Unless the artist in question is a total mercenary – a been-there-done-that studio pro, a reluctantly manufactured pop star, etc. – making music is a labor of love almost by definition.  Especially down in the trenches of any sort of independent music, where making a living is less than assured and selling 5000 records would be reason for celebration (as opposed to reason for a label’s boot in an artist’s ass), it’s very much a love-it-or-leave it situation.  Opportunistic interlopers tend to burn out quick and fade from memory even quicker; whether or not you love somebody’s music, you’ve got to respect the fact that they love it enough to keep at it even when the tangible rewards are slim.

Just about every record you hear from a Texas Music Scene-type artist is going to be a labor of love.  They loved writing the songs, loved making the record, loved seeing it roll off the press and light up their fans’ lives, if only for an hour or so a day.  But some records are so specific in their approach as to be the obvious product of someone doing it for the love above all else, commercial prospects and current trends notwithstanding.  Here’s a look at three recent projects that struck me as just that.

Tommy Alverson – Pickin’ on Willie – Full-length, one-artist-driven tributes are usually the sort of project an established contemporary artist takes on in hopes of shedding light on a hero of theirs that’s in danger of being lost to time (think Merle Haggard to Jimmie Rodgers, Steve Earle to Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson to Cindy Walker); veteran Texas honky-tonker Tommy Alverson figured he’d salute his favorite while he was not only still around, but still cranking out at least one record per year.  And proving that a record doesn’t have to be essential to be meaningful, Alverson puts his whole heart into a long list of both standards and relative obscurities, kicking it off with a duet with Nelson himself (“Night Life”) but also, interestingly, bringing “Whiskey River” composer Johnny Bush on board to meld the style of his original with Nelson’s looser, iconic jam.  Generally, Alverson sounds most at home on outlaw-era tunes like the “Shotgun Willie” medley and “I Can Get Off On You,” and nails the tricky melody of “I’m A Memory” admirably.  There’s even a home recording of his beloved dad singing “Uncloudy Day,” as well as the self-penned tribute “Watching Willie’s Hands.”  It’s a touching, engaging listen.

The Chubby Knuckle Choir – self-titled – One of the more eclectic groups to grace the Texas Music Scene TV show, the CKC come at audiences like they might be the world’s greatest backporch funk band; there’s a heavy dose of country in there too, largely courtesy of co-frontman Tres Womack, and both on record and in person they sound like a long-awaited blend of the Neville Brothers, Rodney Crowell, and Ry Cooder.  For their debut, the sound’s a little on the low-fi side, but the grooves are tight on numbers like “Always Something” (sounds like some long-lost demo of an acoustic young Michael Jackson) and appropriately loose on jammy numbers like “Jesus Is On the Mainline,” “Barcelona Rain,” and the majestically melancholy “Black Hotel.”  Nearly everyone gets a turn at the mic, and makes the most of it.

Ben Morris – Amen Brother – For a couple of underrated records in a row, Ben Morris has fronted the indie folk-rock band The Great American Boxcar Chorus with his exuberant, youthful baritone and positive, slightly offbeat songwriting charms.  He hasn’t abandoned that side of his career, but he did take a figurative sidestep from the nightclub to the church to record his own take on a gospel record.  It wasn’t as easy as opening up the hymn book and picking out a few standards (though “Amazing Grace” and “Softly and Tenderly” do appear).  There’s an emphasis on the personal that’s not only fitting for Morris’ history of heart-on-sleeve songwriting, it makes it clear that this isn’t some sort of one-off crowd-pleaser for fellow Christians: it’s a sincere, admirable account of how faith can be interwoven into every aspect of life, from family to friendship to romance.  Joyous but never self-congratulatory, his creativity (along with talented producer Jayme Ivison) extends to the sonics, singing over everything from layered electric guitars to the simple sound of rainfall.

Peace,

MEM
www.mikeethanmessick.net

THE ESSENTIALS – 15 Great Cover Versions

1. Rodney Parker & 50 Peso Reward – “Atlantic City” – When Bruce Springsteen decided to release the album Nebraska in the low-fi, home-demo version instead of fleshing it out with some vintage E Street bombast, he implicitly left that job up to musical descendants like 50 Peso Reward who could give an already endlessly gutsy and poetic song that extra full-band, guitar-hero punch.  Better still was the fact that it ended up on the band’s near-perfect sophomore album The Lonesome Dirge, in good company amongst some great Parker originals.
2. The Gourds – “Gin & Juice” – The wearying realization that country-rap hybrids are all over the Top 40 nowadays, each one seemingly more grating and insipid than the last, doesn’t dull the exhilaration the Gourds put into this Snoop Dogg cover over a decade ago.  Endlessly traded around on now-defunct peer-to-peer file sharing sites (Napster et al), often under the wrong band name (it’s not Phish), it ran the risk of being overplayed but has found its way back into the Gourds’ setlist on a regular basis.  Often blended in with odd segues into anything from Cheap Trick to Kenny Rogers to the Ramones, the fact that they attack it with party-hearty conviction instead of ironic distance makes it really hold up.
3. Kelly Willis – “They’re Blind” – Off of the sublime What I Deserve album, Willis (who has also covered edgy rockers like Iggy Pop and Marshall Crenshaw down through the years) plucked a semi-obscure Replacements number out of the past and made it her own.  Paul Westerberg’s sharp, sour Midwestern punk translated comfortably into Kelly’s indelibly sweet twang, as did the shared sentiment of wanting more, literally from a relationship but figuratively from an industry that can leave artists as singular and talented as both Willis and Westerberg out on the fringes.
4. Hayes Carll – “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” – To the fans (and I’m among them) Tom Waits needs no translation, but to the uninitiated his original sounds like a growl straight out of Satan’s favorite organ grinder.  To Hayes Carll, no stranger to unconventional voices himself, it sounded like an opportunity to take one of those rare Waits songs that sounds more like it would’ve been written by John Prine and take it to the people with the big, earthy, pleasant sway of fiddle, accordion, and crisp acoustics.
5. Cory Morrow – “Straight To Hell” – The original by stoner-friendly road band Drivin’ & Cryin’ wasn’t exactly a household anthem, but a young Cory Morrow stumbled across it and arguably improved it, at the very least putting his own stamp on it.  Initially recorded by the band at a lazy, hazy honky-tonk lope, Morrow injected it with some extra clarity and fire.  It was a welcome injection of rock & roll edge into his mostly easygoing repertoire, an admirable unearthing of a well-written tune, and a sing-along at his concerts for years.

Rounding things out …

1. Charlie Robison – “I Want You Bad” (NRBQ)
2. Slobberbone – “To Love Somebody” (The Bee Gees)
3. Mike McClure – “Into The Mystic” (Van Morrison)
4. Pat Green – “Can’t Find My Way Home” (Blind Faith)
5. The Trishas – “She Ain’t Going Nowhere” (Guy Clark)
6. Alejandro Escovedo – “Too Little Too Late” (Sir Douglas Quintet)
7. Rich O’Toole – “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (The Postal Service)
8. Cody Canada & The Departed – “Wanna Rock & Roll” (Ray Wylie Hubbard)
9. Walt Wilkins – “Walk Through This World With Me” (George Jones)
10. Bart Crow & Macy Maloy – “If I Go I’m Goin’” (Gregory Alan Isakov)

With his thrift store threads, ’60s Bob Dylan hat, wiseacre observations and pack-a-day voice, Garrett T. Capps comes on like an indie musician right out of central casting.  It’s more than a pose, though, just a friendly and creative personality holding down the center of an ever-evolving young music career.  He’s bashed out some garage-friendly rock & roll in his time (and doubtlessly will again) but for the time being he’s detoured down a dirt road, finding some fresh and poignant things to say in sparer, quieter circumstances on his new acoustic EP Hope & Doubt & Freeway Birds.  It’s imaginative in scope but real enough, emotionally, that the San Antonio-bred young man’s world-weary observations feel entirely in character whether he’s being a little hard on himself (“absolutely no-can-do born to be a fool”), on the world around him (“sometimes it feels like they only see you fall”) or offering some highly unconventional praise to a recent president (“George Dubya”).  Anyway, it’s a short-but-sweet, appealingly dusty little record that you really should give a listen to.  Give this interview a read/listen too.

Possibly the greatest voice in country music fell silent on April 26.  At the none-too-tender but still-too-soon age of 81, George Jones peacefully departed this earth, an East Texas native (born in Saratoga) having long since lived down the wild days that immeasurably informed his music, humanized him to his fans, and nearly ended his walk through this world a lot sooner.

But he lived to tell it all, to paraphrase the title of his autobiography, and to sing it about it in that unbelievably rich baritone that in some ways only got better with time.  He hit an early peak in the late ‘50s with sweet, giddy tunes like “Why Baby Why” and “She Thinks I Still Care,”  parlayed his personal life into more professional highs (or perhaps vice versa) with those great Tammy Wynette duets, kept his country soul intact through those glossy Billy Sherrill-produced latter-day hits (including monuments to human sorrow like “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “The Grand Tour”), and encored mightily when the country music industry kicked into high gear in the 1990’s.  He was more than happy to collaborate with the gracious young folks who idolized him, with guys like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson happily assuming the role of pointing newly-minted country aficionados back to their most dearly loved roots.

Aside from consistently recording (and occasionally writing) some of the greatest songs known to man, George was an ambassador of sorts for country music too.  He never got pushed into the pop crossover realm like, say, Kenny Rogers (that bone-deep twang might’ve been a tough sell to the disco generation) but he personified the sort of real-deal authenticity that sent similarly singular artists like Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, and James Taylor clamoring to collaborate.  Frank Sinatra called him one of his two favorite singers, and Merle Haggard called him one of his favorite running buddies and duet partners.  He was just as intriguing to the curious outsiders as he was to his peers and the young country turks who followed in his wake, and he never had to change to make it happen.  Though he might have been barely holding it together in his personal life, burning through coke and booze and marriages at pace no one should aspire to, as a singer he thrived in every environment.  He was never selfish with his talent, never phoned it in as a vocalist, never was stingy with praise for his heroes or peers or followers even when he pleaded for relevance for his generation of artists.  I remember him winning a lifetime achievement on some country music awards show and, after several appropriate rounds of gratitude, calling out the industry for pushing older artists to the margins.  “We ain’t dead yet,” he reminded them, right around the time I was rediscovering him and Willie and Merle and Cash and Waylon and realizing that they had new records out too.  In the pre-Internet days it wasn’t always easy to know.

I’ll never forget seeing Jones at the big Chilifest event just outside of College Station back around 2005; he was one of my few favorites that I hadn’t had a chance to see in person and I couldn’t wait to see him take the stage.  He was in his 70s by then, but if his best days were behind him it was only in the commercial sense.  Vocally, he was clicking on all cylinders, pouring his heart and soul into about a dozen classic songs and a few of those fine newer tunes that you’d never hear on the radio.  Not only did he show up, he showed up full of joy and fire that might have flickered a bit during those days of no-shows and forgetting the words mid-show but was never snuffed out.  Every note hit the heart, every wisely chosen word was in place, every strum of his guitar and bend in his voice was full of not only nostalgia but purpose as well.  Despite all the ups and downs, George Jones lived to be 81, and his music is gonna live forever.

Peace,

MEM

www.mikeethanmessick.net

The Texas Music Scene – both the TV show and the general concept) – is known for keeping the doors open fairly wide to our northern neighbors (aka the Oklahoma “Red Dirt” crowd), but perhaps it’d be wise to keep an ear out for artists just a little to the east of our borders, too.  Steve Judice is the sort of Louisiana man any Texan would be proud to call a neighbor, a smoky-voiced singer who brings a warm, wise and weathered sort of everyday poetry with him any time he steps on to a stage or into a studio.  From his Baton Rouge home, he’s made inroads to the Lone Star State through several mini-tours (often with local collaborators like Slim Bawb and Roger Cowan) and an audience cultivated through the Radio Free Texas website/radio station.  Putting the finishing touches on a third album, he’s already given the world a couple of fine records (2009’s Stormy Goodbyes & Laughing Eyes and 2011’s Whenever Darkness Falls) that are available on iTunes.  His songs can be bitingly specific (“Deepwater Horizon,” “Private Wilson’s Mama’s House”) but never preach to the audience or hector the powers that be: he’s just a gifted artist, calling ‘em as he sees ‘em and seldom failing to put his idea in the context of a good story.

In your own words, describe your sound.
Unrefined and ill-defined. Hell, that might make a good album title someday.
Where are you based out of?
Baton Rouge, but I travel a lot to Texas.
What are some of your favorite and/or most frequently played venues?
Here in Baton Rouge, my favorite venue is the Red Dragon Listening Room. It’s a place where people go for the express purpose of listening to the original works of songwriters.  And I’ve never played a Texas venue that I didn’t like.
Name a couple of career highlights, so far.
Last year, I opened a show for Guy Clark and Verlon Thompson. That was indeed a bucket list moment in my music career. Other highlights include opening for Adam Carroll and Michael O’Connor, and a brief guest appearance at Gruene Hall.
What music do you have out already, and what’s coming in the near future?
I’ve got two CD’s out. Stormy Goodbyes and Laughing Eyes was released in 2009; When Darkness Falls came out in 2011. My third CD, Dead End Gravel Road, is set for release this summer.
If someone’s only gonna buy one song of yours … where to start?
Hard to say. According to sales reports on individual songs, “Skoal Dippin’ Blues” from the first album seems to be the most popular.
Name some of your main influences as a songwriter/musician.
John Prine, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.
Who have you played more song swaps or co-bill with that anyone else?

Here in Louisiana, Barry Hebert and I do a lot of song swaps together. In Texas, Slim Bawb and I have shared the stage most often. It’s a genuine pleasure to play with both of these guys. For Radio Free Texas events, I’ve been most often paired with Roger Cowan and that’s always a fun time.
If a fan’s buying you a drink … what’ll it be?
I rarely turn my nose up at a shot of Jim Beam.
Name a couple of people you’d like to publicly thank for helping you in your career.
Gordon Graham, the producer of my first album has been a wonderful musical mentor, Lauren and Bawb Pearce have been gracious and generous in their hospitality and support on albums 2 and 3. If not for Radio Free Texas providing an outlet for independent artists, I doubt seriously that I would have ever recorded even one CD, so my thanks go out to Daniel and Cara Miller.
What’s one of the strangest gigs you’ve ever played?
Years ago I was a keyboard player for a band called Gunsmoke. We played a combination “New Year’s Eve Party/ Midnight Team Roping” event in Mississippi.

RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: Houston Marchman, Fred Eaglesmith, Owen Temple, Tommy Alverson

Peace,

MEM

www.mikeethanmessick.net

TOP FIVE:

1. “In The Heat of the Wide Afternoon” – The title track to one of the South Texas troubadour’s creative peaks, this subtly pulsing acoustic rocker (note:  just about everything Stalling does is subtle to some degree, and the genre’s a better world because of it) captures the sort of restless optimism that buoyed him through his day-job years as he matured into the unique, poetic songwriter he was born to be.  I don’t know the man well enough to pinpoint when “peace in the valley/got a little too peaceful…” but I (and thousands of others) enjoy his music enough to celebrate where his creativity took him.
2. “I-35” – Probably accidentally referred to as “Comfort In The Curves” (the refrain, and the name of Stalling’s debut album that features it) even by a handful of true fans, this spry and playfully wordy shuffle got Stalling squeezed in on more than a few Lone Star radio playlists (and, perhaps by extension, more than a few opener slots for guys like Robert Earl Keen) circa 1999.  Clicking off references to some of the high points on that drive from DFW to all points south, he’s clever where others might have stooped to pandering.  “There’s a storm in my rearview, and a city on my nerves/And there’s peace of mind in the straightaway, and there’s comfort in the curves.”
3. “Bass Run” – That’s bass as in the instrument (rhymes with ace) as opposed to the fish (rhymes with ass), and it’s a beautiful little tribute to traditional strains of Texas music and how deep they run even in those Texans who “traded wide open spaces for a job that pays good.”  Arrangement-wise, it doubles down on the Tex-Mex side of things with accordion and fleet-fingered gut-string guitar licks, framing some wise but lighthearted lyrics without forgetting to be catchy as hell.
4. “Lank, Low, Lonesome & Loose At Both Ends” – Unafraid to slow down his tempo to a crawl and let the dynamics in his plain but evocative drawl carry the day, Stalling offers a novel description of that sort of shiftless feeling that kicks in when several things in a row just refuse to go your way.  It’s the sort of woozy, distinctly masculine but emotionally honest wordplay that goes back to Hank Williams and beyond, and Stalling updates it as well as anyone making records nowadays.
5. “If Only The Good Die Young” – It’s hardly the first time someone put that old cliché to music, but Stalling’s gifts have a way of giving a shopworn expression one last shot at poetry.  Singing with full conviction as mariachi trumpets slip into the song’s country-pop groove (those Tex-Mex touches are as essential to Stalling’s approach as, say, swampy blues are to Ray Wylie Hubbard’s), he gives a line as simple and transcendent as “I’m gonna live forever” as much weight as the countless more novel and detailed sentiments that color his records.

Rounding things out …

1. “Runnin’ Buddy”
2. “Mockingbird”
3. “The Pila Song”
4. “Bathwater Baby”
5. “Something To See”
6. “Ping Pong Pool”
7. “Travelin’ Light”
8. “6×9 Speakers”
9. “Scars & Souvenirs”
10. “Home To You”

Peace,

MEM

The weather’s been too nice lately to read a long blog … or even to write one, really.  How bout I just fire off enough songs to fit on a good blank CD and either a) drive around and listen to with your windows down or b) give to a friend or family member less fortunate than yourself that isn’t plugged into the sort of good stuff you hear on Texas Music Scene.  Not everyone here’s a past guest, but all of these songs carry that whiff of optimism, freshness, maybe even a little audible sunshine of sorts that springtime requires.  Have a good week everyone, hope this helps.

1. The Randy Rogers Band – “Never Be That High”
2. Billy Joe Shaver – “Love Is So Sweet”
3. The Trishas – “Stuck On You”
4. Chris King – “Native Son”
5. Turnpike Troubadours – “Every Girl”
6. Rich O’Toole – “I Wanna Be With You”
7. Charlie Robison – “I Want You Bad”
8. Hayes Carll – “Grand Parade”
9. The Gourds – “Country Love”
10. Guy Clark – “Virginia’s Real”
11. Walt Wilkins – “Just Be”
12. Reckless Kelly – “I Still Do”
13. Rob Baird – “Mississippi Moon”
14. Brian Coy & The Remaining Few – “Highest of the Low”
15. Old 97s – “Rollerskate Skinny”
16. Kelly Willis – “Teddy Boys”
17. The Departed – “Blackhorse Mary”
18. Alejandro Escovedo – “Anchor”

Peace,

MEM

Whiskey Myers at Ranch Bash 2011.

In a modest rent house in the small East Texas town of Elkhart, Texas, Cody Cannon and Cody Tate began to write music, only dreaming of the success that is sure to follow. They began to incorporate the talent and imagination of friend and guitarist John Jeffers. At that time, they called themselves Lucky Southern, though they had only three members. As time passed, with their inspiration mounting, they moved to Tyler, Texas. There they met up with Jeff Hogg, a mutual friend and drummer from Palestine, Texas, and Gary Brown, a bass guitarist who had grown up in Neches, Texas. They came together and came to be known as Whiskey Myers.

Willy Braun, Stoney LaRue, and Randy Rogers at the 2012 Bowen Classic!

Each year Wade Bowen hosts the Bowen Classic.  The Classic is a two day event that kicks off with a fantastic day of music that creates groupings like this, followed by an amazing day of golf with fans and artists playing side be side raising money.

Wade & his wife Shelby have started their own foundation to raise money for kids in need and charitable organizations that are close to their hearts.  In the past four years the Bowen Classic has raised close to half a million dollars for charities that help children.  Wade & Shelby not only want to raise money for these types of organizations, they also want to create awareness and support for these charities and those who turn to these organizations for help, in Wade’s hometown of Waco, TX.

Check it out:  http://wadebowen.com/classic

“Under The Radar” is a regular feature on the Texas Music Scene where our official blogger, singer/songwriter/journalist Mike Ethan Messick, shines the spotlight on a deserving but lesser-known artist. Some of these subjects are just getting started and might be tomorrow’s headliner (or Texas Music Scene star); some are music veterans who’ve earned admirers around the state and around the world while taking the road less traveled. All of them well worth a look & listen, enjoy.

Some artists eventually come around to country music after a youth spent exploring their musical boundaries on louder, wilder sounds; for others, country comes so naturally to them that they can’t help but embrace their roots right from the get-go.  At only twenty years old, with a couple of years of gigs already under his belt, Will Arrington is most certainly one of those guys.  Picking up the drums at an early age, he soon switched to guitar when the influence of a relatively young legend (namely Mr. George Strait) kicked in and Arrington started honing his smooth, already-resonant voice into a suitable instrument of its own.  Moving from the DFW area to San Marcos for his education, he’s found a second education at Cheatham Street Warehouse under the approving, advising watch of Kent Finlay, who’s helped him find his way from open mikes to college-friendly weekday gigs with a full band as he works on his first full-length album.  Check out his debut EP (available on iTunes) when you get a chance, and hear a little more from the man himself below.

In your own words, describe your sound.

- I’ve definitely got the Texas country thing going, but sometimes my stuff leans a little more towards the rock side of it.

Where are you based out of?

- My home base is San Marcos for sure.

What are some of your favorite and/or most frequently played venues?

- I mainly play at Cheatham Street Warehouse.  Another favorite one is the Palace Theatre in Seguin.

Name a couple of career highlights, so far.

- I got to open, along with my buddy Brett Hauser, for Cory Morrow.  Also we scored playing on Tuesday nights at Cheatham Street Warehouse so that’s definitely been a big deal for us.

What music do you have out already, and what’s coming in the near future?

- Right now I’ve got a 5 song EP titled In a While out and a full length album titled Miles Left to Go coming out summer of 2013.

If someone’s only gonna buy one song of yours … where to start?

- I’d say “Stay with Me Tonight” off the new album Miles Left to Go because I feel it represents my songwriting and sound the best.

Name some of your main influences as a songwriter/musician.

- Definitely George Strait. I’ve listened to him since I was a baby.  My biggest influences though have been Kent Finlay and Mark David Manders. Both have shared valuable knowledge and skills, and have provided so much support towards my music.

Who have you played more song swaps or co-bill with that anyone else?

- I’ve played with Brett Hauser the most. We started playing songwriter nights together and now share the Tuesday night gigs at Cheatham Street Warehouse.

If a fan’s buying you a drink … what’ll it be?

- Water! Its free and I’m still just 20, ha ha.  Don’t want to get anyone in trouble.

Name a couple of people you’d like to publicly thank for helping you in your career.

- I’d like to thank my parents and family first. They have supported me all the way and always have my back. I’d also wanna Kent Finlay for giving me the chance to get out there and play, Mark David Manders for being a great friend and example and all of my friends out there that constantly come to shows and support what I do.

RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE: Cory Morrow, Aaron Watson, Midnight River Choir, Forest Wayne Allen

Peace,

MEM

www.mikeethanmessick.net