Feb. `15 - Texas Music Magazine

A Grammy First for Miranda
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Reckless Kelly
Clardy. “Right here.” So enjoy this Big Nacthemed E-Zine, which includes an interview
with Clardy. And consider coming out to the
festival. We think you’ll like the music, and we
know you’ll love the town.
extra
Nacogdoches Readies Itself for
Inaugural Big Nac Music Fest
“The Oldest Town in Texas” is completing preparations for the first Big Nac Music Festival,
hosted by Texas Music, to be held March 5-8.
Set among the
rolling hills and
towering pine
trees of East
Texas, Nacogdoches has a
beautifully preserved historic
downtown area
and a strong
musical tradition that’s long
been a destination for music
fans from Texas
Joe Ely
and Louisiana.
Emily Bell
And in just a few weeks, more than 40 bands,
including Joe Ely, Reckless Kelly and Shinyribs
— as well as noteworthy local artists like Kasey
Lansdale, Steve Hartz, Maddison Livingston
and the Mellows — will kick off the festival season with a celebration of music and East Texas
hospitality. The music, which will cover multiple genres — country, rock, blues, Tejano, and
bluegrass — will be hosted by four venues all
within walking distance of each other, and all
located within the city limits. In addition, attendees will be able to enjoy a number of activities outside of music in the surrounding area,
and there will be free day shows and children’s
activities throughout the weekend. Additional
performers include Jack Ingram, Shelley King,
Soul Track Mind, Guy Forsyth, Matt the Electrician, Wood & Wire, BettySoo, Crooks and El
Tule. “You know, I think Texas music really did
start here,” says Texas representative Travis
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Miranda Lambert has been riding high since
she won a Grammy for her 2014 album,
Platinum — her first Grammy album win — at
the 57th annual awards in Los Angeles Feb.
8. But that doesn’t mean the singer didn’t
have a few reservations when she first
heard about the nomination. Apparently the
Longview native felt a little intimidated by
her fellow nominees, as well as “sad” that
she was competing
with such talented
artists,
including
fellow Texan Lee
Ann Womack. “I was
pretty
shocked,”
Lambert says. “I
was kinda sad when
I saw the category,
‘cause I was like,
‘Mmm, it’s pretty
tough.’ You know?
There are some
amazing
albums
in that category,
Lambert with Blake Shelton
and I’m a fan of
all of them.” Lambert was the only artist to
be nominated in all five country categories
this year, scoring just the one win. “I’m so
thankful for this,” declared the singer during
her
acceptance
speech. “I poured
my heart and soul
into this record.”
Platinum earned
Lambert
her
second Grammy,
having won Best
Female Country
Performance for
the The House
That Built Me in
2011. Meanwhile
the
singer’s
Certified Platinum
Tour kicked off in
Lee Ann Womack
January.
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Willie’s Lifelong Tale
Willie Nelson’s memoir, It’s a Long Story: My
Life, is due out May 5 via Little, Brown and
Company. The
book finds Nelson and collaborator David
Ritz telling the
story of the
musician’s six
decades in the
music
industry,
including
100 albums, 10
Grammys, the
Kennedy Center Honors and
the
Country
Music Hall of
Fame induction.
Also covered in
the book is Nelson’s high-profile activism for
the legalization of marijuana and hemp, the
founding of a groundbreaking philanthropic
organization and stories from his personal
life. Ritz has previously collaborated with the
likes of Buddy Guy for a biography, which won
ASCAP’s 2013 Timothy White award for outstanding musical biography.
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Big Nac’s Local Flavor
While plenty of Texas acts are traveling to
Nacogdoches for the festival, several local
acts complement the varied lineup. Here are
four to keep in mind.
Kasey Lansdale, a Nacogdoches
native, released her debut album, Restless, in 2013. Produced by Grammy winner
John Carter Cash — son of Johnny Cash —
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the 11-song album showcased
Lansdale’s
smoky
Tanya
Tu cke r - esq u e
twang and demonstrated her
writing chops
in seven selfpenned songs.
(This is someone who, at age
8, wrote her first short story,
which was published by Random
House.) Her music has also been
featured in films, including Cold
in July (starring Michael C. Hall
from Showtime’s Dexter) and
Christmas with the Dead, where
she made her big-screen debut,
portraying the protagonist’s
wife. Since playing her first gig
at Banita Creek Hall in Nacogdoches at age 18, Lansdale has
gone on to perform at events
and festivals such as SXSW and
the Halogaland Music Festival in
Norway.
Since 1977, Steve Hartz
has been building, repairing and
playing stringed instruments at
the General Mercantile and Oldtime String Shop on the square in
downtown Nacogdoches. Hartz
has always loved and collected
musical styles, ideas and stories
reflecting earlier times. As a result, in 1998 he started his own
recording company and received
a Crossroads music award for
his first CD, Crooked Steep and
Rocky. This was followed by two
East Texas-inspired book and CD
projects, By the Muddy Angelina and Settlers of the Western
Woods. His songs have been featured as title cuts on four different projects, including Dave Pe-
terson’s Howling Blue Winds and Southern
Rail’s Glory Train, which was nominated for
the International Bluegrass Music Association’s gospel album of the year in 1996. In
addition to performing
his old-timey original music, Hartz and his wife,
Sheryl, have also put on
medicine shows and historical re-enactment programs from East Texas to
far West Texas.
The Mellows are an up-and-coming
jazz-rock group with mild blues overtones.
Drawing influence from contemporary artists like John Mayer, Dave Matthews and
Eric Johnson, the band’s first all-original EP,
The Devil On My Shoulder, is now available
digitally at Bandcamp online.
And from an area known more for
Red Dirt country, Hail to the Thief is a pow-
er rock trio. Formed in 2013, the members
have become known throughout East Texas
for their high-energy live shows, dominant
stage presence and distinctive songwriting.
Drawing from their hard rock, psychedelic,
funk and blues roots, this ensemble combines elements of heavy guitar work, thick
bass lines and pounding drums laid over
warm melodies and lyrics that touch upon
the essence of human consciousness.
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Big Nac: The Venues
Four distinctive Main Street venues will
host the Big Nac Music Festival. Because of
the compact nature of the festival, all four
venues are withing walking distance of each
other, allowing visitors to enjoy any number
of artists while taking in the sights and
sounds of East Texas.
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Banita Creek
Hall (401 West
Main Street)
has featured
countless Texas artists over
the years. For
Big Nac, the
venue will host
an impressive array of performers, from headliner Joe Ely to
native Kasey Lansdale. Also
performing at the Main Street
venue will be Joe Ingram, Reckless Kelly, Crooks, Micky and the
Motorcars, Tyler & the Tribe, and
Mike and the Moonpies.
Adjacent to Banita Creek
is The Mill Room (also at 401
West Main Street), which will
host Guy Forsyth Blues, El Tule,
the Chubby Knuckle Choir, and
Henry + the Invisibles.
The Liberty Bell (422 East
Main Street) has been described
as downtown’s living room — a
gathering place, a grab-a-quickbite or hang-out-with-friends
all-night venue. One critic
seemed to get it right when he
wrote, “The wine selection and
specialty menu are matched by
the welcoming atmosphere; we
half-expected someone to shout
out ‘Norm!’ when we entered off
the paved brick street.” Live music is provided every weekend
and some weeknights, and the
Brick Wall Gallery
features artwork
from local artists. Big Nac artists
performing here
include
Shelley
King, BettySoo,
Whiskey Shivers,
Milkdrive, the Anthony Da Costa
Trio, Matt the
Electrician, Sheila
Marshall and High
Plains Jamboree.
Boasting
cinnamon rolls as big
as Texas, a bloody
Mary bar, and
pitcher mimosas,
brunch at The Liberty Bell is a must. Located on the brick streets, Mast
Hall (317 East Main Street) was built in 1908
as Cason Monk, Monk & Company Store.
During Big Nac, the newly renovated venue
will host Emily Bell, Soul Track Mind, Wood
& Wire, Bellfuries, Somebody’s Darling, Sour
Bridges, and the Brett Hendrix Band.
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FEBRUARY
new releases
20–22
Texas Yoga Conference & Music Festival
ISKCON Houston
Houston
www.texasyogaconference.com
22–3/1
Charro Days Fiesta
Downtown Brownsville
www.charrodaysfiesta.com
27–28
Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Sul Ross State University
Alpine
www.texascowboypoetry.com
MA R C H
3–22
Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo
The original Flatlander, Jimmie
Dale Gilmore, brings his unique
brand of Americana to Denton.
35 Denton
March 13-15 • Downtown Denton
www.35denton.com
The fifth-annual 35 Denton Festival returns after taking a year off.
The walkable three-day music fest takes place in the burgeoning arts
corridor of Denton the week before SXSW in Austin, and this year
features native Texan Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who’ll not only perform
but will be honored with a cover version of his “Another Colorado” —
as part of the return of the 35 Denton Cover Series — by Brent Best,
Hillary “Hank” Early, Petra Kelly and Scott Danbom. Other Texas acts
performing at the festival include Slobberbone, Telegraph Canyon, Carl
Finch, Ten Hands, Danny Diamonds, Curvette, voltREvolt, Brutal Juice,
Troller, Sol Kitchen, Unmarked Graves, Dim Locator, Ssleeperhold, the
Days, AV the Great, Black James Franco, Clint Niosi, Cozy Hawks, Doug
Burr, Holler Time, Isaac Hoskins, Jazz Mills, Kody Jackson, Little Jack
Melody, Mind Spiders, Mike Coats, Monk Parker, Radioactivity, Sabra
Laval, and Warren Jackson Hearne & Le Leek Electrique. The festival’s
headliner this year is the Zombies, the British ‘60s pop band.
Reliant Park
Houston
www.hlsr.com
5–8
Big Nac Music Festival
Various venues
Nacogdoches, TX
www.bignac.com
20
Texas Music Reader Appreciation Party
Jan 13
Jan 20
Jan 20
Feb 10
Cody Canada & the Departed
Ryan Bingham
Haley Cole
Tessy Lou and
the Shotgun Stars
Lonesome Heroes
Gurf Morlix
Smokin’ Joe Kubek
& Bnois King
Bob Schneider
Feb 10
Robert Earl Keen
Feb 10
Feb 17
Feb 17
Feb 17
Feb 17
Feb 24
Feb 24
Feb 24
Feb 24
The March Divide
Aaron Watson
Steve Earle & the Dukes
Blue Water Highway Band
Glen Campbell
Parker McCollum
Hill Country Gentlemen
Mayeux & Broussard
Quiet Company
Feb 24
The American Spirit
Feb 25
Mar 3
Mar 3
Mar 10
Mar 17
James McMurtry
Kelly Clarkson
Ryan Culwell
Joe Pug
Cyrus James
Mar 31
Glen Campbell
Apr 7
Folk Family Revival
Jan 22
Jan 27
Feb 3
Feb 3
Scholz Garten
Austin
www.txmusic.com
26–28
Head for the Hills
Quiet Valley Ranch
Kerrville, TX
www.headforthehillsfest.com
HippieLovePunk
Fear and Saturday Night
Illusions
Underground
Thirty Tigers
S/R
Somewhere in Texas
S/R
Can’t Stand Still
Eatin’ At Me
S/R
Rootball
Fat Man’s Shine Parlor
Blind Pig
King Kong EP
Happy Prisoner: The
Bluegrass Sessions
+1
The Underdog
Terraplane
Things We Carry
I’ll Be Me Soundtrack
The Limestone Kind
Don’t Belong Here
High Times & Good Rhymes
Transgressor
Season of Violence or
Mourning, Protest, and the
Birth of Bishop Kilborne
Complicated Game
Piece By Piece
Flatlands
Windfall
Dreamers of the Day
Rhinestone Cowboy: 40th
Anniversary Edition
Water Walker
Shockorama
Dualtone
S/R
Big Label
New West
S/R
Big Machine
S/R
S/R
S/R
Modern Outsider
S/R
Complicated Game
RCA
Lightning Rod
Lightning Rod
Wandering
UMe
S/R
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BettySoo
Joe Ely
Shinyribs
Soul Track Mind
Self-Released
Rack ‘Em
Nine Mile
Self-Released
Big Nac Artist:
As the lonesome
opening
drum
beats of “Listen”
b l o s s o m
into
pulsing
staccato strings
and
ghostly
syncopated
breaths,
it
becomes clear
that BettySoo’s crystalline soprano is a voice
that demands to be heard. It’s hard not to
trust her intuition as she plunges headfirst
into heavy subject matter, both sweetly
and mercilessly — sharing the intimate
stories that hide in packed suitcases and
beneath cluttered floorboards, from her
own struggles with depression to witnessing
friends’ addictions and crumbling marriages.
“100 Different Ways of Being Alone” offers
a grocery list of outcasts like “the brother
who never writes anymore,” examining the
myriad ways life inevitably disappoints us
— atop deceptively upbeat oohs and layers
of cello. The bouncy but oddly dissonant
“Summertime” offers a different take
on the carefree season, hinting at the
“crimson mess” of a relationship disguised
by crumpled clothing and “legs browned
beneath the hem of a salt stiff cotton dress.”
BettySoo has a fondness for cataloguing tiny
details and imbuing them with new meaning,
as in “Nothing Heals a Broken Heart,” which
recalls heartbreaking memories of a lost
child: red backpacks, crayons and glue,
yellow-and-lime-colored bedroom walls. Her
sound is pure and authentic, even amidst an
album permeated by loneliness and loss.
Big Nac Artist:
Ely has long been
an early cyberadopter — one of
the first musicians
to make active
use of a website
and, as a visual
artist, one who’s
consistently
m e d i a t e d
between the machine and the human heart.
But nowhere was he more ahead of his time
than within this music of three decades
ago, when the computer was considered
anathema to “authenticity,” particularly
in the realms of progressive country. Such
context proves crucial to an appreciation of
B484, which sounds so curious and yet so
fresh, even daring, all these years later. It’s
the album Ely had wanted to release instead
of Hi-Res, a more conventional session
that came to be seen as an unfortunate
detour. Ely has long maintained that this
computer-driven recording was better than
the released album, and he’s right, even if
“Ride a Motorcycle” sounds like the wideopen-spaces companion to Men Without
Hats’ “Safety Dance,” and the drums and
squiggles he coaxed from his early Apple II
recall the glory days of the Human League.
The difference is that Ely had real songs …
and real heat. The biggest revelation here
is “My Baby Thinks She’s French,” with
cosmopolitan keyboard atmospherics that
give the arrangement a totally different
feel than it has as a staple in his band’s live
performance. For Ely fans this release is
essential listening — a long-missing piece of
the puzzle. — DON MCLEESE
Big Nac Artist:
One of Austin’s
true musical juju
men after two
decades with the
Gourds,
when
Kevin
Russell
steps
outside
his regular gig
into his Shinyribs
p e r s o n a ,
moonlight magic happens. On his second
Shinyribs recording the mercurial Russell
drops nine tracks that zigzag from funky
roots rock to soulful, quiet folk plaint with a
no-big-deal aplomb. Opener “Sweeter Than
The Scars” starts with a jaunty Levon Helmish lope before transitioning into manic
music for some ancient rite of passage.
Bluesy anthems like “Take Me Lake Charles”
and quiet lyrical masterpieces like “Limpia
Hotel (Chihuahua Desert),” a meandering
love song to West Texas, are all part of the
Shinyribs landscape. His heart-bursting
late-night reflection “Somebody Else” and a
minimalist cover of “If You Don’t Know Me
By Now” both put a catch in the throat, a
tear in the eye. His Texas-as-a-mesquite-tree
rock is cat-burglar sneaky and slightly outof-body while roaming forays into soul find
an inner Sam Cooke jolting through Russell
and coming out like an East Texas hillbilly
holy roller who talks in tongues. And with its
slow-burn crescendo, the closing measures
of crowd pleaser “Sweet Potato” sound like
a Muscle Shoals session an hour after the
acid kicks in.
Big Nac Artist:
Austin
sevenpiece Soul Track
Mind
manages
to capture the
irrepressible
energy of its
much-beloved
live shows on
this
satisfying
throwback
to
titans of soul Otis Redding, James Brown
and Sam Cooke. Where Ghost of Soul
was a more leisurely and experimental
debut effort, Soul Track Mind packs a
punch, with pristine production, intricate
instrumentation and high-speed horn solos,
all the while showcasing frontman Donovan
Keith’s impressive vocal range. Keith croons
in confident falsetto about everything
from late-night pick-up lines (“Take You
Home”) and ladies out of his league (“Long
Shot Lady”) to patience (“Always Want
(What You Can’t Have)”) and perseverance
(“Comes and Goes Around”) in a style that
sounds equally Motown and modern. “Got
My Song” is an optimistic ode to the healing
powers of music, while show-stopping closer
“Goodnight” features the catchiest chorus
on the record, accentuated by vocal and
horn harmonies. But the stand-out track is
the poignant ballad “Remember Me,” sure to
convert even the most stubborn of souls as it
builds from simple piano lines to a whirlwind
of soaring saxophone, drums and trumpet,
Keith belting earnestly, “Didn’t I, didn’t I,
didn’t I make you proud of me? / Didn’t I,
didn’t I, didn’t I make you believe?”
When We’re Gone
— ALLIE EISSLER
B484
Gulf Coast Museum
— WILLIAM MICHAEL SMITH
Soul Track Mind
— ALLIE EISSLER
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discuss the festival, music education and the
rich history the area has to offer festivalgoers.
When Representative Travis Clardy speaks
about the roots and history of Nacogdoches,
he does so with an understandable passion.
The second-term representative for District
11 — which covers Nacogdoches, Rusk and
Cherokee counties — holds a certain reverence
for “The Oldest Town in Texas” and the music
scene that emanates from it. Clardy grew up in Lubbock, attended
college in Abilene and opened a successful
Dallas-area law firm — all before eventually
moving to Nacogdoches in 1992. He fell in love
with the area, because, as he puts it, he fell in
love with his wife from nearby Tyler. He briefly
lived in Center, Texas, before finally settling in
Nacogdoches. “I’m like Goldilocks,” he laughs.
“Dallas was too big and Center was too small,
but Nacogdoches was just right.” Clardy quickly absorbed the rich
history of the area, including its cultural
heritage and musical background. He won the
right to represent Nacogdoches and the rest
of District 11 in 2012, eventually securing his
second term in 2014 with 84 percent of the
vote. In advance of the Big Nac Music Festival
in March, he sat down with Texas Music to
What makes Nacogdoches special?
It’s as unique as it sounds. It’s a town of
characters and a town of character. Really,
there’s not a greater melting pot in the
U.S. than this region of Texas. You go back
hundreds of years and see the combinations
of cultures, languages, races and civilizations
— the Caddo Indians, the French traders, the
Spanish missions, the African American slave
population, the Anglo-Celtic settlers and now
the growing Hispanic population. There’s
a large influx of people from Burma as well.
And they all come together in a small town in
East Texas, and the experiment is working. We
live peacefully and successfully and share the
richness and diversity of each other’s ethnic
tapestry.
Many people know it’s the oldest town in
Texas — but you believe it may also be the
birthplace of Texas music.
We’ve always had a tremendous respect for
music in Nacogdoches. People like Paul Buskirk
and Bob Luman, who were members of the
Grand Ole Opry, are from here. And Texas has
always been diverse and productive — I happen
to think it’s because Texans are more talented
and creative than most other people on the
planet. [Laughs] So with Nacogdoches being
the origin of Texas, that seed has grown and
manifested throughout the state, from jazz
to Tejano to rap. There’s not a genre of music
that isn’t well-represented.
So music has always been a part of
Nacogdoches.
We had Western civilization in Texas 100 years
before the Mayflower landed. People forget
that. But during the Western Migration, they
didn’t load it up in a moving van or ship it UPS
oldest town in Texas, we stay pretty young.
How would you rate Texas’ handling of music
education?
We’ve seen cuts in programs. Sometimes the
arts suffer first as somehow being deemed as
extracurricular or things that aren’t absolutely
necessary. And that’s less than satisfactory.
— they carried what they could carry. They
brought with them things that made them feel
at home — their homemade instruments. It
became part of their culture. Texas is also a
melting pot of different creeds and religions,
and music is an important part of religion. In
many musical genres, there are roots in the
religious music of the people of the time. And
while they had the Sunday morning church
service, there was also the Saturday evening
dance. All of that fed together to provide
that cultural thing we as humans need, that
interaction through music.
Having Stephen F. Austin University helps.
Certainly — it contributes to the vibrancy of
music in the area. And I think the appreciation
of music and musical talent goes hand in hand
with education. It develops over time. Our
forefathers always appreciated and valued
higher education. The first university building
in the state is the old university building in
downtown Texas. When our founding fathers
said they wanted a university, they were saying
they didn’t just want to be a smokestack city.
They wanted to be about education and other
services. We’re a farming and agricultural
community, but education is a big part of
what Nacogdoches is about. And every year
thousands of fresh faces and ideas come to
the area. It keeps the town young; for the
But you see music as important to the fabric
of Texas culture.
Music is an important part of life. There’s a
reason we have radios in our car. Life without
music would be drab, and I can’t imagine life
without it. And when it comes to education,
there’s clearly a connection between things
like math and music. Music classes also make
the environment more fun for the student who
can then focus on other school studies. And I
can imagine that any Texas musician worth his
or her salt was at some time a member of the
orchestra or marching band or choir or some
ensemble. The next Van Cliburn is on the
ground. So is the next Madonna and the next
50 Cent, for that matter — and maybe even
the next Buddy Holly. We’re in a competitive
world of tax dollars, but it’s important that we
provide that opportunity.
Did you play music going through school?
[Laughs] I was always better at sports and
politics. I can barely strum a chord, but
my family is musical. My boys are good
songwriters and singers. One of them plays
guitar and the other keyboard, and my ponytailed bohemian brother plays the cello in
Lubbock. The other is an amazing harmonica
player. I get a thrill just watching talented
performers. It’s amazing to appreciate when a
fellow member of the species does something
remarkable in their field, whether it’s music
or education or athletics. It’s important to
recognize excellence and provide that outlet
and opportunity. — JEREMY BURCHARD