Happy birthday, Diana!
Only one more week left in Round Two of the 3rd Annual Rusty Wier contest, with seven more musicians hoping to go into Round Three. Sunday, (Jan. 6, 2013) saw the second group of seven on the Love & War in Texas (Plano) stage. Those were (in order of their performances): Town Walsh, David Byboth, Alex Gates, Jake Bays, Guy Forsythe, Bryan Adam Joyner, and Heath Webb. Each of these songwriters had their strengths. Judges were Mark David Manders and Brett Dillon, and the scores the songwriters earned Sunday will be compared with those in the weeks before and after them, with those scoring the highest moving on into Round Three.
Town Walsh opened with a song he wrote from experience, he said, called “My Little Girl,” enunciating each word clearly.
David Byboth proved himself a wordsmith with such lyrics in his songs as “swimming on the surface, drowning on dry land.” In his The Engineer Song, which he wrote for guitar maker Vince Pawless’ father, he, encouraging imagination, asked those in the crowd to close their eyes and “you will see something really good that has happened to you.” In the audience, Dana Penland kept her eyes closed through the whole song, smiling as she listened and sang along.
Alex Gates wrote a prequel, he said, to the classic “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” picked and played his song, then smiled when he said he had “shredded my pick.”
Jake Bays may be the master of alliteration, (ain’t no bars on Mars, no whiskey in the stars) and presented his four songs with humor and pathos, sometimes in the same song.
Greg Schroeder played harmonica along with his guitar work, and sang of “wishing I had somebody else’s blues,” with a good swing in his voice.
Bryan Adam Joyner opened with his “No. 2 greatest hit — I Don’t Want to Cry Any More,” and moved into another poignant song, not fluffy at all, about his dad
Heath Webb closed out with four of his originals, and brought the afternoon to a great conclusion.
Well, that is, it concluded except for the birthday cake brought out for Diana Love, and the complement of the musicians still there singing her “Happy Birthday,” while Dillon and Walsh held a bar stool still for the spoons player also on stage.
Dillon said, “For musicians like those in this competition to have to have two jobs to make ends meet, that’s B.S… I’m just saying,” speaking about the quality of songwriting and musicianship in the Rusty Wier contest.
The contest picks up again at 4 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 13) at Love & War in Texas, at the northeast corner of U.S. 75 and Plano Parkway in Plano. There is no charge to attend these contests.