Tonight is FINALLY the night that Kori Free & The Groove Hounds get to lay it all on the stage and do a tribute show that is a decade in the making! Kori has been a huge Nancy Wilson/Heart fan for 10 years and is a personal friend of Nancy. In fact, Nancy gave Kori a custom built Epiphone Les Paul back in 2010 to help get Kori to the next level, and you’ll definitely see Kori playing it tonight at The Brauntex Theatre in New Braunfels so you can see how much Kori has far exceeded that next level! Kori, Steve, Tommy and Yesenia are wonderful together, and it will be a night to remember…
Show begins at 7:30, tickets at the door are only $5 at the door or you can still buy them online at brauntex.org!
In light of the passionate online response to the Dallas Observer’s “50 Best Texas Country/Red Dirt Songs of All Time”, we put modern online democracy in action and let you speak your mind. We set out to gather up your 50 “best”. Using whatever metric you decided was most appropriate. Popularity, influence, favorite, longevity, style, importance etc. You responded in a big way via Facebook, Twitter, IG, Reddit, email, carrier pigeon and smoke signal. We cobbled all of YOUR responses together and put them in popular order. The results are below. Is it perfect? No. Is it a more “legitimate” (term we used probably a little harshly) than the Observer list? Probably. But the cross section that voted in this unscientific poll still don’t represent all tastes. We could do it again next week and get a different 50. Speaks to the quality of songs over the years.
Will people still be upset? Definitely.
1. Robert Earl Keen – “The Road Goes On Forever”
2. Charlie Robison – “My Hometown”
3. Pat Green – “Carry On”
4. Cory Morrow – “Nashville Blues
5. Pat Green/Walt Wilkins – “Songs About Texas”
6. Jason Boland and the Stragglers – “Somewhere Down in Texas”
7. Cross Canadian Ragweed – “17”
8. Turnpike Troubadours – “Every Girl”
9. Ray Wylie Hubbard – “Snake Farm”
10. Jack Ingram – “Biloxi”
11. Randy Rogers Band – “This Time Around”
12. Bart Crow – “Wear My Ring”
13. Brandon Jenkins/Stoney LaRue – “Feet Don’t Touch the Ground”
14. Brandon Jenkins/ Stoney LaRue/Kristen Kelly – “Down in Flames”
15. Bleu Edmondson/Matt Powell – “$50 and a Flask of Crown”
16. Brandon Rhyder – “Freeze Frame Time”
17. Reckless Kelly – “Crazy Eddie’s Last Hurrah”
18. The Great Divide – “Yesterday Road”
19. William Clark Green – “She Likes the Beatles”
20. Wade Bowen – “God Bless This Town”
21. Robert Earl Keen – “Feelin’ Good Again”
22. Kevin Fowler – “100% Texan”
23. Ryan Bingham – “Southside of Heaven”
24. Django Walker/Pat Green – “Texas on My Mind”
25. Walt Wilkins – “Trains I Missed”
26. Hayes Carll – “Down the Road Tonight”
27. Uncle Lucius – “Keep the Wolves Away”
28. Sean McConnell – “Saint’s Heart, Sinner’s Skin”
29. Jason Eady – “AM Country Heaven”
30. Roger Creager/Mike Ethan Messick – “Everclear”
31. Eli Young Band – “Small Town Kid”
32. Whiskey Myers – “Broken Window Serenade”
33. Adam Hood/Brian Keane/Josh Abbott Band – “I’ll Sing About Mine”
34. Cooder Graw – “Llano Estacado”
35. Josh Grider – “Crazy Like You”
36. Rodney Parker and 50 Peso Reward – “Firefight”
37. Honeybrowne – “Texas Angel”
38. Shinyribs – “East Texas Rust”
39. Cody Johnson/Zane Williams – “Ride With Me”
40. Cross Canadian Ragweed – “Alabama”
41. Turnpike Troubadours – “7&7″
42. Radney Foster/Pat Green – “Texas in 1880″
43. Robert Earl Keen – “Corpus Christi Bay”
44. Aaron Watson – “Reckless”
45. Reckless Kelly – “Vancouver”
46. Johnny Cooper – “Texas To You”
47. Slaid Cleaves -“Horseshoe Lounge”
48. Owen Temple – “Tennessee Highway”
49. Mike McClure – “Dings”
50. Max Stalling – “Green Lights”
Just barely missing this cut were songs from The Damn Quails, Dirty River Boys, Phil Pritchett, Deryl Dodd, Gary P. Nunn, 1100 Springs and several others. There was a dearth of female artists included too.
Anytime a “best of” list is compiled, there will be much criticism. Today the Dallas Observerpublished a list we termed “interesting” on social media. Interesting due to some glaring omissions and strange inclusions. An extremely impassioned response broke out on our Facebook page decrying the list. This motivated us to undergo a remix.
So…we’d love to hear your top 5 (not 50 unless you feel inclined) best Texas/Red Dirt songs “of all time” using whatever metric you determine. We’ll compile the results of this informal poll into what is hopefully a more legitimate representation of “best”. Hit us with your TAKES below!… Keep Reading
2015 has already gotten off to a busy start for words that end in -late. Deflate. And, now conflate. Deflate was brought to the national consciousness via the New England Patriots alleged football tampering during the NFL Playoffs. Conflate has arrived on the back of a Chinook helicopter piloted by Brian Williams…or something to that effect. Webster defines conflate as follows, “combining two things (ideas, stories, etc) into one”. I was recently confronted by a message board post someone sent me that criticized Texas Country music as being just as bad as mainstream bro-country by saying:
“Texas country is just as bad, it’s the same thing that the labels put out to teens with boy bands and girly pop. What is happening is that awesome parties, nights at the bar, or having a great time at concerts is distorting your view of the music being played. I understand. It’s Pavlov’s theory of conditioning. You are equating a drunken good time in the company of good looking girls with good music, and that’s not the case.”
While I don’t necessarily wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment, I feel as though there is definitely some merit there. There’s nothing wrong with a good time. In fact, it’s an essential life element to enjoying a well-balanced existence. However, there is something wrong if that’s all you’re doing. And, music that is only about the party is destined to have a short shelf-life. That’s why I enjoy both types of shows. That’s why Greenfest has … Keep Reading
Currently, there is not a better show than American Aquarium at the Magnolia Motor Lounge in Ft. Worth. Will they outgrow the venue? No doubt. Last Saturday night they set the attendance record for the place – packing almost 500 people into a 300 person capacity room. Last year when they played the Magnolia, it seemed just as crowded as Saturday night. But the Magnolia has been fans of theirs for a long time – last show, B.J. paid homage to the owners, telling the crowd that the first time they played there, they played to a crowd of about 10 people, but the Magnolia believed in them and kept having them back.
The Magnolia got the return on their investment Saturday. Jonny Burke opened the show to the capacity crowd and most gathered around the stage to hear him sing. He pulled songs from his CD Cup Runneth Over and his self-titled EP. Jonny seems to be everywhere all of the sudden, opening up for Cody Canada, Jason Boland, Turnpike, and others. It will not be too long until he’s the one headlining packed houses.
Next up the USAq guys took the stage. About two songs in, B.J. told the crowd that it was going to be a long night if they keep singing every word back to the band, and a long night it was. There is nothing better than when a crowd, a venue, and a band all fit together perfectly for one night of great music. … Keep Reading
Tonight is FINALLY the night that Kori Free & The Groove Hounds get to lay it all on the stage and do a tribute show that is a decade in the making! Kori has been a huge Nancy Wilson/Heart fan for 10 years and is a personal friend of Nancy. In fact, Nancy gave Kori a custom built Epiphone Les Paul back in 2010 to help get Kori to the next level, and you’ll definitely see Kori playing it tonight at The Brauntex Theatre in New Braunfels so you can see how much Kori has far exceeded that next level! Kori, Steve, Tommy and Yesenia are wonderful together, and it will be a night to remember…