Galleywinter

We’re relaunching our “What I’m Diggin’ ” feature with Randy Rogers.  These posts are a quick glimpse into what is inspiring a particular artist at a specific moment.

Randy Rogers-January 2012

Here’s a peak at what I’m diggin’ right now.  The top five most played songs on my iPod at this very moment are:

Turnpike Troubadours-”Whole Damn Town”
Ryan Adams-”I Love You, But I Don’t Know What To Say”
Willie Nelson-”Me and Paul”
Head and the Heart-”Down in the Valley”
Jason Isbell-”Go It Alone”

What are you diggin’?

Wade Bowen is ramping up a big publicity push for his upcoming album and current single, “Saturday Night”.  Here’s a pretty cool behind the scenes video from behind the scenes at the album cover’s photoshoot.

Texas. A word that means everything to many and confuses the heck out of plenty more. For some it’s spurs, chaps and prancing ponies . For others, it’s a state of mind, heart, home and pride.

One thing is for sure, no matter how you define Texas it means something to everyone.

In the world of Lone Star state tunes you can’t say Texas without “Fort Worth crossing your mind” or thinking about where all your exes reside. It means many different things to each song writer and defining Texas has even flowed from musical media to TV shows all about the red, white and blue flagged republic.

Some of us watched eyes and mouths agape as Hannah and Anna went all UFC on each other in The Reata bar and Ali Dee pedaled her song on Texas Women last spring.

… Keep Reading

Recording a live album from the stage of the fabled Billy Bob’s stage has long been a benchmark of success in Texas Music.  Josh Grider’s entry into the honky-tonk’s venerable record books is unique in that he was awarded the chance through fan voting.  Grider won the first ever Live at Billy Bob’s contest in an overwhelming fashion.  He was one of the few nominated acts that had the chops and song catalog to pull off such an intimidating and important career step in a believable way.

Coming seven years after his first studio release, the Live at Billy Bob’s experience finds Grider commanding the stage with ease, professionalism and an unbridled enthusiasm that is infectious.

Over the past couple years, Grider has performed exclusively solo acoustic or in a duo format with his wife, Kristi.  In their heydays, the Josh Grider Band and the Josh Grider Trio were some of the most technically impressive and proficient groups treading Texas highways; often segueing from an original Grider tune into Charlie Daniels Band followed by Pink Floyd or The Police only to return to the original tune before the audience ever knew what hit them.

It was an experience that had to be seen to be truly appreciated and sadly YouTube doesn’t hold many slices of this modern Texas Music history in its coffers.  Grider knew that he wanted to recreate some of that for his Billy Bob’s record and set about putting the pieces together to make it happen.

Tasked … Keep Reading

Roger Creager made a name for himself by making great, straightforward country music with just enough edge to set himself apart from the pack.  His energetic live shows quickly catapulted him to the top of the Texas region.  His first two records, Having Fun All Wrong and I Got the Guns were impressive pieces of songwriting which almost instantly became Texas classics.  A dozen years after that initial creative splash, Creager is back with his newest release Surrender.  This album finds him at his finest, raw emotion soaked in sawdust and beer all backed by music that makes you want to tap your toe.

“Turn It Up” is the type of song that should easily find a home at radio.  It doesn’t pander to its audience like so much of modern country music does.  The song is a fresh take on a tried and true formula…the band on the road theme.  Creager has seen enough miles and stages in his career to make this song believable whereas in less experienced hands it would seem trite.  “Dead Love” finds Creager treading the male side of a Miranda Lambert style breakup.  Creager’s always had a knack for solid melodies and when paired with his patented vocal affectations,  “For You I Do” is Creager at his best.

The title track is a steel guitar driven slow burn of a man coming to terms with love, life and more.  It is admirable that after doing this for so long Creager is able to … Keep Reading