Category Archives: 2013

Shiner Rising Star, KHYI, 2013, Rd 1 Wk 1

Lauren Alexander

Lauren Alexander

Story and photos by Mary Jane Farmer

(For photos of each band, click on the links below.)

Shiner Rising Star for 2013, celebrating its 10 anniversary, kicked off in high gear Thursday night when three bands, all from outside the Metroplex and North Texas, battled it out to move on to Round 2.

It was two of the alternates who moved into the contest. At the last minute, The Mike Stanley Band had to opt out, and so The Detentions, from Austin, moved into their slot. Earlier, Levi Stephens, from the Texas Hill Country, had said he couldn’t make it also, and so that moved Lauren Alexander , from Bullard, into Round 1. The third band to compete Thursday night (Aug. 1) was Emily Herring and her band from San Marcos. When the announcement came Friday morning, everyone learned it was the Lauren Alexander Band who will move into Round 2.

The three bands drew for order of appearance, and Herring drew the first-place slot. But, when the third-on-the-stage band, The Detentions, learned that Herring’s lead guitar picker had been caught up in traffic and not there yet, The Detentions offered to switch with them. True Texas loving-kindness , musician to musician.

The contest is such that, in Round 1, each band has 30 minutes on stage, must cover one of someone else’s songs, and complete their set with original music. The 24 bands going through the contest are vying for a recording deal with Shiner Records, and quite a few more prizes.

After each band peforms, the judges for the night offer a critique of their music, stage presence, and song selections including the songwriting abilities. Judges for this first week were Brett Dillon (KHYI), Tip Jones (Overdrive Entertainment), and Zane Williams (singer/songwriter).

The Detentions, a duo of schoolteachers Dan Sullivan and Chris Hillier, who switched off on lead and harmony vocals, covered a Jerry Garcia song, mixed in with their various originals which included a feel of the coast.

Dillon led the critique, saying the songwriters had, among other assets, “great hooks on their originals.”

Jones said it takes a lot of courage for a duo to be in the same contest as bands, “There’s no room for error without a band behind you. If there is a mistake, we hear it, and we didn’t hear any tonight.” He

Emily Herring

Emily Herring

commented favorably on the lead vocal swaps, and finished saying, “You can tell you are from Texas, you can hear the beach feel, and you chose a good cover and did it well.”

Williams cleared his throat before saying he had been the week before where The Detentions were that night, “showcasing and having people standing there with folded arms, evaluating your every move.” Williams had showcased in Nashville, he offered.

“You guys are likeable and laid back, and we can tell you have been doing this a lot together, the harmonies are tight and you communicate with looks between you.” Williams also noticed their more unusual use of capos on their acoustic guitars, saying that because they put the capos in different places on the neck, the guitar sound was filled out fuller. “You have a lot of fun and helped people here have a lot of fun.”

Sullivan and Hillier headed straight to the judges’ table to shake hands with all three of them after the critique.

The Lauren Alexander band came up next. It’s her second time to compete in Shiner Rising Star, and the growth in the band was pronounced since the earlier attempt, 2011. In the band are Alexander on vocals, guitar, harmonica; Richie Kindle on lead guitar and backing vocals; Michael Heatley on bass; and Jeff Odom on drums. For their cover, they chose “The Rabbit,” a Jefferson Airplane song, and played it last in their 30-minute set.

Dillon opened the critique again saying that the band really broke out when they hit the cover song.

Jones said he was really surprised at that selection, but it proved one of his concepts of Texas music, “You can get away with anything.” He commented, too, on the band’s “cool, bluesy sound,” the great tone on Kindle’s guitar and his harmony, and that he noticed both Heatley and Odom had done a great job, “not too flashy, but in the groove. And I love a girl who can play the harp, too.”

Williams commented, “Good job keeping the energy up.” He compared their stage presence and choice of clothing to The Detentions, saying, “You all feel more like you are trying to be artists, dressed more the part. At least for me, that take intentionality.  It’s touches like that  that make you look more like an artist. On ‘Marketability,’ I marked you high. His take on the band’s style of “melancholy folk vibe, brooding, and that’s cool.”

The Emily Herring Band came to the stage, and she opened by commenting on her favorite Shiner beer ‘flavors,’ and thanking Shiner Beer, KHYI, and Love & War for the contest. Good start! On

Dan and Chris, The Detentions

Dan and Chris, The Detentions

stage with Emily was Wayne Manso on drums, John Freeman on bass, and Boy Wells on guitar.

Brett critiqued the band by first comparing Emily as a female Dwight Yoakum and a Patsy Montana, talking about her yodeling skills. “You gotta get hooked up with Dwight Yoakum. If he knew you were doing this, you would be touring with him,” Dillon said, to which someone in the crowd good-naturedly called out “Call him.”

Jones commented that “It’s all about picking the right guys who can back up up,” then commented on Freeman’s harmonies to Herring’s yodel.  “The drummer staye din the groove. You don’t play loud — just good.” You have ‘Texas’ written all over you, with a rockabilly-Bakersfield thing, and not everybody can pull that off. You are heading in the right direction. You know your vocal range and you have a great voice.”

Williams started his portion of the critique by saying, ‘Who am I and what the hell do I know? Now, like Lauren, you look like an artist.”

Tip Jones came back in and thanked DB Sound (of Sherman) for supplying the music line and running sound.

Next week, baring any bands changing places with one another, the three bands competing will be Buffalo Ruckus, the Matt Nix Band, and Fishing with Dynamite, and will be held at 8 p.m. at Dodie’s Cajun Restaurant in Frisco. That’s at 3401 Preston Road, and its phone number is 214-618-9440. From 6-7 p.m. at the same venue is the Legends of Texas Music live radio show (KHYI 95.3) with Dillon and Donnie Nelson hosting songwriters.

Lauren Alexander Band (Moving on)

Emily Herring Band

The Detentions

A few other photos

 

Shiner Rising Star, KHYI, 2013, the beginning

KHYI logoUPDATE AGAIN:  Monday evening — The schedule has been adjusted and should be accurate as now shown here, including the two alternates who moved into the top 24.

UPDATE:  Saturday — Two of the original bands have dropped out, The River Has Many Voices, from the Texas Hill Country, and Levi Stephens, out of Washington D.C.. Lisa Hooks has been having to rearrange the schedule for that reason, and also because some of the bands already have conflicts for their scheduled Round One dates. The updated schedule along with the designated venues for each week’s contest will be reposted as soon as possible.

 KHYI (95.3 The Range) has announced the 24 bands competing, and three alternative bands, in this year’s Shiner Rising Star. There are a lot of new names in the group,  with only a few returning from previous years’ contests, and it should be an interesting and competitive contest. The bands met last Thursday, Aug. 1, at Love & War in Texas, Plano, to go over the guidelines of the contest with KHYI General Manager Joshua Jones and Business Manager Lisa Hooks. The schedule of venues is now completed and shown here.

Scene In Town (S.I.T.’s Mary Jane Farmer is also KHYI’s photographer for this and all their events.) will be at each week’s event and will report back with lots of photos of the bands.

Round One

Week 1 — Emily Herring v Lauren Alexander v Leland Williams, at Love & War in Texas, Plano

Week 2 — Buffalo Ruckus v Matt Nix Band v Fishing with Dynamite,at Dodie’s in Frisco

Week 3 — Green Light Pistol v Hard Country v Shannon Rose & the Whiskey Rebellion, at Hat Tricks in Lewisville

Week 4 — Sean Russell v Ellee Morriss v Cody Joe Hodges, at Love & War in Texas, Grapevine

Week 5 —The Bodarks v Swift Justice v Quiet Morning and the Calamity, venue to be determined

Week 6 — Jeremy Powers v Doc Mojoe  v Calamity Janes, at Southern Junction in Rockwall

Week 7 — Grand Old Grizzly v Blacktop Mojo v Matt Bradshaw, at Smitty’s in Denison

Week 8 — Scott Dean v Stone Rosevelt v Mike Stanley Band, at City Tavern in Dallas (venue still tentative)

Alternate:

The Detentions

The dates and venues for Round 2 are:

Round 2, Week 10, Oct. 3, Gilley’s in Dallas

Round 2, Week 11, Oct. 10, Love & War in Grapevine

Round 2, Week 12, Oct. 17, Club Dada, Dallas

Round 2, Week 13, Oct. 24 — Tolbert’s in Grapevine

Round 3 FINALS

November 7, Love & War in Texas, Plano

Rusty Wier contest, finals 2/24/13

Mark Shelton and Brett Dillon

Story and photos by Mary Jane Farmer, click on the link below for many photos

Four months, five or six dozen songwriters, five rounds, and seven finalists. The Rusty Wier Songwriter Contest completed its third year Feb. 24 when organizer Brett Dillon announced Mark Shelton as the songwriter-singer who was taking home the prizes. Shelton might have needed a wheelbarrow to carry them all away, there were so many: a Kona guitar; hours of studio time and video work from Bent Leaf Studios and Chip Campbell Productions, respectively; season passes to Love & War In Texas’ Shiner Sundays 2013; and quite a few more career-enhancing sweeteners.

Shelton, from Durant, Okla., was last in the line-up Sunday afternoon, and said at the beginning of his set, that just being in the Top 7 was a surprise and honor for “a Red Dirt guy who plays about three times a year.” He hasn’t been songwriting, or even playing and singing, for long, but has already become a wordsmith beyond even his own expectations.

Second place went to Fort Worth’s Phil Wallace and Town Walsh, from Collinsville, earned third place honors. Other finalists were Greg Schroeder, Heath Webb, Big John Mills, and Scott Copeland.

In this round, as it was in the semi-finals, each of those in the contest was required to perform three originals and one Rusty Wier cover song. Judges were Brett Dillon (KHYI), Chip Campbell (Honky Tonk Nights & Renegade Hearts), Ronny Spears (White & Spears), Tye Phelps (Love & War), and Jesse Sims (Bent Leaf Studios).  Roger Russell ran sound.

Schroeder got his Rusty Wier song out of the way first, saying it was because it was the hardest for him. Later on, Schroeder, himself a prolific and intense songwriter, said that he learned so much in studying Wier’s songs, learning them in preparation, for the last two rounds. He said that Wier made it look easy to perform them, but that there was more to them under the surface than meets the eye. Schroeder said he will be keeping the songs at the ready in his song list.

Mills, who drove all five times to the Plano venue from his home in San Marcos, had said earlier that he was excited to have been included in the contest, and hopes he has created a larger fan bass and can again play in the Metroplex soon. Mills was a friend and sometimes co-writer with Rusty Wier before Mr. Wier’s death, and admired him personally and professionally.

A little known fact:  Mark Shelton had cut his long locks off in November, giving them to Locks of Love; Wallace showed up with a fresh haircut in the semi-finals, not sure if he gave his tresses to Locks of Love; and Mills will be cutting his long hair off now that the contest is over — another gift for Locks of Love. This is a non-profit organization that, through people’s hair donations, creates and provides wigs to financially-challenged cancer victims under the age of 21.

After the award, the brotherhood of songwriters at Love & War in Texas gathered on stage and belted out Rusty Wier’s ever-popular “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance.” And there were many there for the finals who had entered and some who made it through the ranks, but not into the finals, including Matt Dunn and Grady Yates, and other musicians who just came for the show, including Nate Kipp, Jeff Hopson, and Dan Dennis.

Shelton talked about that brotherhood, saying “This is a big ol’ family, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger.” His song, based on the drought in North Texas and Oklahoma last year, “Watching Oklahoma Burn,” was a definite crowd pleaser. Watch for the name “Mark Shelton” as one of those playing Shiner Sundays 2013, another of the prizes he collected as first-place winner.

It’s highly likely there will be a 4th Annual Rusty Wier Songwriting Competition, and will most likely begin again in November.

For photographs, click here:

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

Chip Campbell

Photos by Mary Jane Farmer and Jack Browning (Some performers have more photos because of having two photographers at the event, it’s nothing personal!) Click on the link at the end for artists’ photographs.

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

Rusty Wier contest, Rd 3 Wk 1 (Semi-finals)

 

Contestants sing Happy Birthday to Lisa Walsh

All photos by Jack Browning

This reporter (Mary Jane) was honored to have been a judge at Sunday’s (Feb. 10) Rusty Wier Contest, now in its semi-final rounds, and so had to turn all my notes in to the contest officials. I’ve said time and time again I wouldn’t want to be a judge, because all the talent is so equal, although different from one songwriter to another… and that’s the beauty (along with the mutual ‘let’s-win’ attitude of 99.9 % of the musicians) of Texas music.

In this semi-final two-week round, all contestants must present three of their original songs and cover one Rusty Wier song. Vying were: Heath Webb, Erica Perry, Grady Yates, Greg Schroeder, Town Walsh, and Chad Purdom.

This coming week, at 4 p.m. Love & War in Texas (Plano) brings the remaining six semi-finalists to the stage: Big John Mills, Whitney O’Neil, Scott Copeland, Phil Wallace, Byron Down, and Mark Shelton. From these 12, six will moving into the finals, Feb. 24, to complete the third-annual Rusty Wier Songwriting Contest. They are all vying for prizes that include studio time at Bent Leaf Studios in Denison, a Kona guitar, a season-ticket for two to L&W’s Shiner Sunday concert series, and so much more.

For photos, click here