Dallas in the Midwest

Even as a music blogger, believe it or not, I am not a very huge fan of technology. I still have a flip phone, I don’t own a Nook or Kindle, and I, obviously, listen to vinyl. You will not hear/see me defending technology very often, so what I’m about to do is a rare occurrence: I’d like to partially thank Twitter for the experience I’m about to describe. Why would I do such a thing? Because about four hours before the show started, I read a tweet from the Howlin’ Brothers that stated that the Howlin Brothers would be

Only one day after witnessing another honky tonk “Jason,” (Boland) in Saint Louis, I traveled three hours down Interstate 44 to see Jason Eady rock the house at Cartoon’s in Springfield, MO. Eady’s fiancé, Courtney Patton, opened the show. Backed by Eady’s standup bass and pedal steel players, Patton delivered a set full of quiet, deep, and beautiful country songs. Patton gently strummed her acoustic guitar while her soulful vocals filled the room with the high and lonesome country sound that has become all too rare in the new millennium. Reminiscent of one of my favorite current artists, Holly Williams,

A near sold out crowd greeted Jason Boland & The Stragglers and openers Thieving Birds on an icy Friday night in Saint Louis. The house was packed, the beer line was long, and the cowboy hats were at a record high for downtown STL. Touring off of their relatively newly released album Gold Coast, Thieving Birds opened the show with their pure brand of Southern rock ‘n’ roll. With only four members, they create a big sound that’s quite reminiscent of Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band that Thieving Birds paid homage to with an especially soulful version of “Green River.”

I tend to judge live performances pretty harshly. If an artist meets my expectations, they get a C. The only way for an artist to get a solid review from me is to exceed my expectations. On Friday night, Adam Hood did just that at Grady’s 66 Pub in Yukon, Oklahoma. It was my first time seeing Adam Hood, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Hood is a prolific country songwriter in the Texas/Red-Dirt scene, but his own albums tend to rely heavily on his soulful vocal delivery. After seeing him live Friday night, the best way to