For many photos, click on the link at the end of this short story.
Let’s hope it’s not the end of an era, just the end of a summer season. The 6-week Texas Talk Live music series at Gilley’s/Durant (Choctaw Casino) ended Sunday on a high note, with Josh Grider and Brian Keane exchanging stories and songs with the record Sunday crowd, the giving away of an inflatable kayak, and dancers enjoying the freedom of a less-than-packed dance floor.
Josh and Brian, both songwriters whose hits have graced Texas charts for a couple of years, brought something else with them, too, besides their music — they brought their own good natures, which were contagious.
K95.5’s radio personality Barry Diamond interviewed the duo between songs, and the questions he posed came, in large part, from fans at the show and from others listening in on the radio.
They talked, in sequence, about the first, second, and third CDs each has produced, and fans learned that, for these two, it does seem to mature with experience and with top professional support teams. They talked about balancing home life with highway life. When 
asked who they haven’t co-written with, yet, and yet who they would like to co-write with, neither hesitated when he named the other. In spite of living near one another in the Austin area, the closest they have come to co-writing — or for that matter, performing together before Sunday — is to have Sunday lunches with their families.
The songs… mostly from their CDs, some from pre-recording days, some humorous (One Night Taco Stand and She Likes The Beatles… which also, in its ‘third act,’ turns into a love song), and others more sensitive.
A shout out to Choctaw’s Jim Barnes, who managed to deliver crystal clear, perfectly-balanced sound, which carried well beyond the Gilley’s walls into the casino’s slot-machine area.
Coors Light has sponsored this series, which started with Zane Williams, and then also included, over the next Sundays, Erica Perry, Phil Hamilton, Curtis Grimes, Rich O’Toole, Jamie Richards and Matt Hillyer. And Will Payne and Barry Diamond have been there every week with the interview honors.
And the kayak — Payne held the Coors Light-donated kayak drawing after the show went off the air, and the winner was actually a double winner, in that he was the only person to have attended all six Sunday concerts.