 was the year that was,” Jon Wolfe said, and over the telephone one could feel the pride and gratitude the Texas singer/songwriter feels.

               Kevin Jackson

Jon Wolfe is playing at Paris’ Heritage Hall, with Kevin Jackson sharing the billing, Friday night.

To listen to Jon Wolfe is to hear country music at its truest, all the while getting a glimpse of this Texas musician’s story, from his small-town Oklahoma upbringing to his big-city bustle on the oil commodities trading floor, and from the dance halls of Texas and Oklahoma to the glossier Music Row of Tennessee.

Wolfe writes alone at times, but more often co-writes with those he respects and from whom he can learn. “I wrote with Tim Johnson in the past. He was kind of my mentor. He passed away a few years ago, lost a battle with cancer. I haven’t had a super consistent co-writer until Tony Ramey.”

Ramey, who now lives in Greenville and who wrote in Nashville for two decades, co-wrote “Any Night in Texas,” Wolfe’s latest No. 1 song on the Texas charts. That’s just one of 7 songs Wolfe’s taken to the number one spot in Texas, and there’s been a few others that ranked high on those charts.

Jon Wolfe, Photo by Crackers & Cucumbers

And as far as CDs go, Any Night In Texas, the complete song collection, landed at No. 3 on iTunes Country and No. 15 on the Billboard Country charts. Not bad for a Texas independent artist.

“I typically co-write, sometimes kind of come up with the ideas and certain pieces of the song or chorus, and bring in the co-writer. Tony and I are really good at that. We work well together as a team,” Wolfe said.

Ramey is equally as respectful and complimentary of Wolfe’s work. “He’s a really great guy, a super hard worker. He’s really more on the country main stream, doesn’t like to label himself as a Texas musician. Kind of more like George (Strait) country music.”

                    Jon Wolfe

An important factor to Wolfe is that he maintain integrity in his music. “If I am keeping or writing a song, I make sure it lands in my wheelhouse, make sure I really believe in it before I cut it. I must make sure it’s really has importance.

Like many other Texas musicians, Wolfe gave Nashville his time and his talent. He signed with a label, but said, “I didn’t get my shot with them. I had a career developing and wanted to keep up with my fans, and I wanted to be independent.” He returned to Texas to do just that.

And 2019? Well, he’s working on brand new music with visionary producer Dave Brainard (Brandy Clark, Jamie Johnson), who Wolfe said is a really good resource. This one will probably be an EP, rather than full CD, and Wolfe said he’ll soon be releasing the first single from it. The EP is due to be released in late July. “There’s nobody sleeping over here,” he said with a laugh.

                            Travis Jackson

This year, too, he had large ticket sales for his recent gig at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth.

Also big this year is the near-completion of a new, non-musical project – the creation of a new brand of tequila, which is being called Juan Lobo. “About six or seven years ago, my earliest band dates were in South Texas, around Corpus Christi. I developed a lot of Hispanic fans, and they started calling me ‘Juan Lobo,’ my name in Spanish. I liked it, and thought even then it would make a good brand name. I just didn’t know what product. Then, being a tequila fan, a couple of years ago, I decided to start the process of launching my tequila brand. It’s been two years of hard work and we’re getting closer, maybe even roll it out late this year.

                               Jon Wolfe

“I’m the owner, working now with a small team, and investors coming together on this also.” As it grows, he said, he’ll have a general manager running the tequila brand.

And the really big deal for this year, as if all those other successes weren’t enough, Wolfe’s getting married later in the year. He said he and Amber Calderon became engaged on New Year’s Eve. “We’re planning a pretty big, fancy wedding, a bit party,” Wolfe said. “Amber is from San Antonio and has one of those great big families. She was Miss San Antonio and Miss Austin. We’re really excited about it all.”

                       Jon Wolfe

Ramey said about his co-writing musical friend, “He’s one who always real excited about his new records. He’s one of the last artists who is commercial, but who cares deep down about music, and is very conscious about where he’s going. He’s really into the artistry of it. He’s got his finger on the pulse of the industry.”

“My challenge this year is to get the new (recording) project out, and the tequila company, and make sure Amber keeps on loving me like I love her,” Wolfe said. “It’s all a big challenge. We think there are great things coming. It’s exciting, but I can’t get too stressed out or overwhelmed with it all.”

Friday night’s concert at Heritage Hall begins (began) at 8 pm, with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Kevin Jackson will go (went) onstage first, and Wolfe will follow(ed) him and both will have (had) full bands.

For more info, and who’s on deck at Heritage Hall, go Online to HeritageHallParisTx.com. For more on Wolfe, go Online to JonWolfeCountry.com

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Dean Dillon

For more photos Click here (Facebook pix) or Click here (Flickr pix, better resolution)

Giants — every one of them are giants. These giants took the stage in shifts, at Kidd-Key Auditorium in Sherman on Friday night (Sept.28, 2018), in a fundraising concert for both the Sherman Police Association and the Sherman Fire Association. These are non-profit groups that do what they can to make lives better all around — from educational programs to providing school supplies for those who need the help.

It was the Sherman Police Regional Bagpipe Band who opened the concert, three on bagpipes and four on drums. They opened with a newer song named “Back The Blue” and then played the standard “Amazing Grace,” as one bagpiper walked off stage and faded the song away as he left.

It was a great, giant mix of local, Texas, and national songwriters.

Phillip Wildman

Phillip Wildman opened with two or songs of his own, including one about the naming of his dog. He served as Master of Ceremonies following his short set.

Up next were Texas songwriters, both of whom have had hits on the Texas music charts over time — Doug Moreland and his fiddle and Jason Allen, along with Moreland’s long-time bandmate Randy Roberts, who gave the crowd an hour of songs, the stories behind them, and a few laughs along the way. For instance, Roberts had a dog song, too, one that said he wished his wife loved him like his dog does, and then went on to say the dog never asks where he’s been, never declines to be petted, and such.

Allen talked about having written the Kevin Fowler hit “Beer Season” with Thom Shepherd, a song that Fowler took to No. 1 on Texas music charts. He also kicked off an upbeat “Holy Moly Guacamole.” He talked about a trick his radio promoter pulled on him when, on radio tour for “Lucky Arms,” he was sent into the radio station managed by a one-armed man, who it turns out was in on the charade. John Michael Montgomery recorded “Lucky Arms.”

Moreland, whose easy smile and laugh were contagious, talked about a trick his radio promoter pulled on him when, on radio tour for “Lucky Arms,” he was sent into the radio station managed by a one-armed man, who it turns out was in on the charade. Moreland also played one on his fiddle that he said a Red Dirt longtimer, Randy Crouch, had written in the early 1970s. And talked about learning to play the fiddle like Davy Crockett played it.

Jason Allen

Moreland, also, is a chainsaw wood-sculpter. H presented a bust he had just finished of a mustached old man that he auctioned off for another $3,000 for the associations.

Then, from Nashville, it was multl-country-hitmakers Dean Dillon, Chris Wallin, and Scotty Emerick. Oh, my — between the three of them, there must be 75 hits out there in the country music world. George Strait, Vern Gosdin, Toby Keith, Sawyer Brown, Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney, and so many others.

Wallin‘s songs include, and he sang a couple of these, include “Don’t Blink,” and “Love Me If you Can.” He told the story on that second one, saying he was writing in a hotel room with another guy, but neither one of them had a thing to start out with. Then, he saw a guy on Jerry Springer Show who commented, something like ‘Hate me if you want to, but love me if you can,’ and that got them started creating the song that Toby Keith took to the top of the charts. Another apparent crowd-pleaser, and all three of these men had Christian-based songs they shared, was the one about Satan knowing his grandmother, but Jesus knowing her better.

Chris Wallin

Emerick didn’t sing one of his songs that hit the tops, “I Love This Bar,” which singer Toby Keith has used as the basis for a small chain of bar and grills in casinos… I Love This Bar & Grill. There’s one in Oklahoma’s WinStar. But, Emerick did sing a lot of other ones. He bring the crowd to laughter with his “(I’m Not) As Good as I Once Was” and his new song about “some infidelity” and all the burned down barns in that neck of the woods. You gotta listen to it on Spotify or Apple Music, it’s worth the listen.

Dillon played more of his earlier songs, after telling the story of getting is first guitar as a little redneck and playing it still. His Christian song, and he qualified this by saying it hasn’t been a hit, was “The Key to Heaven is Hanging on a Nail.” Little known fact about the man who may be the best-known songwriter in Nashville, thanks in large part to George Strait, is that he has also cut his own CDs and released his own singles to radio. And he’s got the voice to do just that. Emerick, who, like Wallin has written with Dillon, picked up a lot of the lead guitar in Dillon’s songs. He sang, to the crowd’s delight, “Easy Come, Easy Go” and “Marina Del Rey.”

This writer doesn’t know how in hog-heaven this concert came into being, and that might a story of another telling! I do know one thing for certain, as long as there are songwriters in Nashville, in Texas, and in country music like these at the Blue Sky Songtellers’ Gathering, there will always be great country music!