For more photos, click on the link below
Rusty Wier, 2005
The second group of eight singers and songwriters competing to go into the 5th Annual Rusty Wier competition Sunday (Feb. 16) brought their best to the Love & War in Texas (Plano) stage — actually on the Rusty Wier pavilion — Sunday, and had the crowd eating out of their guitar-string-calloused hands.
Playing song-swap style in groups of twos were Andrew Delaney, Matt Grigsby, James Dunning, Ty Young, Matt Johnston, Mike Schikora, Josh Halverson, and Joe Austin. These eight artists were not competing only against each other, but against those who performed the previous Sunday. Each performer presented three original songs and one Rusty Wier cover song in this round, and will do so again in the finals next Sunday.
Several people acted as judges, one of them being Rusty Wier’s love for the time before his death, Trisha Aker. At close of competition, organizer Brett Dillon tallied up all the scores and announced the names of the eight moving into the finals (and listed below.)
Dillon, when he first took the stage to open the day’s event up, commented, “This is more of a camaraderie than a competition.” Musicians have been saying that all through the event, too. And proof of it comes in the form of those musicians who returned again this week to root their musical buddies on. At one time, there were at least 10 there who either had been eliminated or who remain in the contest, giving their support to all the others.
The primary Scene In Town award for these two past Sundays has to go to Trisha Aker. Let’s
Trisha Aker
call it the “Gorilla Glue Award” for the way she holds it together as musician after musician sings the variety of songs that Rusty himself wrote. More than once, Trisha reached for a tissue to blot away the moisture spilling from her eyes. And whether the Sunday renditions were exact arrangements of the way that Rusty did them himself, or whether they were made more personal by the particular performers, she was enthusiastic about each and every one. As an example, two people sang Rusty’s “Running With The Wrong Crowd.” They came out as different as the musicians themselves were, and yet the amazing woman appreciated and enjoyed both the same.
Tho all eight were outstanding in their unique styles, Ty Young earned the “Best Crowd Response Award” for his last song, a cover of one of Rusty’s tunes. However, it might be that a second “Best Crowd Response Award” may have to be created… because when Matt Johnston and Mike Schikora teamed up for their song-swap, they definitively earned that same award. So, two awards or one?
This next Sunday (Feb. 22) is the final night in this year’s Rusty Wier singer/songwriter challenge. It will begin earlier, at 2 p.m., and still at sponsors Love & War in Texas, which is at the NE corner of Plano Parkway and U.S. 75.
Those in this final round are David Byboth, Saille Branch, James Dunning, Josh Halverson, Matt Johnston, Mike Schikora, Mick Tinsley, and Town Walsh.
For more photos of the performers, click here