One thing that all three bands had in common who played Shiner Rising Star’s Round 1 Week 6 session was that they came to have fun. Of course, each played to earn the chance to move on into Round Two. When the announcement was made Friday morning, it was The Bigsbys who are moving on.

Shiner Rising Star is hosted and produced by Dallas radio station KHYI (95.3), Shiner Beer, and Shiner Records. It offers a recording contract to the band who takes top honor after beating out 23 other bands, selected from hundreds others who apply each year, in three rounds. Previous winners, such as Darryl Lee Rush and Somebody’s Darling, along with one member of the KHYI team, and leaders in the Texas Music scene, are judges.

Week 6 was held at City Tavern in downtown Dallas, a quaint bar with a history not quite as old as Dallas itself, but which added to the city’s legacy during the past 50-ish years.  Thursday, Aug. 30, brought together The Bigsbys, Stone Rosevelt, and American Jenny.

American Jenny — Based in Dallas, this band had to put in the least miles for this round, and they brought a large fan bass with them to City Tavern.  Blues mixed its heavy hand in with their rock n roll style, and throughout it all, the band had fun!

Josh Hammon lead with his soulful voice and does most of the writing for the band. Lead guitar duties belonged to David Frost, and Jake Boggess and Tim Smith provided a solid rhythm section with style.

American Jenny photos, click here

The Bigsbys

Coming from Palestine, Texas, for the contest, the Bigsbys are made up of Alex Smith on vocals and acoustic guitar, Russell McClendon on bass, Brad Hobson on lead guitar, and Nick Odom on drums.  This band has a CD out now, their debut, “True Story” featuring 10 songs written by Smith and produced by Lyndon Hughes. They are also on tour between now and their as-yet-undesignated Round Two date.

The Bigsbys photos, click here

This Paris-based band kept up the meaning of “”loving what you do” with their music. The band is not unfamiliar with playing original songs, as that makes up a good majority of their sets. Chad Farris and Chris Shoemate shined on vocals and guitar, complemented by the rhythm section of Ben Alsup on bass and Nick Burton on drums. Their music could have been called ‘rock,’ if one needs a musical style. And their various influences combined to create a unique sound to Stone Rosevelt.

Stone Rosevelt photos, click here

Blacktop Outlaw

The fifth week of Shiner Rising Star band competition brought together three more great bands, this time to the Hard Rock Cafe stage in Dallas. Blacktop Outlaw, with its ties out of Whitesboro and Denton, emerged with the right to move into Round 2, but it was a tough call for the four judges: KHYI general manager Joshua Jones; music promoter Penny Lazo, and both John Pedigo and Taylor Young, who make up The O’s band, and who got only one vote between them.

Blacktop Outlaw drew the No. 3 slot in the line-up, and hit the stage running. The band consists of Danny Dillon, Lucas Pittman, Ethan Dorsett, Steve Howell, and Ryan, got this reviewer’s attention when it dedicated its one-allowed cover song, “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” to me. And in keeping with orientation suggestions Jones made before Week 1, the band made it their own song, rather than covering it exactly like Tom Petty wrote it.

Following their 30-minute set, the band received critiques from each judge, some criticism and some attaboys. Jones opened that up, first calliDorsett that he earned the honor of MVP of the night, citing his specific guitar tones, which Jones called great along with his style.

Jonesalso kept his word when he said he would be offering some less favorable comments, but “heed these in case you get to the second round.” He began to comment on the motions of band members, which he called “calisthenics,” which he said were originally a distraction from the music, but as they went on they became a part of the show.  He also suggested the band spend some time with Guy Clark and Ray Wylie Hubbard and Chris

Shotgun Jimmys

Knight. “Your songwriting needs a little bit more depth,” Jones said. “I know this is a negative critique, but if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be telling you this.”

Lazo said she agreed with Jones’ comments, and commented that the harmonies were nice and also that the band relaxed with the crowd was an asset.

The O’s said it was all “good stuff,” and commented that one song, “Southern Crush,” is a ready-made hit.  There were other catchy songs and some lines in them made the O’s laugh. “That’s the kind of stuff we like to listen to when we drive eight hours to the next show.” They declared Pittman to be a bad-ass bass player, and found the third harmony in the vocals.

Just a note, too, Blacktop Outlawwas the band who remembered all its good manners, thanking the contest sponsors KHYI, Shiner Beer, and Shiner Records, and also the Hard Rock Cafe for hosting the event, and their many fans at the venue.

Shotgun Jimmys

Opening challengers  were The Shotgun Jimmys, made up of Cody Duvall, Jimmy Duvall, and Jim Gosnell (it’s a little known fact, but Cody’s other name is also Jimmy), and Fishing With Dynamite. Members there are Josh Pittman, Josh Price, and James Price. This rockabillty band chose as its required cover song a rousing version of George Jones’ “White Lightning.”

Jones said, during the critique, he would like to have seen one more “texture” instrument in addition to the stand-up bass, drums, and lead guitar. Physically, he said, the members look “like they are in three different bands” and could use more cohensiveness there.

Penny liked Jimmy Duvall’s bass, calling it “great.”

The O’s did, too. Their critique also was that they would like to have heard more harmonies. “We don’t see why you three aren’t singing together all of the time.”

Jones began the critique of Fishing With Dynamite by commenting that the band used 12 of 30-minute allowance getting ready to play. “It was a little too long, and even between sets (too much time). It seemed to die down. I also didn’t see a lot of interaction with the audience. I encourage you to interact, to build that relationship.” He did comment on the guitar playing and the Gram Parsons cover, calling them good. “Once you got revved up, you were great,” Jones concluded.
Lazo commented that she wanted to hear the conflict in the songs.

The O’s suggested the band could tighten up some, and “talk to the crowd more.”

The contestants are vying for a recording contract with Shiner Records, a gig on the 2012 Texas Music Revolution festival which KHYI hosts in March, and several other prizes which could be helpful to their careers.

This upcoming Thursday, (Aug. 30) will have Stone Rosevelt, The Bigsbys, and American Jenny hitting the stage at City Tavern in downtown Dallas. Music starts at 8 p.m.

Kerry Davis Jr.

Click the link provided after each band’s section to see more pictures

Shiner Rising Star, the band contest holding as its ultimate prize a recording contract, completed its fourth week contest Thursday night, and when the votes were tallied, the Lewisville-based band led by Kerry Davis Jr. learned it would be moving into Round Two.

Thursday, Aug 16, pitted the Kerry Davis Jr. Band against Lord North from Durant and the Jeremy Powers Band from the Red Oak area. And it was no walk-away win, as all three bands, which were extremely different in their styles, were all top-notch in their styles.

Judges for this round were KHYI’s Brett Dillon, Smith Music Group’s Dawn Gartin, and Shiner Rising Star year-one winner, Darryl Lee Rush.

Davis’ band opened with a bluegrass-flavored original, and continued accenting his originals with Pat York on the harmonica and guitar,  Hillary Early (Hank) on the pedal steel, Matt Riley on bass and harmony vocals, Aaron Burklin on lead guitar, and Lucas Albann on drums. Kerry, himself, plays rhythm guitar and handles the lead vocals.

In keeping with requirements, the band completed its set within the allowed 30 minutes, and then returned to the Hat Tricks stage to be critiqued.

Rush led off, commenting first on the steel, “That steel playing was phenomenal,” he told Hank. About York’s harmonica, Rush noted that York used it to harmonize with Kerry’s voice.  “You don’t see that every day.” Rush said he was also impressed with the songwriting, the lead guitar work, and the “locked in” rhythms between the bass and the drums. “And all else was icing on the cake.”

Gartin commented on a statement that Davis had made during the set, announcing that he would be getting married soon. “You are a good-looking kid. Don’t tell the ladies in the crowd…” Gartin suggested and got a laugh from the audience. “I know this is a special week, and so…,” she added. In all, she was impressed with the songwriting, saying it sounds like the band has done this forever.

Dillon spoke first to Davis, saying he was complimenting Davis by saying he was looking more like Mark McKinney all the time. He also compared York to Delbert McClinton. In all, it was great musicianship, Dillon said.

Click here for more Kerry Davis Jr. Band pix

Jeremy Powers and his band hail from the Red Oak area. The band is Jeremy on acoustic guitar, vocals, and songwriting, Paul Byrd on electric guitar and vocals, Pete Miller on bass, Luis Rodriguez on drums.  This band chose a Stevie Ray Vaughn cut from “The Promise” album for its cover song, required along with the remainder being originals.

All three judges seemed to be in agreement on two things. One was that the band might have chosen to start off with the song it finished with. And, they all agreed that one original song, they dubbed ‘the telephone song,’ was stunning.

Dillon said, “It’s a great band with good songs and good songwriting. The tunes you picked were great, but that last song set the stage for something.

Rush agreed, saying the band did an outstanding job. “Your songwriting is very good, that’s your strength, and the telephone song was great. It affected me personally. “ Rush commented that the rhythm section was tight, “rocked in the grove.” The moment, too, he commented on, saying, “I would have started a little harder, then brought it down in the middle, and back up in the end.”

Gartin’s comments were simpler, “You look great, sound great, you are awesome.”

At the end of the critique, Powers took the time to thank the judges and KHYI for the opportunity to be in the contest.

For more Jeremy Powers Band pix, click here

Lord North, from the Durant area, presented an unusual set, from hard rock to slow solo, spiced with quiet vocals in the background. Their last song opened with drums, then all instruments kicked in as they did the Buddy Holly “Not Fade Away,” for their cover song.

The band’s lead started it off by thanking Shiner Beer, the Range (KHYI 95.3), and Gartin opened the critique, saying, “We love your music, love, love, love.” There was some good-natured ribbing from the judges’ table about the attire, saying there were two barefoot beach boys, one Where’s Waldo, and a 1980s leather jacket. “All perfect for the downhome surfer sound. Great songwriting. We enjoyed it.”

Rush commented on the band members’ continual tuning, “When you first started tuning on stage, I though maybe you need to get a tuner, but then, when you did it between every song, it became cooler and cooler until it became part of the experience. You guys rocked hard. You are loving it and rocking hard. You did very very well.”

Dillon agreed, “Great job, you guys.”

For more Lord North pix, click here

This coming Thursday (Aug. 23) will have Blacktop Outlaw against Shotgun Jimmys and Fishing With Dynamite, competing on the Hard Rock Café on Houston Street in Dallas. Music starts at 8 p.m., and there is no cover to attend the contests.  Winners are named the following morning on sponsoring station, KHYI (95.3), 9 a.m.

August 4,2012, brought with the 100+ degree temperatures in North Texas the first Cooler’n Hell festival, sponsored by Dallas’ Americana Radio Station KHYI (95.3, The Range).

And rumor has it, confirmed rumor that is, that the date is set for the first Saturday in August 2013, for the second installment.

This first year, at Southfork Ranch (also the home of the annual Texas Music Revolutions also presented by KHYI), the facility added two more air conditioners and cranked all of them up pretty high, to give that wintry feeling. Also, they used their clear-Christmas lights, wreaths, and other decorations to create the winter mood, very successfully, too. DB Sound provided all the sound and lighting and the center of the room was set up with a wrestling ring, used for dual reasons— Midget wrestling and as a stage for the solo performers. An ice sculptor displayed his art as he created the KHYI logo and that for the new festival in two separate blocks of ice, then brought them to life with his electric saw.

It all got off with the first of two glitches — a wreck on the highway kept the opening performer from arriving in time, and so when asked, Dustin Perkins and his band kicked it off instead. About halfway through their set, a transformer blew and suddenly it all became hotter’n hell for a while, as crews got the power up and running again. Then, the opener, Kyle Bennet, had arrived, and so he performed on the main stage after the sound system — and a/c system — was back in operation. Then, Dustin and the band got back up and finished their set.

Ray Wylie Hubbard

After all that, it went pretty smoothly, with music moving from the main stage to the wrestling ring/stage for solo artists Jerrod Medulla, Ed Burleson, Jamie Richards, and Guthrie Kennard.

A few surprises included Mavs general manager Donnie Nelson joining the KHYI personalities on stage between sets. Nelson is becoming a regular at the KHYI events, most recently before this having been a judge one night of the Shiner Rising Star 2012 contest.

Another surprise, even for John David Kent, was when headliner Ray Wylie Hubbard brought him out onto the stage to share a song. And Somebody’s Darling did a couple of songs from their upcoming CD release, due out next month. Also rounding out the main stage line-up were the Tejas Brothers.

The glitches come and gone, the first-ever Cooler’n Hell fest went off fine and the packed house appeared (through its dancing, laughter, moshing, and cheers) to have gone home with memories of a great day to relive.

For Dustin Perkins pix, click here

For Somebody’s Darling pix, click here

For John David Kent pix, click here

For Tejas Brothers pix, click here

For Ray Wylie Hubbard pix, click here

For solo performers, click here

For crowd shots and various other pix, click here

Chuck Taylor-Note the unqiue mustache!

Three strong bands showed up to compete in Shiner Rising Star’s Round 1, Week 2 contest Thursday night (Aug. 2) at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in Dallas. All three wowed the judges, judging by their comments at critique-time, and Friday morning, KHYI’s Chuck Taylor announced on the morning show that it would be Twisted Pistols who would be moving on.

Judges this week were Texas singer/songwriter Deryl Dodd; Tami Millspaugh, Texas Record Chick Promotions; and Taylor. Rules are: each band has 30 minutes and that must include all original songs except for one required cover. At the end of each band’s set, they return to the stage for oral critiques from the judges, who then vote on 10 criteria. Votes are tallied and announced on KHYI the following morning.

For Misc. pix, click here:

Parallel Play, the dynamite band from Denton, opened with Jeremy Drake on vocals, Erin Gayden on upright bass, Jason Miears

Jeremy, vocals with Parallel Play

on banjo, and Pappy McCall on drums. Erin and Tomy also provided harmony vocals. They were a high-spirited group, and probably brought the largest crowd of fans. Their cover was Weezer’s “Surf Wax.”

Deryl Dodd opened the critique, and in his easy-going manner commented on their sound-check, saying, “II play in bars evrey night and love your sound check, I’m using the ‘blah, blah, blah’ thing.” He called Parallel Play “very organic with a folk sound,” and said their setg was a lot of fun. “That helps make up for the fun that’s missing in me. The seller was you broke in with that big sound, and came together on that. God bless you, keep doing what you do.”

Millspaugh said she was intrigued and very enthused by “your performance and the passion in your fans over here.” Millspaugh, who said she works primarly with country bands, said, “I think you are more American-lean, and so this was a step out for me to watch. You have something here, but marketability-I’m not sure where to go with that. I can see it working somewhere with the right tool and the right company to take you there. I hope to see you on the big stage later on.”

Taylor’s critique began by talking about the first song starting a little slow, (as they sometimes are for the first band in these weekly contests). I love the coolness of the Wheezer song. The otgher song that did it for me was when you kicked into the second half after the bridge. nd Sons feel. Americana feel to it.” He compared Parallel Play with the Damn Quails and Sons of Fathers, saying, “There is a place for it in today’s music.”

For Parallel Play pix, click here:

Jackson Eli was joined on stage by the incredibles: Dan Hodan on guitar, Jimmy Duvall on upright bass, and Thad Moore on drums.  Their cover was “Hot Rod Lincoln,” and during it Jackson engaged the crowd even more by stepping off the stage and

Jackson Eli

walking through the bar, stopping to play his lead guitar for the fans. And, when Duvall went through his customary antics with his bass, while never missing a skinny little beat, the crowd loved it all. All Jimmy held his huge stand-up bass over his head, Jackson lifted his electric guitar and played it over his head, too.

Double D said about that, “I didn’t realize that playing is an atheletic event. My hats off to you from the first song… great players, great talent, and throwing that (bass guitar) around…” and Dodd trailer off with a smile on that note. He called it great country music, with a lot of heart and “I think that is what music is.”

Millspaugh said Jackson needed to work on the songwriting “a little bit more. Your singing is great, and I loved how you did run around (the audience). Keep working on the material and your shows and work the circuit and eventually you will be working a lot.”

Chuck Taylor said he is always thinking of stuff (music) to go on the radio. Both the songwriting is good, and the musicianship — “You have it out the wazoo. Jimmy D,you are awesome.”Hot Rod ln, wr in 1955, Of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” which Taylor said the band Asleep AT The Wheel made different when they did it, “Do your own version of it. You all did a really good job and hopefully we’ll see you guys doing more.”

For Jackson Eli Band pix, click here:

In the Collinsville-based  Twisted Pistols are; Zach Hendricks on acoustic guitar and lead vocals; Spencer Whitney on bass and harmonies; Johnny Wilson on lead guitar and harmonies; and Justin Boren on percussion. For their cover, the band did their version of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “Snake Farm,” mentioning that Ray Wylie would be playing Hotter’n Hell Festival the following Saturday. Also, toward the end, Spencer and Zach reached into a canvas bag, pulled out play snakes, and threw them out to the audience.

Dodd said the band has a ground sound, commercial, and one he said he could hear on the radio right now. He commented on

Zach Hendricks, Twisted Pistols

Wilson’s guitar tone and Whitney’s “strong” bass playing.

Millspaugh commented that from a craft standpoint, “You always want to capture those fans, and to make new fans. The cover song was good, but remember… make it your own… don’t make it osund like the original artist.”

Taylor opened his critique saying, “Last year I was a little bit harder on you guys, and this year you stepped it up a notch.”  He commented on the band’s talent of engaging the crowd, then on Hendrick’s style, “The enunciation, make sure you have your vocals strong. Part of the point of music is to get people to sing along and understand the words.”

For Twisted Pistols pix, click here: 

This Thursday, (Aug. 9) Round 1, Week 3 will be between the Blacktop Outlaws from Denton and Whitesboro; Rhythm n Roses from Terrell; and Rev. Leon & The Repenters from Princeton. Music begins at 8 p.m. at Love & War in Texas, Grapevine. For directions, call them at  972-724-5557.