LIVE TEXAS MUSIC

Cody Hughes Davidson Band is Hanging It UP

2010-08-31T10:36:00.001-05:00

The band I have been blessed to play with for the last 2 years has decided to take a break from the stage. Cody and his wife have recently had their first child and he wants to make sure not to miss a moment with his new son. I do not and can not blame him for putting his priorities and heart at home with his new family and wish him the best. It was a wonderful 2 years and I had a great time meeting so many new people and playing all around this great state. There's talk to possibly still record our second album since we have more than enough songs written to share, but that's yet to be confirmed. I'll still be posting my random stories here as I go along enjoying the music and surrounding scene. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy a few free weekends off and start getting my ear to the ground for any other local bands looking for a harmonica mandolin guy.

RELISTENING

2010-08-10T21:57:00.003-05:00

I was clicking around on our myspace checking future road dates and came across a song I forgot I recorded with Cody. We wrote it, slapped it together in the living room, and finished recording after a couple of takes. At the time I thought it was fun and didn't really pay much attention to it since it was so thrown together. Looking back I'm happy we did it and need to get back in the rhythm of jamming with Cody acoustic to hear the core of things. Not too shabby after forgetting about it for a year. Click on the thing below and it should take you to our myspace where you can click on "Paperweight" for a listen.

Paperweight (iPhone Sessions) by Cody Hughes Davidson

Speaking of acoustic duo fun, Cody and I are playing acoustic at the Casa Del Sol in Midland this weekend. Some bigger shows coming up the next few weekends so it should be fun to get some non full band perspective. Hope to see ya'll along the way.

Dottie Hill Music Fest Sat. August, 7'th Midland,TX

2010-08-06T17:53:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the late heads up but it has been a busy week for me. Apologies all around nonetheless. Tomorrow is a great concert event celebrating the life of Dottie Hill and raising money for the American Cancer Society. This is the 5'th annual festival and will not disappoint. There is a chili cook off all day, a silent auction in the early evening, and of course great live music all night long. Starting things off is an acoustic song swap of some up and coming local talent, Next will be Jackson Lee Brooks Band kicking things off full band. Cody Hughes Davidson Band, that's us, takes the stage at 9(?), followed by the talented Emory Quinn. Capping off the rest of the evening is the always crazy life show from Mike McClure's Band. Come early and stay happy. I hope to see everyone out there.

($15 at the door 21 and up at The Hog Pit Midland, TX. Specific info on the Dottie Hill Music Fest Facebook page. All proceeds to the American Cancer Society)

SHORT AND SWEET CAUSE I'M IN NO MOOD...

2010-07-27T09:11:00.002-05:00

We'll be playing this Saturday in San Angelo at one of our favorite bars, Blaine's Pub. Every trip there is a story and a half, and I'm sure this one won't be any different.

To fill in for lead guitar we have a special guest tagging along, Zach Huckabee. If you haven't heard of him go Google him up and take a listen to his music. Recently Zach has turned down another path from his previous work and released a Christian album. I think Cody explained it best when he said Zach's new album is , "what Ryan Adams would write if he wanted to do Christian music." needless to say it is very good and not over the top. That's it, like I said I'm not in the mood today. Have a good week folks and I hope to see a face or two in San Angelo.

The Ranch Rumors

2010-07-13T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well I'm an idiot, because I could have just visited their Facebook page to get a few things cleared up about The Ranch closing down. Poor journalistic due diligence on my behalf, but hey, I'm not a journalist. Any ways The Ranch posted this on their Facebook site and I apologize for leading people into the gossip mill,

The Ranch To our customers and friends .... The Ranch
is temporarily closed for remodeling and will reopen very soon! Stand
by -- we'll be better than ever! In the meantime, we would like to
address some (expected and unexpected) rumors. Hopefully this will
answer all your questions. SPECIAL ATTENTION to all of our local NEW...S
stations: I'll pause a second so you can all start taking notes ....
ready? GO ....

38 people like this.

The Ranch

‎1. The Ranch was NOT shut down by the TABC.
2. The Ranch did NOT cause the Nashville flood.
3. The Ranch is NOT owned by a bank.
4. The Ranch is NOT reopening as a gay bar.
5. The Ranch did NOT kick Lady Gaga out of the Yankee clubhouse while wearing no pants.... See More
6. The Ranch was NOT shut down by the Comptroller.
7. The Ranch did NOT cause the BP oil spill.
8. The Ranch has NOT surrendered it's liquor license.
9. The Ranch is NOT responsible for global warming.
10. The Ranch was NOT shut down by the IRS.

June 22 at 11:13pm ·

The Ranch

To all of you who have been supportive and kind, we thank you -- you mean a great deal to us and your kindness will not be forgotten. To all of you who were so anxious to start rumors and feed nasty gossip ..... karma. It's amazing how unkind some people can be to each other. Times like these are when people really show you who they are.

Well at least they have a sense of humor about things. So they didn't lose their liquor license, and weren't shut down by TABC, or a comptroller, or the bank. They didn't address the Graham's buy out whisper, but from the looks of things I think all the rumors were just that, Rumors. Hopefully their doors will be swinging back open soon enough.

Here Comes The Dottie Hill Musicfest & The Ranch Is Gone For Good?

2010-07-12T16:39:00.000-05:00

First off, I just wanted to get everyone's radar going for the upcoming concert August 7'th at The Hog Pit in Midland, Tx. It is The Dottie Hill Music Festival and this year will be featuring The Jackson Lee Brooks Band, Emory Quinn, Mike McClure, and ourselves. (not necessarily in that order) It should be a wild show with possible surprise guest appearances and plenty of beer to get you out on the dance floor.

I know I'm late to the party on this bit of Midland gossip, but I thought I would address the rumor mill surrounding The Ranch closing their doors for "remodeling". There are various stories milling about and I thought I would just share what I have heard. You can choose for yourself what to believe or just mash them all together to make a brand new bit of gossip. Backtracking a bit for those of you from outside our goldfish bowl, The Ranch in Midland, TX is/was a bar that catered to the Texas Country scene and had a healthy traffic of the leading bands across its stage. One thing that made them such an appealing venue for the area was that they were one of the only places in Midland/Odessa big enough for the larger bands to come through while also being 18 and up instead of the staunch 21 and up at most other places. This let the fanatical fans who couldn't drink yet, stampede into the place with their black X'ed hands and fill the front of stage while buying every bit of merch the band had to offer. Anywho, one day The Ranch had a sign on its marquee "closed for remodeling" it was not planned as far as anyone knew and it seemed rather strange.

One story is that the owners hadn't been filing the correct taxes for the place, got audited, fined, and then TABC jumped in and revoked their licensure to serve alcohol. (this one sounds the most plausible) Once that gossip was established there was a buzz that the Graham brothers were buying the place from the previous owners since the cost to reopen after paying the fines and regaining the licenses was too much of a financial burden. Seems to make sense considering Graham's is the only other competition in the area for their type of establishment. Someone had even said it will be renamed "Diamonds and Denim" and I have no idea how to feel about that. I'm not a big fan of Graham's (for those outside the know, these are large bars with different themed rooms attempting to cater to the whole demographic of the town instead of one type of club country, ghetto, dance, karaoke, etc) only because of the mash up of so many different groups of people in those places always, from my experience, end badly. If they keep The Ranch or whatever it is they'll rename it to under the same format as before I'm sure it won't be too rough of a transition. But then again this is all hearsay.

A smaller whisper for their reason for closing was the place just went broke, and that I can't quite believe. We played there a few weeks ago for the Ranch Jam and they seemed to be doing just fine with headcount and door charges. Of course, you never know how the money is being handled and if in fact it's being funneled back to the right parts of the business. Still I doubt it....

Finally yet another reason I heard floating around was that it was because of a sting TABC ran on the bar for serving minors. There is no way that place intentionally serves to minors. They were always pretty serious about carding when I went, but teenagers are smart and they know how to wash a marker X off a hand.

I really don't know what the real story is, but I just wanted to share the whispers and see if someone could set us all straight. It could be part of one of these stories is true or none of them. I had noticed that a few people were filtering into the blog looking for info on The Ranch closing so I thought I would address it. If you have anything to add please feel free to leave a comment.

Gained Guitarist (?), Lost Our Booking, and My Sweet Samson 77 Airline Wireless...

2010-07-09T11:53:00.005-05:00

A quick blurb about the state of things. We are practicing with a lead guitarist this afternoon at our practice session and seeing if he's a good fit for the band. He comes highly recommended so hopefully things work out and we're back in business just like that. If he isn't the right fit we got another referral for a guy that is a great guitar player as well but he lives in New Mexico. His work schedule is flexible and he would be available for any gig and willing to drive in for a weekly practice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out. I'm happy we were sans guitarist for only a few days instead of being one of those bands eternally looking for a lead player and cursed to never gig again. Crisis averted and moving on.

Every post needs a picture, so why not make it a random funny one?

Second wave of bad news, AUE our booking agency, has dropped us and quite a few other bands from their representation. They have decided to put the majority of their time and efforts into a few bands they have that are full timing gigging and have already established a name for themselves. Life goes on. We're really not too worried about this one though. In recent months it had begun to be more difficult to rationalize our agreement with them. They would call us for a gig across the state and one of us couldn't swing it. We would call them asking to be booked for a connecting gig and they couldn't book us. Cody had a baby so we took a month sabbatical and then Cole left to work in Oklahoma. I think the timing is fine for us to be moving back into booking ourselves. Also we no longer have to pay their booking fee which means more money for us! We don't hold any grudges to AUE and wish them the best on their new ventures.

Wow.............

In the good news side of things, I got a wireless set up for my harp mic! How over the top is it for a harmonica player to have a wireless rig? Screw you, you don't know me! You can't judge me! All I know is I'll be having a whole lot more fun on stage running around doing sweet David Lee Roth kicks, well maybe not, but I can if I wanted to now. (picture below) I'm trying it out tonight and I'll let you know how it works out.

Samson 77 Airline Wireless Guitar System, awww yeah!!

Other than that we're playing a wedding at a private venue (duh) this Saturday. If anyone asks me to play the Macarena or the Chicken dance, I'm out. If we like the guitarist trying out tonight, tomorrow's show will be the best low pressure dry run for everyone to feel things out. Next weekend on July 16'th we play Kroc's Bar's 2 year anniversary party in Midland. After that, its back on the road and God willing, with a new lead guitarist.

WANTED: LEAD GUITARIST

2010-06-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

Attention West Texas guitar players. We are in need of a new lead player. Cole Evans our current lead guitarist has accepted a fantastic job at Oklahoma State University and we wish him the best of luck in his career path. Needless to say, we are in need of a replacement. You must be a quick learner, at a high level of skill, and able to travel across Texas and some of Oklahoma for weekend gigs. We have cross state shows we are looking to confirm and we need a guitarist A.S.A.P. Send all inquiries to Cody at chdgwt@yahoo.com or Drew at texharp@gmail.com.

LOST OUR LEAD GUITARIST AND GAINED A BABY!

2010-06-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry for being MIA the last 2 weeks. It has been a whirlwind of gigs and busy work recently and when I come home it is hard to crack the laptop open and start blogging it up. I'll make a consorted effort to get back on the schedule though. It's funny typing those apology sentences because those are always the last posts you see on those blogs you come across that haven't been updated in 3 years. Those kind of creep me out. Dusty old blogs sitting in the internet's attic.

Anywho, two things of great importance have happened in the last 24 hours that have to be shared. Firstly, the bad news. Our lead guitarist Cole Evans has just been offered a great job in Oklahoma and he's taking it. Just when things were getting so good for us, Murphy's Law has to sneak out of the shadows and bash us in the head with a pipe. Meanwhile, our drummer and sound engineer are both working out of town heavy equipment operating jobs during the week, so even if we do get a replacement guitarist we won't have a drummer here on the weekdays to full band dial him in. Oh the frustrations. In the meantime we have a full summer of gigs. Every weekend starting in July has at least one show booked. Our answer? Until we can figure out how to get a lead guitarist in this town of mostly sub par metal enthusiasts we're going to rely on the Americana formula. Strange is unique, and unique is good. I'm going to take over lead guitar licks with my harmonicas and pedal board, and the band's tone in general will alter slightly to cover the gaps. It'll be a growing pains process, but I feel confident that the end result will be a good set. I'll fill you guys in on the details as the practice sessions hammer out the details. Hey, it worked for Texas Renegade.

Second but most important new news. Cody's wife is having her baby today! Her water broke this morning and they are safely up in the hospital getting ready to introduce Paden Davidson to the world. The band is not the most important thing on Cody's mind, and that's alright. He'll be busy being a new father and discovering the joys of bringing someone into this world. Maybe it'll give him a new direction for songwriting or something fun to transfer over into his creative music process. Who knows, but I'm excited to see how the rest of this summer goes.

We'll be bouncing all over Texas in late July and August. Make sure to check our Myspace page for show dates. If you want to see us on a stage near you and don't see us heading that way, yell at me. I can't say we'll get every request booked right away, but he important thing is that we'll at least know where our fans are and we'll try in the near future to head your way.

The Ranch Jam Midland,TX Saturday June,12'th

2010-06-09T12:21:00.000-05:00

Should be a grand time out at The Ranch on Saturday. Bands include Noel Olivas, Treetop Flyers, Charla Corn, Harber & Miller Band, The Cody Hughes Davidson Band (us), Zach Edwards, and then finally headlining will be Kevin Fowler. Like every year expect madness and drinking, along with the sea of under 21 guys and gals falling over from pre-partying too hard. I get to meet Charla Corn for the first time, which will be cool. Also, I get to play some good tunes once the sun has gone down instead of getting a sunburn like the last Ranch Jam we played two years back. Come out for some fun!

Weird poster, but a good time

Weekend Recap

2010-05-26T16:54:00.002-05:00

I have still not really recovered from this last weekend of shows! The energy was up, beer was flowing, and each show was better than the last. What more could you ask for?

Friday we started things out at Woody's opening for William Clark Green. I got to catch up with an old high school and Texas Tech friend of mine Ausitn Davis, who plays electric banjo for them. You might remember him from playing with Josh Abbot in the not so long ago times. Our set was short but good. We had a decent crowd show up for the show. We took to the stage and started our first song and the next thing you know it, we're off the stage. That's what opening a show feels like for me at least. William Clark Green really surprised me. I had passively heard some songs here and there from them, but I was blown away by their stage presence. Austin Davis is a phenomenal lead guitarist / banjoist, William Clark Green had great vocal tonality with strong grit and blues sitting in the back of his throat. The bass player, forgot his name sorry, was high energy all night bouncing around doing his bass player magic. Also, the drummer was covered in sweat which is the indicator that they rocked. Good show, good times.

Us at Woody's

Saturday we played in Stephenville,TX at City Limits. Last time we played there we opened up for the ultra talented Whiskey Myers and got to see firsthand the sea of college kids pouring onto that dance floor. This time we were headlining and school was out. Different kind of experience. The crowd may not have been as strong as our last go around, but we still played hard and impressed the ones who stayed in town for Summer.

City Limits Stage

That leaves us with The Locks of Love Benefit in New Braunfels,TX. Out of control. I don't have enough pages to explain the depth of musical talent we got to surround ourselves with at that place. I brief recap which will not give much justice to the madness.

We got sweaty and gave it our all and the crowd liked what they heard. That was satisfying in its own right, considering just about everyone there was listening to our songs for the first time.

The acoustic sets were waves of immensely talented lyricists. Please refer to the show poster below for accurate names. Like I said, I haven't really got all my wits back from this long weekend.

I watched 11 Bones for the first time and liked them a lot. Their new single is playing on Galleywinter's "The Drop", so make sure to check them out.

Midnight River Choir were great as well. I really liked their sound and watched the crowd swell up to the stage agreeing with me.

Then came Matt King & The Cutters. I could write a whole separate post about that set and how blown away I was by their live act. I had listened to them before but had never seen them on stage. All I can say is you are immensely missing out if you choose to not see them when they're in your neck of the woods. Highest energy stage show I've seen in years and the music doesn't get better.

Finishing up the night was The Dead Rock Stars. This is a group of musicians from various other bands who decided to perfect the art of being in a cover band. Cross Canadian Ragweed's bassist Jeremy Plato was, well, on bass. Matt Briggs drummer for Matt King and creator of Locks of Love was on drums. Austin Gilliam was swinging his hair on lead guitar and Allan Goodman was on rhythm. Some of the songs sounded better than the original bands playing them live.

Dead Rock Stars with Dub Miller helping out on vocals

Us at Billy's Icehouse

Free and V playing an acoustic set. 12 year old guitar prodigy.

Jason Marbach

Matt King setting the place on fire

I could go on and on just about that wild Sunday at The Lock of Love Benefit, but if you really want to know about it, just come out next year!

Crazy weekend.

Woody's Ft. Worth, City Limits Stephenville, and Billy's Icehouse New Braunfels

2010-05-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

I was so excited about this weekend I already gave the good details out last week. So in honor of a lazy Friday, go to the last two posts and you'll see what I'm up to. Have a great weekend ya'll! The trailer is loaded and I'm out the door for Fort Worth we're opening for William Clark Green tonight at Woody's Tavern. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and maybe a video or two. This time I'll remember to have a recap post of the shows, venues, people, and madness.

Also, make sure to follow my twitter @texharp and our band's @CHDband. If you need to know what people in the know..know, then that's your best bet on keeping up with our latest shenanigans.

Have a great weekend!

Locks of Love May 23'rd New Braunfels,TX

2010-05-06T08:56:00.000-05:00

As I posted yesterday our band is playing in the Locks of Love Benefit Concert at Billy's Icehouse in New Braunfels, TX on May 23'rd. Well, this morning Matthew Briggs who is responsible for putting together the event has released the lineup and new poster. So, without further adieu here it is!

It's going to be a great show!

Woody's, City Limits, And Locks of Love New Braunfels!

2010-05-05T18:10:00.001-05:00

Well last weekend was a long and fun one. Our first show at the first annual Crude Fest was a short but good one. We jumped on stage at 2:00 and before we knew it we were back off stage headed to Brownwood for our show that night at Uncle Dave's Roadhouse. Crude Fest in general was a great success and I was happy to see the growing crowd filling up the fields to see some Texas Music in our neck of the woods. Our set was an opening slot to the T. Monitors were non-existent, the bass amp provided wasn't working, and we were cut earlier than our promised stage time. That's what ya get though when you're early on the first day. It was trial by error and we were the Guinea Pigs. I wasn't too worried about it. We got play our music to a new crowd and in the end that was satisfying enough.

Stolen Facebook pics from Crude Fest

Worst resolution picture of the crowd during Roger Craeger.

Uncle Dave's Roadhouse was fun just like last time we played there, but Brownwood listeners are a strange bunch. There were roughly 20 to 30 people there which wasn't too bad considering it was our 2'nd time in town and there was a wet T-shirt contest going on down the road. The people who filed in found there seat, drank their beers, and quietly watched the show. We tried all kinds of crowd interaction but aside from some local pals, there wasn't much response. What was really odd though was they were intensely watching the show, not talking much, but didn't make a noise. Again it was nice to spread the music in new place to some new faces and life went on.

We woke up and drove back to Midland and opened for Deanna Carter at The Horseshoe Arena for the American Cancer Society's Cattle Baron Ball. It was a fun show. We got a separate stage from Deanna's but that was expected and we played a rocking set for Midland's finest. Deanna seemed nice and she had a semi enthusiastic, "ya'll might remember this one" kind of show. The drummer liked us a whole lot since he flew in to find that the sound company had provided him with the cheapest drum set in West Texas. He borrowed Darren's Snare, Cymbals, and kick drum pedal and was very grateful for it. We played a second set after Deanna was done to the leaving crowd and finished it up melting the faces of empty chairs and the crew cleaning up. Went home, had a beer, and slept the rest of the weekend away.

Coming up is another long crazy weekend. Friday May 21'st we will kick it off opening for William Clark Green at Woody's Tavern in Fort Worth. We pack up and wake up in Stephenville and are headlining City Limits on the 22'nd.

Sunday the 23'rd we make our way down to New Braunfels for a really special gig. It's the Locks of Love Benefit held at Billy's Icehouse. Last year we were supposed to head that way but Cody got a throat infection and we had to cancel. I went down anyways with my girlfriend and it was a blast. Amanda and I walked into the bar in the early afternoon and there was Cody Canada and Stephanie Briggs sitting up on stage having an acoustic song swap. The rest of the day followed suit with surprise guests and amazing performances. The most important thing to note about the whole event is that if you have some long hair, head over to the barber chairs in the corner. Fans and musicians alike (notably Cody Canada did last year) can cut their locks off and donate it to Alopecia and cancer patients. This will be a very important show for me because my father has alopecia and my girlfriend's mother recently passed from Ovarian Cancer. It is a great cause and I am very excited we decided to donate our time and music for the event.

Here's the poster from last year's event. Artwork courtesy of Stephanie Briggs.

Twitter Profile For The Band

2010-04-12T11:32:00.001-05:00

We finally got around to making a Twitter profile for the band. If you're a tweeting kind of guy/gal make sure to follow @CHDband. We'll be updating the followers on all things us. Upcoming gigs, strange blurry pictures, inner thoughts, favorite ice cream flavor, and everything else that pops into our mind while out and about. Should be fun.

In other news, we are still in the pre-production phase of the new album. We wrote a new song last week during our practice sessions. It's technically the best song we've written and I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the entire band was there to compose it. Cody slapped some words on top and it was done. Next Song!

Random shadowy picture of us taken at The Hog Pit in Midland,TX. Every post needs a picture.

Old News Is The New News. Crude Fest, Deana Carter, and Our New Album

2010-04-02T17:24:00.002-05:00

I'm really just posting out of habit today, and have little to share that hasn't already been said. So...let's recap.

Our band, The Cody Hughes Davidson Band, is going into the studio for our second album. We begin song prepping, writing, tweaking, and arguing next week. We start recording in June. I am really excited about this.

The second half of this month is going to be really hectic with shows. For example, one weekend we're playing the first annual Crude Fest in Greenwood,TX in a harsh early afternoon opener slot. Once we're done getting a nice sunburn we pack up and run to Brownwood,TX to headline at Uncle Dave's Roadhouse later that night. We finish that show, go to sleep, wake up, drive to Midland, and open for Deana Carter (Strawberry Wine) at The American Cancer Society Round Up. I'm really thankful that we're amping up our gig schedule with some very cool shows. We get to meet some bigger names and we're spreading our music outside of the same four bars we used to hit on heavy rotation. I could use more sleep though, just saying.

I go my new microphone in the mail and had a jam session with Cody yesterday. There was a huge improvement in tone and I'm no longer chained to a mic stand for our shows. The bells and whistles on this thing are outrageous and I really can't wait to play with it on stage.

Other than that, I'm enjoying my three day weekend off of work and gigs. I've molded a fine butt groove in the couch and caught up with my reading, napping, t.v. watching, and writing. Now I think it's time for a beer. See you soon.

WAITING ON THE MAIL.

2010-03-24T19:32:00.000-05:00

Last weekend's shows were really fun for completely opposite reasons.

Rowena at the Turnrow was a blast because the place just felt like a party. We got there and hardly had enough room for our gear. Our stage was in the corner by the pool tables, but it felt right and we were all in a great mood. We played two sets of our songs in full band acoustic which was a cool thing. I've played plenty of acoustic sets with Cody but this was the first time everyone was involved and it sounded great. All the songs were broken down and sounded completely different. The crowd was having as much fun as we were which made the night perfect.

Our tiny corner at The Turn Row in Rowena. Doesn't look like it here, but a really fun show.

Uncle Dave's Roadhouse in Brownwood was great for the exact opposite reason. The place is huge! Uncle Daves is a 150 year old building with three stories. Our stage was on the 2'nd floor looking over the dance floor. They have been open for only a few weeks, but I'm positive this place will be one of the better known venues once it starts catching on. Our problem was that a local band was having a first album CD release party. They had a 3 band line up of all local talent and the local radio station broadcasting for a few hours. Needles to say, if you were a Brownwoodian (?) my money would go to the bar that had all my friends playing and partying at. We rocked out a crowd of twenty. On the plus side, every person who was there bought a CD or shirt and we got booked for hopefully a better date. I can't wait to go back to Uncle Dave's Roadhouse. Check it out if you happen to pass through Brownwood.

A view of us setting up on stage from the 3'rd story balcony at Uncle Dave's Roadhouse. Cool Place.

The waiting on the mail title thing? I bought a new harmonica mic! I've been playing with my bulletproof 60's Shure 545s and have nothing bad to say about my tone. My objection that finally got to me? It weighs a million pounds. It's a pistol grip old school metal microphone. I play with it on a mic stand because my little wrists can not handle that weight through a whole set. The solution? Spend some money! I bought a Blows Me Away custom Sm57. It's the guts of a Shure sm57 stuffed in a smaller, lighter, aluminum body with a volume control and a Quarter inch butt instead of the regular low impedance XLR end. I'll let you know how it sounds when the UPS guy hurries up and gets it to me.

Hell Yeah!

We are taking a 2 week hiatus from shows to focus on new music and tightening up our current tunes. Can't wait to get to the studio! 1 month and 1 week until we start recording album number 2!

Rowena Friday Brownwood Saturday

2010-03-18T12:08:00.000-05:00

Well I'm back from New Orleans more tired than when I left. I need a vacation from my vacation.

Tomorrow we are hitting the road and heading down to Rowena, Texas. We will be playing at the Turnrow. Saturday night we'll be at Uncle Dave's Roadhouse in Brownwood, Texas. Never been to either places so I have little to go off of. I tried to do some google research on either place and didn't get much. They're both bars and they both don't have websites.... Should be a fun time for everyone who stumbles in.

For everyone hitting this site in their search for Rita Ballou, welcome. No this is not rawhide and velvet. You are welcome to stay and have a read. Hell, become a follower. Then you can go to her blog and do the same. Rita's Blog

Cody shared some great news with me and the rest of the band, but I'm going to hold off until I'm sure I can share the good word. Until then, have fun and go out and support live music.

LAST WEEKEND, CRUDE FEST, AND THE NEW DESIGN

2010-03-09T22:04:00.003-06:00

Well if you've ever been to this blog you might have noticed I redesigned the site. I'm really not a huge fan of this design either but it's way better than what I had going on before. Leave a comment let me know what ya think or do all the work for me and find a template you think would look better.

Crude Fest! Finally Midland has a worthwhile red dirt music festival.

Last weekend's shows were successful. We played our music. Friday at Woody's was fun but the crowd forgot to come. Had some old friends drop by which was great but for the most part it was a pretty slow night for our slot. It made me feel a little better when Ryan McBride, the headliner, got up on stage and it didn't get much busier. We can't blame the music then which made it a success.

Saturday night at City Limits in Stephenville was bananas. The crowd was rolling through the door in a thick stream and we made a few new fans and friends. The crowd of course, were getting there for Whiskey Myers and after watching them go through sound check earlier I understood. Go see Whiskey Myers the next time they are in your neck of the woods. Go drive to one of their shows even if they aren't in your neck of the woods. Their sound is heavy guitar southern rock and very fun to watch on stage. They reminded me strongly of The Black Crows and were really nice guys. After they got off stage and let their guitars cool off we all headed off to a fun after show party. They offered to cart us around in their van in an unfamiliar town, to an unfamiliar party, and then drove us all the way back past their hotel to drop us off at the RV in the wee hours of the morning. It was a fun night. Luckily we all get to tr and repeat the madness at this year's Crude Fest. Haven't heard of it? Look it up because it's going to be a really really great festival.

We are playing in Midland Saturday March 13'th for The Hog Pit's annual St. Patty's Day Bash. Our friends The Jackson Lee Brooks Band are opening up for us and I'm sure it will be a grand time. The green beer will flow like yellow beer and the clover will probably be of the four leafed kind. Me on the other hand, will be in New Orleans for five days celebrating my girlfriend's birthday. I win.

Fort Worth Friday Stephenville Saturday

2010-03-04T08:35:00.004-06:00

We'll be rolling into Fort Worth Friday evening to play at Woody's Tavern. We will be opening up for Ryan McBride who I have to admit I have no idea is. I'll have to click on some google and get back to you.

Saturday evening we had the choice between playing with Mark Mckinney at Wormy Dog in Oklahoma or with Whiskey Myers at City Limits in Stephenville, Tx. We went with the economical choice and are heading to Stephenville. Again, the name Whiskey Myers sounds familiar but I can't quite think of a song they play. I'm sure I'll have a slap on the forehead moment in a bit and it will all start to come together.

Fun weekend ahead. These low pressure opening gigs are a fantastic way of getting new stuff worked up. Also, having two fairly new additions to our band these shows provide us with a great litmus test on how everyone connects on stage and on the road. When we played Blaine's last weekend we had a great show and a great all around trip. I think we're getting tighter every time we run a song.

Hope to see some faces out early for our set. Come say hi and have a beer or two while supporting live music.

Rita Ballou's Rawhide and Velvet is a must follow!

2010-03-02T21:45:00.009-06:00

Ran across a blog today that is something you have to be reading. Leave this blog immediately and go check out Rawhide and Velvet. The anonymous writer Rita Ballou is dishing every grimy speck of red dirt and sarcastic satirical opinion that everyone else has wanted to say about the Texas/red dirt music scene all in one place. You'll be laughing and cussing the blasphemy all in the same paragraph.

It really is a refreshing take on a music scene that has incubated some of it's musicians to diva proportioned egos. Rita is the kid with the slingshot at the Macy's Day Parade. The posts are some great glimpses in the back cogs of the industry's gossip mill. The posts vary (sometimes within themselves) from scathing sarcasm, satire, doppleganger pictures jokes, breaking news, all the way up to the light hearted tongue and cheek sentiment of a fan giving that lead singer with the sparkly shirt on, a hard time. Things that, unless you're hanging out at every music studio and tour bus, would be very hard to be plugged into. Of course with that being said, it brings the good question of who exactly is Rita Ballou?

Personally, I don't really care to find out. The second that lid is blown the fun will stop and the ego air pumps will be back in full force. I appreciate the checks and balances that have sprung forth with the advent of this blog. Maybe some musicians out there will realize that they might be acting a little too queeny for their own flat ironed hair and five minutes before their show starts get off the bus selves.

I hope our band would never be the subject of one of her jokes but I know it will be a long long time before we get on her radar screen anyways. Me I'll just stick to what I know, writing poorly punctuated sentences about last weekend's show and what good people I got to run into.

I'll definitely be reading Rawhide and Velvet. Here's to you Ballou.

Click here to check out Rawhide and Velvet yourself.

Blaine's Friday in San Angelo Saturday, who knows?

2010-02-22T18:30:00.004-06:00

Last weekend was a great double gig weekend for us. I had a good time watching Zach Walther and The Cronkites on Friday. It was the first time for me to catch them live. They put on a good show for the Midland crowd and maintained a high energy level through their whole set. Saturday with The Band of Heathens was out of this world as usual. They are just so good live! I have to ask you out there is you can help me find a random song they covered though. The title is "Hurricane" and no it's not Dylan's hurricane. One resounding line was, "It'll take a whole lot more water to was away New Orleans" The premise of it was talking about New Orleans triumphing over Hurricane Katrina and it was the highlight of their set for me. I've gotten Leon Everett and a few other sounding alike names. iTunes of course, has little to offer and I have to get my hands on that song. If anyone knows it please feel free to make my day.

Friday we are playing at Blaine's Pub in San Angelo kicking off the weekend in a fine venue. It is going to be a packed house and a good rowdy time. Saturday I can't remember if we locked something down or not so I suppose that will have to be a surprise for us both.

Also, for everyone here in the Permian Basin. Go to google and type in Crude Fest Midland and see how many bands come up with it on their itinerary in May. That is a show to keep on your radar!

An Opening Kind of Weekend

2010-02-11T20:20:00.003-06:00

Busy weekend ahead and I'm glad to say it. We picked up a fantastic bass player who is more than talented for our band. His name is Jeremy and before jumping in with us, was playing with three to four different bands. He plugged in on his first practice and never got lost in our songs. We are back to a five piece.

Friday we are playing with Zach Walther and The Cronkites at Kroc's bar in Midland, Tx. I found out about this today (Thursday) which was a pleasant surprise. Instead of running through our Saturday show's set at practice Friday, we get to open for a really great band. Not bad. This is my first time seeing Zach Walther and The Cronkites and I'm very excited to check them out. I'm already a fan of their album and am sure their live show will be just as great. Luke Leverett, their lead guitar player, is a tremendous presence. Seeing him playing live again alone will be a blast.

Saturday we are opening up for The Band of Heathens at The Hog Pit in Midland. There isn't much more to say about them. They are exploding in the scene and they just keep getting better. It's like pouring gas on a fire. Every time you think it's hot enough you walk up and pour some more on it. Really excited about seeing them again. Watching them with my jaw on the floor. Cursing at my unworthiness. You know the usual reaction in seeing them live.

This is a really fortunate weekend line up to introduce two new members to our band. The shows are low pressure, being opening gigs, and will be a great way of feeling each other out on a stage. It's going to be a great great weekend.

New Day Job, A New Guitar Player, and The Jam To Help Haiti

2010-01-22T20:20:00.007-06:00

It was a busy holiday season and an even busier new years for me, and it looks as if after all the fretting we've found a new lead guitar player. His name is Cole he's in his early twenties and has been playing lead for roughly ten years. His sound is a great deal different than that of our old lead guitarist. It has begun to transform much of our songs that had a strong rock sub-theme into americana and bluegrass. It's exciting to see music you've played countless times morph and change into something fresh and new. Also, our search for the bass player perhaps has ended as well. We have a promising audition driving in to jam with us next week. Keep you fingers crossed!

Well, I just wanted to check in and make sure everyone knew I hadn't closed up shop in the blog world. I have just been extremely busy and none of it as of late had anything to do with music. We should be picking back up on our gigs in February so expect the posts to start picking up as well.

Also, our lead singer Cody Davidson is offering his time to do an acoustic show in San Angelo for a large concert benefiting The Haiti Relief Fund at Graham's Central Station on January 31'st. If you're in the area I suggest you get your tickets now. They have almost completely sold out and it's going to be a great great great line up.

Ho Hum and Boo Hiss

2010-01-06T16:29:00.004-06:00

It has been an exceptionally busy holiday season and I apologize for getting lazy with the blog during this last month. The new year has come and wow what a wheelbarrow of changes it has brought. First, in the beginning of December our lead guitarist Chad let us know that he would no longer be able to play with us. He is leaving the band on good terms and is leaving because of familial issues that he has to put first in his life. No troubles, we will persevere and along the way change our sound, bring a new creative drive to the music, and rekindle a fire under the collective asses of the band. Then our bass player Ronnie has thrown in the towel. He has been complaining of back pain and recently found out that he has a cracked vertebrae and has been advised by his doctor to not even lift a bass. Shoot.

Still, I can still see some silver lining in these thunderheads. Both Chad and Ronnie were a bit older than the the rest of the band. They had been musicians in this niche of music for a long time and had played with a ton of great names. One thing I had always made note of was their slight lack of enthusiasm when it came to some of our more notable shows with larger names or on cool stages. I think they had already seen it all.

We will weather this storm. We will find a new guitarist and bass player. Along the way we will learn a great deal about our talents and flexibility and maybe have a new product once we get to the other side.

Finally, I will only spend a few sentences pouting about this one. Every year up in Steamboat, Colorado there is this amazing thing called the Musicfest. Everyone you could ever want to see on a stage in the world of Texas Country is up there having a grand time skiing, drinking, and playing amazing sold out shows at tiny ski town bars. I'm not there. Yuck.

But if you do want to follow all the fun in Steamboat some jerk named Jeff is up there taking stunning pictures and blogging 'til his fingers bleed.
http://americanmusicphotography.blogspot.com

Texas Renegade loses their harp player

2009-12-22T23:46:00.009-06:00

Kasey Klepfer the harmonica player for Texas Renegade recently sent out this statement. It will not be the same to hear Texas Renegade without Klepfer's harp wails, but best of luck to him in his new ventures. Apparently he is leaving the band in good graces. The band is taking this opportunity to seek out a new band member, harp player, or other. I look forward to see what they come up with.

After Six years and over 800 shows, I am leaving Texas Renegade. I love this band and our music, but it is time to move on to the new things in my life. I will be going to graduate school, traveling, and trying new music projects. The last six years have been so amazing. To record three albums and spend so much time with Eli, Tyson, Andy and Luke has been one of the greatest times of my life. I love them and our fans with all my heart. I will be playing until the end of December, and my last show will be at Cheatham Street Warehouse on Jan 2nd. It is only fitting that it ends where it all began. Thanks for a great six years!! "
- Kasey Klepfer - Harmonica – TXR

Our Show Last Saturday in Apline, Texas

2009-12-07T22:26:00.006-06:00

We went down to Alpine, Texas to play a show at the Granada Theater for the Sul Ross State University Alumni Christmas Ball this last Saturday. I had never been to Alpine before but had always heard good things about the small town. Alpine, Texas is nestled in the mountains leading to Big Bend National Park. The scenery was spectacular and the town's rustic feel was a refreshing downtown to take in. Unlike many other tourist laden town traps, Alpine's buildings were a mix between the old and new blending together seamlessly to give the place an overall authentic air. There wasn't a heavily zoned downtown frozen in the "frontier" days but instead you could pick up the sense that Alpine hasn't yet totally caught up with the present.

We played in the Granada theater which has been newly renovated. The Doodlin HogWallops opened up for us. They are a local three to six piece band that played strong traditional country tunes which were refreshing, well written, and well performed. Having been newly renovated, the Granada's stage had an amazing set up. The acoustics coupled with the brand new sound system was phenomenal. If you ever happen to make your way up into the mountains make sure to catch a show there. The crowd was good and danced to just about every song we played. I truly enjoyed the visit and being there to play live music to a new enthusiastic crowd was the icing on the cake.

Also, we found our future tour bus while checking out the Transpecos Guitar store downtown.

Rodney Parker and The Fifty Peso Reward

2009-12-01T20:44:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday our band had the pleasure of opening up for Rodney Parker and The Fifty Peso Reward. I had heard of them through RadiofreeTexas.com and some of the state wide Texas Music magazines circulating around. For one reason or another I just never got around to looking up some of their music. The band was a friendly group of guys and had a lot of talent when they plugged in and took to the stage. Their live show was energized and great to watch thanks to their close knit vibe and their not "run of the mill" sound thanks to random instrument cameos such as the banjo and accordion. Songs to note from my humble opinion; "200 acres" which is a great narrative song glossing over many scenes of rural America with a catchy chorus. "Firefight" something that reminded me of almost Irish punk rock, but in a great way. This song does a good job of capturing their unique sound and giving the uninitiated a cross section of what to look forward to. All in all, it was a great live show to catch and I recommend dropping by whatever stage they are gracing and give them a listen.

Here is a recording of Rodney Parker and The Fifty Peso Reward's song "Firefight".

The music video to "200 acres".

The Band of Heathens on Austin City Limits.

2009-11-11T18:28:00.004-06:00

The greatly talented Band of Heathens gave me a surprise the other day when I clicked on P.B.S. There on the widely popular show Austin City Limits, playing like it was just another easy going gig were Ed, Gordy, John, Seth, and Colin. The Band of Heathens shared the hour long broadcast along side Elvis Costello. In my opinion, and most likely a biased one, The Heathens stole the whole show. If you have yet to experience their music and most importantly their great live show, I urge you to run to their next gig in your neighborhood, or at the least buy their album.

Click here to watch a video of "Jackson Station" performed on the aforementioned Austin City Limits airing playing on The Band of Heathens' website. If it is no longer playing on their site, I'm sure Youtube.com would be more than happy to oblige in your search.

Norton Buffalo dead

2009-10-31T10:23:00.001-05:00

A single sentence message came from Norton Buffalo's Twitter account this morning solemnly stating, " RIP Norton. Rarely does the world see such talent. " It is my assumption that he has lost his fight to the cancer he had recently discovered in his lower lungs. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. He was a talented harp player and will truly be remembered fondly and missed.

The Trishas: worth your time and attention

2009-10-11T19:24:00.005-05:00

For some time I have been running across a band called The Trishas in magazines, Twitter posts, and through word of mouth. I had never heard them play a song, but from the pictures and write ups I was seeing in passing I didn't expect much more than a Dixie Chicks reincarnation. At the end of the day you can't know too much about a band until you press play, and luckily I was proven wrong regarding my assumptions. Their sound is soulful and bluesy filled with great harmonies and a wide expanse of americana instruments. This Austin based band is comprised of four women who bring a lot to the table when they step up on stage. They are accomplished musicians, songwriters, and performers. I hope to get the pleasure of seeing them live soon. If you're looking for a type of music that transplants you to the Mississippi delta but is narrated by four beautiful voices twisting in and out of soul, blues, and bluegrass, you'll feel home with The Trishas. Good Stuff.

The Trishas playing "must be time" while hanging out with the Musicfog.com guys.

The Trishas playing "Whistling" again with the Musicfog.com guys.

Up on the Austin Universal Entertainment Artist page

2009-10-08T18:53:00.002-05:00

I wrote previously about our band signing on with Austin Universal Entertainment. The contract has yet to be signed, but AUE went ahead and listed us on their website as one of their signed artists. This is an exciting time for us and it's great to see our band listed beside many talented peers who have had a great amount of representation from AUE.
http://www.universalentertainment.com/codyHughes.php

Zach Huckabee has hit the Texas Music Charts

2009-09-30T18:28:00.004-05:00

Our band's good friend Zach Huckabee has a new album out and his single has shown up on the Texas Music Charts. The Texas Music Charts is a lot like other charts where it ranks Texas Music bands according to radio play. This chart ranks by the spin counts a particular song gets across approximately eighty stations across Texas. Zach Huckabee's new album "Was It You?" released earlier this summer and has been crawling across Texas catching the ears of plenty of people. His single "The Fight" has emerged on the Texas Music Chart currently at number thirty eight. If you haven't yet caught Zach out on tour make sure to swing by his website and try to find a weekend when he's nearby. His live shows have always been a great pile of energy. If you're stuck somewhere untouched by live music, then make sure to grab hold of his album and make your own dance party at the house.

Norton Buffalo update

2009-09-26T17:14:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for information on how Norton Buffalo's fight with cancer is going, make sure to follow him on Twitter. He has been fairly consistent on updating his followers on his progress. His name on Twitter is @nortonbuffalo. His most recent post is helpful for all you well wishers.
"For those asking where to send cards/letters: Norton Buffalo, 5905D Clark Road, Paradise, CA 95969."

-- Posted From My iPhone

Austin Universal Entertainment

2009-09-21T14:30:00.004-05:00

Some good news came to me from our lead singer Cody Davidson while I was in Austin for a business trip. For some time we have been trying to branch out from the venues that have become our regular stops. To be fair, these venues are great and have always been a good show when we stepped up on stage, but we were ready to branch out our exposure. We had become aware of a booking agency called Austin Universal Entertainment that was representing a few bands that have come through our regular bar The Hog Pit. Long story short, we have now signed on with the agency. After reviewing the stipulations in the contract it seems to be a win win situation for us and the agency alike. They will be booking, at the least, one road show a month at a venue with great exposure for us. Meanwhile we will continue to book our regular shows alongside these intermittent larger AUE gigs. We haven't yet seen any of this come to fruition since hearing the good news a few days ago, but I am excited to see what turns out. AUE represents other great Texas bands such as Texas Renegade, BIlly Joe Shaver, Boddy Duncan, Emory Quinn, Grady Skelton, and Zach Walther and the Cronkites.

A very short harp solo from last weekend

2009-09-12T01:01:00.002-05:00

I had the pleasure of playing with Zach Huckabee and his band the other weekend when they rolled through Midland. Here's a very short impromptu solo that my girlfriend captured of me while jamming with the guys. Apologies in advance for the quality, it's a little bit loud and cellphone-ish. Probably because it was captured on one. It comes out loud so make sure to turn your volume to half.

Norton Buffalo

2009-09-09T23:30:00.009-05:00

I learned of some bad news the other day. I had posted the other month about seeing Steve Miller band live and loving their harp player Norton Buffalo. Apparently he has been diagnosed with cancer in his lower lung's lobes. He had been suffering from pneumonia and through following him on Twitter read this, "Discovered that my last update was a bit premature.I was told,Weds nite,that my pneumonia was caused by a cancer in my lower rt lobe(lungs)." My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family as he begins his battle with such a horrible disease. His personal website has an amazing gallery of images of him playing through the seventies to the present with more than a handful of my favorite artists. As I said earlier when I saw him live I was blown away by his harp. His diatonic work was so crisp and the tonality was awesome. Later he took the whole crowd's attention with a beautiful chromatic solo. I was even more blown away to find that he sent me an e-mail through twitter to say hi and sorry to miss meeting me at the show. I can only urge everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers. With the good lord's grace he will pull through to hit the stage again.

The following pictures are from Norton Buffalo's site's said gallery. For bio info, pictures, show dates and all other things Buffalo visit http://www.norton-buffalo.com/

Norton Live with Steve Miller
Day On The Green • Oakland Coliseum Stadium 1978

Norton Buffalo, James Cotton & Paul Butterfield
Harmonica Summit • Marin Civic Auditorium 1980

Mandolin

2009-08-28T01:25:00.000-05:00

I have decided to take on learning the mandolin. I borrowed an epiphone electric one from Cody and am wearing my fingers down already. If I actually start seeing some improvement I think I'll have to buy one that has double strings because those little single string hurt like none other. So far I've got a few of the basic chords down. I like the sound of it and it's always fun to hear something make music from your work.

Our band is doing well and had a great practice tonight going over some new songs we can hopefully have ready by next Saturday for our pre labor day bash at The Hog Pit.

-- Posted From My iPhone

Steve Miller Band Recap and Dottie Hill Musicfest Tomorrow

2009-08-14T20:48:00.007-05:00

Tomorrow we are playing at The Hog Pit in Midland for The Dottie Hill Musicfest. It is a cancer benefit concert in memorial of Dottie Hill and the proceeds are donated to The American Cancer Society. Last year we were able to raise ten thousand dollars to donate towards fighting cancer. This year we are hoping for more. The music starts at seven and goes on until the bar closes down. The line up will start with Manda Hill playing an acoustic set along with other acoustic surprises. The full bands then start with The Jackson Lee Brooks Band, then Black Eye Shiner, followed by Quincey Harper, Cody Hughes Davidson Band, and then headlining will be Mike McClure. It's going to be a great festival and I hope to see you out there.

Steve Miller Band last Monday was very fun. We played before the concert in the V.I.P. tent and had a fun short set. We didn't get to meet the band or anything particularly special but it was a fun show to be a part of, even with as small a part we had. Steve Miller Band took the stage and blew the house down. I was very pleased to see that with age the band hasn't lost a step. They played with a good energy instead of that sad familiar show of an old touring band that has lost the will to step up on stage. Steve's vocals were clear as the recordings and the band all together just knocked it out the park for me. Here's some pictures I was able to squeeze in between cheering and singing along to the hits.

The man in the foreground with the white hair, is the band's harp player. I believe his name was Buffalo? He had a very significant chromatic harp solo in one song I couldn't name. Also he accompanied just about every song with either diatonic riffs that were great to pick out or some well placed rhythm instruments.

Steve Miller Band Private Party Tomorrow

2009-08-10T22:59:00.004-05:00

We're playing at a fundraiser tomorrow in Midland and guess who we're opening for? I bet you've probably guessed by now considering the title, but yes we get to open for Steve Miller Band tomorrow. Incidentally, I just purchased a great Nikon camera and there are going to be so many pictures the next blog post will be eight pages long. Maybe I won't torture ya'll that bad, but i promise some great pics. Really really pumped for the show.

Dottie Hill Musicfest August 15'th

2009-07-31T10:59:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to start getting the good word out now. There will be a much more comprehensive blog post to come. A show you should make sure to make will be August 15'th at The Hog Pit In Midland. Six or so bands, ourselves included, with Mike McClure ending out the night. The line up isn't with me nor are all the ins and outs. For now, just remember the date and makes sure to pencil it in. I'll have a good thorough post coming soon.

The last weekend shows went quite well. Lubbock was kind to us as usual, as well as Grahams in Odessa and Kroc's in Midland. Kroc's was by far the most entertaining to me though. The stage there is very close to the crowd and makes for a great experience when the people show up to listen. There were some familiar faces as well as quite a few new ones and everyone seemed to be having a stellar evening. What more could you ask for?

-- Posted From My iPhone.
So, my apologies for the spelling errors.

Three shows this weekend. Thursday 23'rd Blue Light - Lubbock, Friday 24'th Graham's Central Station - Odessa, and Saturday 25'th Krocs - Midland

2009-07-21T22:04:00.005-05:00

We are hitting the road Thursday and playing Lubbock, Texas at the famous Blue Light in the Hub city's Depot District. We have played there once before and hopefully this time there won't be a freak snow storm the night of the show. Friday we will be headlining the country bar inside of Graham's Central Station in Odessa. We will be playing a three hour set with a break in the middle from nine thirty until last call. Finally Saturday we will be headlining at Kroc's bar in Midland. Our friends The Jackson Lee Brooks Band will be opening up for us at Kroc's which should be a fun time. Jackson Lee Brooks Band goes on at nine and we follow to the stage around ten o'clock. I hope to run into some familiar and new faces alike on our triple show weekend.

Other than that not much new to report. Make sure to drop by our Myspace site and take a listen to our new song "Paperweight" as well as become a fan of The Cody Hughes Davidson Band on our fairly new Facebook page.

Old School Effects, Pedals you need to take a look at

2009-07-15T01:44:00.004-05:00

I have come across a pedal company that is worth a look and hopefully your money. The company's name is Old School Effects and Sam, the proprietor and mad scientists of the pedals, is making some quality hardware. Cody, our lead singer, recently acquired a fuzz pedal from Old School and I was very impressed by the quality, price, and craftsmanship of the pedal. As of right now Old School Effects offers six different types of pedals that will be handmade for you as well as optional custom artwork for the exterior casing. The names of the pedal are a bit wild such as the ass nipple or stinky pinky, but the circuitry and effects coming from these pedals are dominant. Notably, Cross Canadian Ragweed is currently touring with a few of these pedals, and I haven't heard any nay-sayers regarding their tone as of recently. I will be a customer in the coming weeks once I get some other important finances taken care of, and will keep you updated on the goods coming from the Old School Effects lab. In the meantime give them a look and hopefully you'll find something that peaks your interest.

Quincy Harper and Cody Hughes Davidson Band Tomorrow

2009-07-09T23:09:00.004-05:00

We are playing with Quincy Harper tomorrow evening in Midland. I haven't heard of his music until I found out we were gigging with him, but was happily surprised when I visited his site. He is from the Fredericksburg area of Texas and has a strong acoustic sound. His voice has a good grit to it and his songwriting shows a lot of promise. A portion of his song's words and images followed a familiar path, but there were other facets and choices that really shone through when I listened. Needless to say, I'm excited to see him live on stage and am optimistic for the outcome of the night.

We practiced the new song Cody and I wrote recently. It is strange to watch something you have such a set notion to, evolve in the hands of other people. The song has grown and changed, but still holds true to its original great stuff. I really can't wait to play it tomorrow and see the reaction, if any, from the people at the show. New songs always have such an awkward growth period on stage. The first couple of times everyone is still thinking too hard over it to give it any wiggle room. Eventually the song becomes second nature and people in the band start loosening their grip on it, letting its personality sneak out. I am ready to start that process with something I had a hand in writing.

New songs in the works with The Cody Hughes Davidson Band

2009-07-03T00:00:00.005-05:00

Cody Davidson and I have spent a few days this week trying to hammer out some new songs for the band. So far we have finished the skeleton of one, and we're really proud of it. The writing came easy between the two of us and Cody's guitar work was great to play along with as usual. I made a rough recording of that song which we titled "Paperweight" using my iPhone. For those harp players out there, this is not master harmonica work on my part, but it was the third take after the words were written. It is me mostly fooling around in the first position trying to find where I want to put myself in this song for the future. Writing with Cody has been a blast and we have talked about recording our acoustic works as they come out, such as this one, and title the compilation the iPhone sessions. To have a listen to our new song "Paperweight", follow this link, or simply go to our Myspace page and select the song in the music player. I really look forward to our next full band practice to see how this song translates with the rest of the guys. Hopefully we can tie it all together with one another and have it ready for our upcoming album which we will hopefully be recording later this summer.

Hooray for me and Zach Huckabee

2009-06-27T01:53:00.003-05:00

It is officially my birthday today! Other than that, our band is playing at The Hog Pit in Midland Saturday opening for Zach Huckabee. Zach's new album is coming about and a great deal of good things are expected from this up and comer of the Texas Music scene. He is a great musician and it should be an awesome show. I have to go to bed now since even birthdays apparently don't get you out of working a seven a.m. shift. More posts to come since I finally have legitimate internet at home.

Blaine's Friday Coyanosa Saturday

2009-06-18T23:50:00.002-05:00

Friday we are heading back to our favorite road trip bar Blaine's Pub, in San Angelo. It will be a guaranteed good time and I hope you show up if you happen to be in the area. Saturday, we are playing a brisket cook off and party in Coyanosa, Texas. I have never been to Coyanosa and and am not sure if it even exists yet. The band played this same party some time ago before I joined in, and said it was a blast. So my trust is with them. I'll let you know how they both go.

I bought a BBE Two Timer delay pedal for my pedal chain and have to say they are some great pedals! It is very harp friendly and has fattened up my tone a considerable amount. If you are looking for a delay pedal, I strongly advise you to take a look at this two channel delay pedal for your harp chain.

Speaking of harp pedals, here is a cool Youtube video of a man using his pedal board along with a loop pedal with some very cool results. Enjoy.

MIdland Reporter Telegram now voting for Midland's Top 100

2009-06-13T17:07:00.003-05:00

The local newspaper The Midland Reporter Telegram is taking votes for its annual Top 100 in Midland Texas. By the grace of the powers that be, we have been voted two years in a row Midland's favorite band. If anyone feels like our band may be worthy of a three-peat just follow this link and put Cody Hughes Davidson Band in the "Person Local Musician" slot near the bottom.

http://www.mywesttexas.com/top100/

In other news, the band this coming weekend will once again be playing down in San Angelo at Blaine's Pub Friday. Saturday we will be playing I believe a private party somewhere in the middle of Texas. I'll fill you in once I get a better handle on the itinerary and such.

recap of the last two weeks

2009-06-06T20:40:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I drove down to Austin and New Braunfels to have a mini vacation and to watch the Locks of Love Benefit in New Braunfels. It was worth the drive. My girlfriend and I walked into Billy's Ice House at 5:30 and found ourselves right in the middle of Stephanie Briggs and Cody Canada (Lead singer of Cross Canadian Ragweed) having a little acoustic time on stage to a crowd of maybe one hundred. They swapped songs back and forth for an hour and then The Dead Rock Stars took the stage and blew my mind away with dominant creative renditions of great songs. I missed most of the Los Garza Brothers so i can't really give much of an opinion of what I did catch, but they were on stage after The Dead Rock Stars. After that, Stephanie Briggs and The Oso with special guest Cody Canada playing lead guitar took the stage. It was very good. Cody was a great addition to the band's sound and he added some great riffs. They spent an hour or so on stage and you could see the crowd slowly growing as word of mouth grew regarding all the great musicians donating their time for a free show. There was a section of the bar set up with stylists cutting people's hair off so they could go to children affected by Alopecia. Alopecia is a condition where usually in your youth, all of your hair falls out and it never grows back. My father incidentally has Alopecia, no eyebrows, no arm hair, etc. and growing up it never was something I noticed as odd. He did at times share with me the hard times he had as a child being the different one in the crowd, and I was really happy to see an organization doing something about it. The hair donated there would later become a prosthetic implant of hair for someone suffering from the condition and giving them a better chance at a normal life. Reckless Kelly headlined the event and burned the bar down with their high energy show. They finished up the evening with "Crazy Eddies Last Hurrah" and Billy's Ice House, now packed to the gills, sang along to every single word. It was a great trip and one hell of a concert.

Cody Canada and Stephanie Briggs playing acoustic.

People donating their hair. Notably, Cody Canada and Matt Briggs gave some inches for the cause.

Reckless Kelly finishing up the night.

Yesterday, our band played at the Hog Pit in Midland, openeing up for Billy Joe Shaver. Cody was still on the mend from his brain trouble he had last week and the show had a rough way of things. Cody's vocal mic was running a short and kept shocking him while he was singing, which of course caused some mayhem to our tempo and so forth. Rough show but they do happen once in a blue moon. We finished strong on our last few songs so it wasn't a complete wash. I had bought a BBE Two Timer two channel delay pedal and had a blast fiddling with my delays during the show. It's always fun to bring a new sound to the stage. Billy Joe Shaver, although older than the dirt blowing in the wind, put on a great show. He had a ton of energy on stage and kept bouncing around punching the air with his fists and flapping his arms to choruses. He was a pleasure to talk to and was very friendly to all his fans. He spent the better part of his night, after getting off the stage, taking pictures with people and signing autographs.

Our band at this very moment is taking to the stage down in Rockdale.We are playing for The Jubilees Day Rodeo Dance. I am on my computer because I am in Midland thanks to too much work. This coming week Cody and I are doing an acoustic show in Fort Stockton for their summer lawn concert series. I will be back to my constant blogging soon enough once we get our internet troubles figured out. My apologies to anyone who has noticed my infrequent posts.

Locks of Love Benefit Sunday May 31'st in New Braunfels

2009-05-27T19:49:00.005-05:00

We were booked to play down in New Braunfels this coming Sunday at the Locks of Love Benefit at Billy's Ice House. Chad, our lead guitarist, let us know a few weeks back that he wasn't going to make it down because of scheduling conflicts. We said okay and talked Keith Davis, who produced our first album, into jumping in with us. This last week, our bass player Ronnie let us know that work had revoked his vacation because he had to cover another employee's disability time. So then Cody and I planned to have a simple acoustic set for the show. The bad hoodoo continued to jangle around and now Cody has a very serious sinus infection. He has been getting reoccurring sharp pains throughout his head. Apparently the pain is so bad that his whole body spasms and doubles over with the onset of an attack. The MRI he got yesterday showed a nasty infection creeping around in his head throughout the sinus cavities. He's on a gamut of meds prescribed from the good doctor, and hopefully is on his way to an expedient recovery, but nonetheless we had to cancel the show all together. If you're in or around New Braunfels you should most definitely make an appearance at Billy's Ice House on Sunday. The lineup still includes Stephanie Briggs and the Oso, The Dead Rockstars, three other awesome bands, and some special guests who are going to bring the house down. Come out for a great cause and a great show. I am still planning at this point, to head down that way with my girlfriend to see the amazing show and maybe do a little pouting for not being a part of it. Our band has a well packed summer of show dates ahead so missing one will be alright in my book. I feel terrible for Cody for having to miss the fun and struggling through this illness. Send your good thoughts and prayers out to him for strength through the pain, and a good solid recovery.

Pictures from Last Weekend

2009-05-18T20:03:00.013-05:00

Well the weekend came and we were on the road playing at Blaine's in San Angelo, and then Ballinger the next day for a music festival. Blaine's was great. We had women dancing on tables and a good rowdy crowd. Ballinger was a short set since we were the only band to get rained on all day. The wind picked up and tried to blow our stuff off stage, which made some tough song transitions. Many thanks to Brian Milson and The Short Road Band as well as Darren Kozelsky's crew, for helping cover our gear while we were trying to finish our set in the shower. I looked over at one point and saw Chad, our lead guitarist, crawl under a blue tarp teepee to change guitars. We were all in good moods though, and we didn't let it ruin things as we enjoyed the rest of the show and festivities. Here are some pics that I remembered to snap along the way.

Somewhere on the highway.

Parked in front of Blaine's for sound check.

Blaine's from the stage.
Ballinger, Curing Cancer Street Dance. It was at the end of a runway between two big airplane hangars. This is right when we got there before sound check.
Darren Kozelsky brought his Prevost bus.
Brian Milson and The Short Road Band played before us. They play a traditional style of Texas Country, and are very very talented. Also they help out other bands when rain threatens electrocution and gear destruction. Great guys in my book.
Then came the rain we played in.

Just like that, we were off stage watching Darren Kozelsky play. The rain hung around for ten minutes after our set, and then was through messing with the good times. This picture is right after we got off stage, and you can still see the majority of the crowd watching from the dry hangar.

After a bit, we decided to head on back to Blaine's to say hi to our friend Brett Crenshaw and his band. They had a great show even though their bass player couldn't make it because he had taken ill. I snuck my way on stage somewhere in their set and played along with them for a couple songs. After such a long day at a music festival i really wasn't in good playing shape though, so I snuck back off stage just as quick. Good trip good times.

Blaine's Pub and The Curing Cancer Dance

2009-05-13T21:45:00.006-05:00

The band is jumping on the road this weekend for two shows. The first will be Friday at Blaine's Pub in San Angelo. I don't think we're having a band open up for us, so that means we'll be playing three good hours of music. I have always enjoyed our trips to Blaine's. My only complaint about the venue is how tiny the stage is. Ronnie our bass player has to stand behind me to fit all five of us on the thing. Aside from that, San Angelo State University will be finishing up their finals and hopefully the students will stick around to get rowdy with us. After the show we'll sneak into our favorite motel and maybe this time, just this once, I won't have a crazy lady attack me from the shadows for a beer or meet the motel "security patrol" (dead serious) pacing the halls with his flashlight keeping an eye on us "band types". These are the things that make playing on the road so fun.

A view from the Blaine's stage. Little bit tight for a five piece but always a blast.

Once we wake up, it is off to Ballinger, Texas and the 1'st Annual Curing Cancer Dance. It will be at the Bruce Field Airport of course in Ballinger, and hopefully on one of those big roomy metal stages. The gates open at three and we will be playing on stage around sundown somewhere in the center of the line up. The show goes on until midnight with Zach Edwards headlining the whole event. I like playing the music fest style shows because it gives us a chance to meet with other musicians that may not regularly play in our area. Another great thing about such long line ups in shows like these, is that the crowd that's there when you're on stage is probably in the mood to listen to your music. Shorter line ups usually equate to a late coming crowd getting to the venue just in time to hear whomever is headlining. This show is set up as an all day party so more people will come early to set up camp and check out the bands in the meanwhile. We are playing the show for charity and the proceeds from the event will be going to the American Cancer Society. My girlfriend and I finally replaced our point and shoot digital camera that broke. Hopefully, the follow up post to this weekend will include some great pictures.

My Nifty New Road Case

2009-05-10T23:41:00.010-05:00

This is a fairly self explanatory post. As of this month, I have been with The Cody Hughes Davidson Band for a full year. At a recent practice Cody was showing off a road case him and Troy, our sound engineer, had made. It's a cool setup that holds both his Fender electric amp and his SWR Strawberry Blonde acoustic amp in one housing. The entire case is on caster wheels and the front and rear of the case can be removed with latches. This makes setting up a ton easier for Cody's gear. All he has to do is roll it on stage take the front and back off and plug in. The interior is cased in foam fitting the two amps snug in place which makes travel safer for the amps. I was impressed. Recently when the band played in Dallas they came across a used music gear store and bought a smaller road case that was apparently used for holding a ton of vocal mics. The case measured roughly two feet long and a foot and three quarters tall and maybe a foot and a half wide. It was twenty bucks so they picked it up hoping to use it for miscellaneous gear since the interior was foamed and sectioned off into compartments. At the practice session after staring at Cody's set up for a bit, Troy and Cody thought maybe that twenty buck case would make for a great harp player road case. Low and behold, eyeballing the size of the case, it seemed that my amp, pedal board, and harp case could fit fairly easily in the interior with some minor adjustments to the compartments and foam. We went to work after practice, me really just watching and holding stuff, and them drilling out rivets, ripping out wood slats, and making other random innovations. A few hours later, below is what we ended up with. My modified year with the band harp playing road case appreciation present.

Here's the case empty except for a front slot that can hold extra mic cables and backup mics. The gray area in the top of the case comes down and that is where I put my pedal board.

Here's what for the most part fits in the case. My Hohner amp, my pedal board, and my harp case.

It has a handle on the top for lugging around but I plan on putting some small caster wheels on the bottom since it is such an awkward size to carry from the handle. It was a great present from the band and now I don't have to worry about my amp dinging up in the trailer or carrying around my briefcase of harps.

The Rio Show

2009-05-05T00:28:00.003-05:00

The concert went well. There was a great deal of people there and for the most part they were paying attention to us. Diamond Rio wouldn't share a stage with us because of their fear of us upstaging them. So, we got our own stage on the exact opposite side of the arena. Our stage although not as great as Rio's, was maybe six feet raised above the floor and around forty feet long. The people working for the society and for the arena were both very accommodating and friendly. We played our first set during the dinner and drinking period. People ate and watched us silently, as we went through an hour and fifteen minutes of good music. There was an auction for charity and then Diamond Rio took the stage. I remember their songs now and that's all I want to say about that. After Rio's hour long set we climbed back out of the RV and set to our stage. I honestly liked the second set a whole lot more, and that may very well be the tasty Michelob Ultras I had on the RV. Also, we fell into a good vibe with one another and lengthened some of our songs as the solos came out. The crowd was leaking out of the arena at this time, but we had a good deal of party goers who hung back and watched us finish our set. It was a whole lot ofmore fun than I expected and we as a band had a wonderful time playing for the American Cancer Society.

Harp Tone Trouble and Diamond Rio?

2009-04-30T17:43:00.011-05:00

Since our last show I have been a bit in my head about my tone and the way my harp is resonating in the sound of our band. My biggest dilemma is that I want a good crunchy Chicago sound on our blues songs, but for the others I need to maintain a more acoustic sound. I have thought about getting two different amps, one for blues one for more country, but have ruled that out as impractical. I looked into setting my amp on a very clean setting and then using some type of pedal to bring some distortion in. I used to play straight through a D.I. box running to the P.A. with a BOSS Blues Driver pedal for the blues songs, but that was never a very good sound. The Blues Driver with my amp just spikes too much feedback since it's essentially a gain maker. I looked into Lone Wolf Blues Company and their Harp Attack pedal, but don't think that will do the trick either. My rig I am playing through right now is as follows; Shure 545 S vintage mic to BOSS Harmonist octave pedal through a never used Blues Driver to my Hohner 5W Hoodoo amp. Right now I set the amp somewhere in between scooped and bright and use my hands and positioning to set the tone one way or the other. I cup tight for blues tone songs and the mic distorts great. I usually have an open hands approach for the acoustic tone and vary my distance from the mic so to not be overbearing in some parts. I also use a stand now for the mic since it helps a ton in all of this choreography for tone. I was hoping there was a simpler way to do it. It works fine for me right now, but eventually I would like to just carry the mic and not rely on the stand and all this hand and distance finagling. If you are reading this and have some good advice please leave a comment. I might have it better than I think and am getting manic over things, but I would love to see some suggestions on the matter.

In other news, I was just informed by our manager that we are playing this Saturday at the Midland County Horseshoe Arena opening up for Diamond Rio. The event is for the American Cancer Society and is their Roundup 2009 Cattle Barons Ball. I am happy to be a part of an event that is related to furthering our research in fighting cancer and whole heartedly support the American Cancer Society in all their efforts. There have been a few people in my personal life who have dealt with cancer and the terrible mess it tends to bring along. Live shows are fun, but live shows with good intentions are always better. We are the opening act before Diamond Rio goes on. Also, we will be the band playing for the after party once the formal concert is over. I have no idea what to expect for this one. The Horseshoe Arena is a big venue and sadly our sound equipment can't quite cover that much square footage. Will they provide sound? Are we borrowing Rio's rig? Are we just going to pump our P.A. to eleven and see how far the soundwaves go? No idea. We also don't know if we are playing on the huge stage or in a smaller convention area. I like shows like this where this is a lot to speculate about. It makes it more fun to see what turned out like you guessed in the end. I can't think of a Diamond Rio song off the top of my head, but I know they have a strong following. It'll be cool to see a larger band and sound crew hustling around doing their thing from the backstage perspective. I have never set foot in the Horseshoe Arena but I know it's the same place that many large touring bands play at when they pass through town. For instance Korn is playing there May 5'th. I've wanted to check the place out before but never had an incentive. The complex is a hundred plus acres and can accommodate an event for three thousand people or more. I think there are three or four different areas available to rent for an event like this on the grounds. For all I know, we could be playing on a couple of card tables in the parking lot. I really can't wait to see how all this goes down and of course, I'll let you know.

Something Witty......

Friday's show

2009-04-26T19:25:00.005-05:00

The show this past Friday was a fun one. Jackson Lee Brooks Band opened for us to an enthusiastic crowd and set a good tone for the night. A great deal of their songs remind me of early Cross Canadian Ragweed stuff. The lead guitar had that same fuzzy distortion tone, that is prevalent in Cross songs. Tyson Kerby is the lead vocals for the group and does a good job steering the band through songs. Also taking part in vocals occasionally is Jarrel Brooks who plays rhythm electric for the band. He sang a good cover of Mickey and The Motorcars' "Twilight". The band as a whole is fairly new to the stage, but I could see that they were comfortable performing and had few serious hiccups. I'm sure they have enough staying power to be gigging for quite some time and will easily carve themselves a niche here in West Texas.

Our two sets were pretty vanilla in the spectrum of all the shows we've had. No one forgot any words or notes and the crowd was having a good time. I personally felt off for most of the second set. Some kind of funk settled in on me and it was hard to shake the mental block. I played my parts and solos fine, but I was a little lost in my head and kept finding myself really not liking my tone at this part or my phrasing in that last solo. Mental hoodoo is always frustrating and I've had those demons bouncing around in my head before on stage. It makes an annoying cycle where you keep being too hard on yourself while you're playing and at the same time can't really improve because you're focusing so much energy on your momentary flaws. I shook it off finally near the end with the help of the band's collective stage energy and was able to hop off stage, for the most part, satisfied.

There was talk about playing a show up near Amarillo next weekend, but I do believe that it never got hammered out all the way. The weekend after that we will all be celebrating Cody's engagement to his girlfriend Sarah and not playing any shows. The rest of May is going to be a busy couple of weeks sending us on the road to a few different places. I'm excited to have some more time to practice on my personal sound which has been bothering me slightly. Hopefully by the time I find myself on the way to our road shows i'll have some of those tone kinks hammered out.

On a harp side note I was thinking recently about buying a Harp Attack Pedal made by the Lone Wolf Blues Company. It is a tube powered pre amp pedal that gives a great deal of warm crunchy tone when used with a P.A. and some amps. I threw some e-mails back and forth to, I think the owner and builder of the pedals, and found sadly that it would most likely not be the best purchase for me. What was really cool though was that Randy, the man I had been talking to, was very helpful in telling me the pro's and cons of using that pedal with my rig. He had no problem losing a sale and giving the advice to hold off on buying one of his products since he wasn't sure it would provide what I was looking for. I really appreciated his honesty and good ethics. I urge any harp players out there to have a look at his products because they are bulletproof and are backed by a man with better intentions than solely profit.

Jackson Lee Brooks Band and Cody Hughes Davidson Band at the Hog Pit

2009-04-24T03:46:00.004-05:00

Tonight we are playing at the Permian Basin barbecue cook off at the Hog Pit. Jackson lee Brooks is opening up for us and I have heard a great deal of good things about them. On a personal note my sister and our good family friend are flying in for the weekend to say hi. It makes the show much more special to me to be playing for family that never gets around these parts. Hopefully the night will go off without a hitch and it'll be a blast. Look for a review of Jackson Lee Brooks after the show some time this weekend.

If you're in a more southern region of Texas and aren't planning to be roadtrippin your way to our show, you should go check out The Duck Jam in College Station, Texas April 25'th. Clay Walker, Bad Company, Kevin Fowler, Band of Heathens, South Austin Jug Band, Seth James, Brett Crenshaw, Dr. Zog Zydeco Swamp Band, and a ton of others are all jumping on stage. Also to boot, there will be a great deal of other festivities including a barbecue cook off, crawfish boil, dock dogs big air competition, and monster truck rides. I apologise in advance for the masses of Aggies you will encounter, but aside from them it should be a great time.

Short and sweet about last week

2009-04-20T14:51:00.005-05:00

This last weekend was a great time. The Martini Glass Grill had not gotten its liquor license yet, but I could see the potential of the place as a great bar. I had the chance to eat their food and was very happy with the quality. I had the Prosciutto wrapped chicken stuffed with some kind of pesto and almond sauce. On the bad side it was a bit pricey. For instance, an eight ounce rib-eye steak was thirty dollars. Hopefully the prices will drop to normal people money once they have their liquor license secured. A little birdy told me that once they do start serving alcohol, there will be around a hundred and fifty different kinds of martinis to choose from.

Stephanie Briggs was a pleasure live as usual. She played most of her songs from "Birds Barely Know Us" her newest album. Also she played some favorites from "Spark" as well as some songs coming out soon on i-tunes that were left off her new CD. She played on a classical guitar while Matt Briggs accompanied her with a standard acoustic. Hearing the newer songs acoustic in that style was an interesting perspective and one I enjoyed.

Cody and I did an impromptu acoustic show during Stephanie's break. It was fun to play acoustic with Cody. It is strange how different it feels to play without drums, electric guitar, my amp, and all the other noise. It helped me zone in on what it is I do in spots of songs where I know no one is usually listening to me. Always fun to have a new perspective on a heavily played song.

Our show Saturday night opening for The Band of Heathens was a ton of fun. It looks like Midland has finally gotten the message about the heathens and the place was fairly packed. On our first song the lead vocal cut out three words in but after Troy, our sound guy, threw around some cables the set went smoothly. I got an ovation for a solo I played mimicking the high end trill dance that John Popper likes to do so much of and then I looked up and we were off stage. Good times never last long enough. The band of Heathens took to the stage and burned the place down. Every time I see them I am just in awe at how tight they are on stage and how flawless their live sound is. Go see them if you haven't it is worth whatever cover you're paying and it guarantees a fun night.

Next weekend we are headlining at the Hog Pit Friday for the Permian Basin Barbecue. The Jackson Lee Brooks Band is opening up for us. They are a brand new band, but have all the symptoms of being around for a while. Saturday at the Hog Pit Texas Renegade is playing. I will not be attending. My family will be in town for the weekend. Also I wouldn't want to be there and someone invite me up on stage for a harp duel with Kasey where I would have to destroy his brain with my skills.

Stephanie Briggs + Band of Heathens= great weekend

2009-04-17T00:04:00.008-05:00

Tonight (Friday 17'th o' April) Stephanie Briggs and the Oso will be in town playing at the Martini Glass Grill. The Martini Glass Grill is a brand new bar that has opened in downtown Midland touting a more refined night of drinking to its patron. I have never been, so I'll let you know how that pans out. Stephanie Briggs is cruising through town on her CD release tour for "Birds Barely Know Us" which is a fantastic album and I urge you all to pick this one up. After tonight's show she will be headed to Fort Worth playing at Woody's Tavern Saturday evening. It is always such a treat to catch her playing around "these here parts" and I'm happy to see other people becoming fans.

Saturday night we will be opening up for The Band of Heathens at the Hog Pit in Midland. If you haven't heard of this band yet, you should take a long listen. They are based in Austin and their sound is rooted in Americana, soul, blues, and southern rock. They put on a great show and always vibe well with the crowd. If you're in the area make sure to come catch the show. I'm excited to be getting back up on stage after our three week sabbatical. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything too important, since work kept me from practicing with the guys this week. This will be a great warm up show for the schedule that will be gaining momentum all the way through late May. If you live in San Angelo, Ballinger, or New Braunfels, good news...we'll be seeing you soon.

Twitter you got me.....dang.

2009-04-13T00:49:00.006-05:00

Well I've broken down and joined the Twitter band wagon. If you haven't heard about Twitter yet it is kind of like a bare bones version of Facebook. They tell you what other people are doing as they update their status (tweet) as well as on their profile there is a short bio, link of their choice, and picture. In the short time I have been using it I have run across some really cool people and sites. A big plus about Twitter over Facebook is that there aren't just people to follow. You can follow an array of channels such as CNN, Pitchfork media, the Onion, and so forth that update you regarding their pertinent information. My user name is Texharp and you are more than welcome to become a follower.

Speaking of followers, a side note, if you like what you've read here on this blog please feel free to become a follower. You get updated when there is a new post so you don't have to waste all that free time checking the site over and over again. Also, it's always an ego boost to know there are X amount of people who have an interest in what I'm typing. Just look over to the side bar and click on "follow". Now back to twitter talk.

I have found the bands I like through Twitter and now get updates about what they're up to and where they're playing. I've found other cool channels regarding Texas Music as well. Galleywinter is a Texas Music news website and forum spot that now has a Twitter page you can follow along with. Lone Star Music is a similar site that reviews and sells Texas Music and they have also followed suit on Twitter. Radio Free Texas the site that provides free streaming Texas Music as well as a strong forum for anything Texas is tweeting away too. Another great channel is the Twitter feed for Music Fog. This site covers Americana music and other good sounding independent acts throughout Texas and other regions. Recently in my SXSW post, I used their videos of Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jimmy Lafave playing in Austin. The site is well maintained and a good one to follow.

Among the random and cool people I've found on Twitter is the blogger for AMP. He is a professional photographer for Joe's Bar in Chicago, which hosts great country acts as well as the bigger Texas bands every now and then. (Most recently Cross Canadian Ragweed and Stephanie Briggs had a show there) His pictures are great and really worth taking a look at. You can find his blog on my blog roll in the sidebar as well as through his Twitter profile.

Long post short, Twitter isn't too bad if you're already addicted to checking updates, e-mails, blogs, and friend suggestions. They have brought me to some interesting sites I wouldn't have known of before. It is certainly a worthy addition to those sites that give you that impulsive need to turn on the computer.

Harp Mics

2009-04-07T20:18:00.010-05:00

(This post is all about old microphones and harmonica playing so if this isn't your niche sorry for the bore, but read along and fill up on some random fact potpourri.)

Since the band has been on our two week break from shows I have had a lot of time to focus on my electric tone. The problem with people who play blues harp is that finding that perfect electric tone is a terrible cyclical process. You find a new amp, mic, pedal, or other electronic and pore over it for days, weeks, and months. You might even find a friend or a music shop where you can try out this tasty new gadget and see how it fits in with your sound. The day comes where you feel you know enough to spend enough and a new member of the chain comes home. After a handful of gigs or jam sessions the new thing breaks in and slowly slips into your now more robust tone. A few days later a tickle forms in the back of your head and the cycle begins anew. It feels at times like you will never find that perfect fit and that's probably the truth. There will always be a cool new gadget around the corner advertised to really fatten up that bottom end or bring out that old nasty Chicago crunch. At least we will never get bored with our hobby.

Through the years of playing I have amassed a collection of harp mics. These are some of the quickest ways to switch around your tone and thanks to ebay won't kill your budget. Also as you amass your microphone army it becomes a fun hobby. (Or an obsession to some) Each one of my mics lying around is a reminder of a certain point or memory in the time line of my playing. Also it's good to hold on to your old mics because as you progress you'll notice that some old mics sound a lot better with that new amp, pre amp, pedal or playing style you just picked up. Things change and it is always fun to have something around the house to remind you of how much that is true.

A random collection

Here's a brief overview of some of the mics I went through and have.
I started with a generic Shure Green Bullet 520DX. These are great starter bullet mics. My cons with this mic were its weight, feedback issues with some amps, and a personal funny feeling playing with bullet mics in general once I tried some others. It has a great acoustic tone which is good for bluegrass and the likes, but it has a hard time crunching up with the blues. Kasey Klepfer of Texas Renegade plays with one and gets a good sound out of it, but it's just not my kind of mic. Next up to bat was a vintage Aiwa mic which I liked a bunch, but it was too brittle to really ever play with except for at home. It had great bottom end tone and low low feedback issues but it was made in the sixties and time hates solders and rubber gaskets. I played with random P.A. stick mics along the way and really liked the shape of the mics over bullets. Out of all the current production stick mics I used I always liked the Shure Sm-57 the most. Jason Ricci and I believe John Popper both play with modified ones and that is about all the endorsement you need. It had a great frequency response and good all around sound to it. Personally they were great through a D.I. box with some pedals to fatten it up. Using an amp would have probably brought some feedback issues without a feedback buster or other helper gadget. After that I played with a Hohner bluesblaster for about ten minutes and returned it. This was my only return, but a good decision. It had a thin sound and wasn't worth the bloated price. The next was a Shaker Madcat microphone and it was one of my favorites. (I'm playing with it in the picture at the top of the page) It has an ergonomic design somewhat like a lavaliere mic. The element sat in your cupped hand and on the other side a volume pot stuck out of your threaded fingers. I have a lot of fun playing this mic because you can do a lot to change the sound while playing by adjusting the acoustics of your hands. In the end though the element was too small to hold a good full tone and I got the itch to move on. That brings us to what I'm playing with these days. It's a vintage Shure 545s unidyne II with the pistol grip. This is my favorite so far with very few drawbacks. There is little feedback and a ton of volume. The tone is very full and it distorts well in a hard cup. Without cupping the mic you get a very clean acoustic sound to your playing which really helps me switch between the blues songs and the more acoustic country harp songs just by fiddling with stance and my hands. One piece of advice is to buy back-up everything if you own a vintage piece of equipment and expect to play with it. My 545 uses a four pin XLR cable which is no longer in production and of course when we were playing in Lubbock at The Blue Light it decided to self destruct.

My current favorite mic in my bag.

Another thing to remember when considering harp mic is what you're playing through. Some mics are finicky about what they get plugged into. There is a world of difference for my mic when played through my amp compared to a direct line to the P.A. system. Sometimes certain amps just don't want to play nice with certain mics. When I first got my Hohner Hoodoo Box amp I plugged in my Green Bullet. I thought the amp was broken at first. I had to almost full crank the knobs to get a sound and sadly that sound was all feedback. eventually I got it all tweaked to work, but soon after realized that the pair just weren't going to work out together.

The best advice that is always drilled into any discussion about improving harp tone is always the same. It doesn't matter what you're playing through if you suck. So keep playing and wood shedding and that tone will come with much more ease once you plug in.

Things Going On

2009-04-02T23:12:00.008-05:00

Our band has been off for the last week and we won't be playing again until April 18'th because of scheduling conflicts. We will be opening up for The Band of Heathens at The Hog Pit. They are a band based in the Austin area with a ton of talent. If you haven't had the chance to listen to them I urge you to. This weekend they are playing at The Grit N Groovefest hosted by Ray Wylie Hubbard down in Luckenback. This is the first year of the event and surely not the last considering Hubbard's great music and his devoted fan base. Along with the Heathens other acts will include Patty Griffin, Charlie Sexton, Omar Dykes, Sam Baker, Ray Wylie Hubbard and many others. If you live in the hilly parts of Texas I would try to put it on the top of my to do list this weekend.

Stephanie Briggs and The Oso released their new album yesterday titled "The Birds Barely Know Us". This was a long time coming for people waiting on it, but it has turned out to be well worth it. The album has been in my truck's CD player since I pulled it out of the mail. This is a good album and it has an array of songs that could just as easily appeal to you or that person over there you think is your bizzaro nemesis. Invite him over, open a beer, never mind that growth on his neck you guys are listening to some good music. This album comes after Stephanie and Matt (The Oso) signed with 36D management who also represent Cross Canadian Ragweed, Randy Rogers, Seth James, and Micky and The Motorcars. She recently skipped around the western U.S. with Cross Canadian Ragweed opening up for them on their tour to California. when they finally reached the coast she polished the last bits of this album and set it to wax. Buy the CD and show greatly deserving musicians some love.

Stephanie Briggs and The Oso.
(photo by Stephanie Briggs)

After our break, the month of April appears to be a fairly fun one for the band. April 18'th we will be at The Hog Pit in Midland opening for The Band of Heathens. The 24'th we will be headlining for the Permian Basin BBQ cook-off also in Midland. These will be some fun shows leading up to our string of road shows in May. Come on out if you're around, and if you live someways away keep on reading and maybe we'll make it there eventually.

Waiting on the internet

2009-04-01T00:43:00.002-05:00

Sorry for not posting recently. I am currently moving apartments and will have spotty "borrowed" wifi access for a bit until we can schedule a cable/internet set up for the new home. I'll probably be back posting this week or even tonight, but the frequency will be spotty until the internet is hooked up and flowing.

SXSW Austin and random video finds.

2009-03-23T17:45:00.009-05:00

Well while we were running around west Texas playing beer joints trying to scrape a spring break crowd in college ghost towns, there was something rumbling down south. South By Southwest was last week in Austin and thousands flocked to the hundreds of live shows, parties, and magical randomosity that only Austin can provide. Bored as I was, I got on Youtube and the blogosphere to see what all I missed. Here's a few videos I stumbled across that I liked for one reason or another.

Playing For Change

Metallica's "secret show"

Explosions In The Sky

A Guy With A Camera Standing On 6'th St.

Street band called Baskery

Jimmy Lafave

...........and on and on and on and on. I've caught SXSW once and it was a great experience. Hopefully sometime soon I can find myself that way again. For everyone that made it down (or up) to Austin this last week sorry for your hangover, but I don't feel bad for you.

His Orchestra

2009-03-21T02:37:00.004-05:00

Ran across an old friend from back in the day. He's playing bass/guitar/banjo for a great band based in Los Angeles. The band's name is His Orchestra and they have a phenomenal sound. I posted one of their songs here for the listening pleasures of you my random reader. I have an eclectic taste in music so it may not fit your idea of what would be posted here, but hopefully you'll get over it. They're album is available on i-tunes and of course if you happen to be in the L.A. area you could always just drop in on one of their shows.

Stars & Heights

Saturday in San Angelo at Blaine's Pub

2009-03-20T20:39:00.008-05:00

Tomorrow we're jumping in the bus and heading to San Angelo to play at Blaine's Pub. We have played at Blaine's maybe three times and it has been a blast every time. The bar layout reminds me of sixth street in Austin. It is a very long narrow bar with a tiny stage. The stage is raised about five feet off the bar floor and pretty cramped. Ronnie, our bass player has to stand right behind me for all of us to fit. It sounds like no fun, but actually it has always made a fun show. We stay much more in sync since we're on top of one another and have always ended up having a ton of fun.

There won't be an opener for us this time around which means we get to have a three hour set instead of two hours. Good and bad. The bad side, my mouth is going to get out of shape somewhere around our break. I play harp with both the lip blocking and tongue blocking techniques. After an hour or two of bends, trills, and plain old playing my mouth gets pretty weak. It feels kind of like when you've laughed too much and your cheeks get sore. When this happens it makes it harder to hone in on single clear notes in a fast paced solo or a good punch note. It gets easier the more you practice and the more you build up your facial muscles for that kind of weird strain. Thankfully we have a break in the set and I think I will survive. The good side of playing a three hour set is that we will probably play every song past and present that I have ever sat in on with the band as well as random covers and fun blues jams. It'll be a bit more off the cuff than the regular cut and dry set list and that gets me pretty excited for tomorrow night.

In other news Cody is heading down to New Braunfels next weekend to play at the first annual friends for friends benefit Saturday March, 28'th at the Mountain Breeze campgrounds. There is going to be a line up of great singer songwriters playing from five to midnight. Cody and Shad Blair are the last to go on in the evening. If you happen to be around the river on the 28'th make sure to drop by.

Paul Aaron Hughes and the Hog Pit yesterday

2009-03-15T19:37:00.003-05:00

Paul Aaron Hughes opened up for us last night in Midland. He was a really great guy. It was his cd release party week so he was having a great time. The lead guitar playing in his band came in from Austin. The two local band members were the bass player and drummer. He also had a dobro/steel guitar player who was his producer for his cd. His voice reminded me vaguely of Mark David Manders and the sound of his music was old school country.

We had a fun show and celebrated St.Patty's with the green beer and shots. I might have won six hundred dollars on a scratch off before our show but I also got pink eye somewhere along the way and am getting really tired of my weird luck thing.

Blue Light last night

2009-03-14T15:03:00.002-05:00

We played last night at The Blue Light in Lubbock. I was really excited to come back to my old college town and play on the same stage I watched so many great bands play on. The ride down was nice, but we had a hard time squeezing the RV into the back alley to unload our gear from the trailer. I forgot how much colder Lubbock is in the winter than the Midland/Odessa area. We got off the RV and it had just started drizzle thin bits of frozen rain and snow. We unpacked and set up stage with little trouble and the sound guy was a friendly one instead of those run around yelling and throwing cables kind that you sometimes get.

I set up my mic, pedal board, and amp up on stage and turned everything on. The second the light went on in my amp all you could hear was a nasty buzzing. After some troubleshooting I found the junk was coming from my mic cable. The bad news was that I play with a vintage Shure 545 microphone which is out of production now. It's so old it uses the ancient four pin XLR connection rather than the modern day three pin. Idiot that I was I never got around to ordering a back up cord since the one I had was a little shaky. It finally decided to die and at least it did so before we had started the show. Troy who runs sound and roadies for us grabbed an Audix instrument mic for a fill in for the night. I had some trouble playing on a new mic because each different mic reacts differently to an amp. Some feedback like crazy to the smallest hint of gain or overdrive. Others are bulletproof and can handle full ten gain and volume. Then there are the thousand possibilites in between.

We sounded in got monitor levels set and then loaded back on the RV for some food and time killing before the bar officially opened. The show was great all around. There were more than a hundred people there at one time and it was pretty full for the size of the venue. Lots of people danced and I even saw a few singing along with our songs knowing the words, which is always good to see. I let the mic issue get in my head and kind of phoned in the first set, but I was able to shake off some nerves in the break and had a great second set.

Good show and a fun trip. I didn't see any cameras set up so I doubt I'll have a video to link here from the Blue Light's website, but maybe next time. The staff liked our show and were promising a return gig in the future.

Tonight we're playing at the Hog Pit on comfortable ground. It's going to be the St. Patty's day celebration with a bunch of drink specials so it should be a fun full crowd. We slept in the RV behind the bar last night giving our hotel room up to Cody's mom who had recently fractured her hip. There were seven of us and we all had a bed, but six snoring guys in one place makes for light sleeping. So I think I'm going to try and squeeze in a nap before sound check.

random videos

2009-03-12T01:05:00.007-05:00

This is what happens when you surf youtube too long looking for something entertaining. I ended up on Stephanie Briggs and The Oso's youtube feed and found these.

This video is hard to define. There are a few notable musicians in here dominating the rap game, suckas. Try to figure out where Cody Canada and Wade Bowen are in the video. They're sneaky.

Stephanie Briggs and The Oso have a tour blog that she puts up on youtube. This one is from when she came and played up in Midland and then hung around and caught our show. Things to note are Matt Briggs (The Oso) jumping up and playing with us on stage with his corn cob pipe. There's a couple golden seconds of me blowing some smoke rings before I grew a man beard. Also there's a creepy guy at the end who stole their camera and proclaimed his love for Matt Briggs.

This one is another from her tour blog when she dropped back in on Midland and played for the Dottie Hill Memorial Cancer Benefit. The line up made for a great concert. We played along with The Band Of Heathens, Stephanie Briggs, Tyson Kerby, Keith Davis, and a few more great acts. This video is a take on The Hills from MTV. Cody Davidson takes a cameo role as well as other great seasoned actors.

Small world for such a big state.

2009-03-10T16:56:00.005-05:00

I am originally from Houston. That's where I was born, where I went to high school, and for the most part grew up. If you happen to be reading this from another country and have just a vague sense of the place it's a big city in south Texas. It is a very big city, fourth largest in the United States big. After I moved away for college I visited for holidays and the random eight hour road trip with friends, but for the most part kind of stopped hanging around that town. I still have great friends living down south and thanks to the internet have been able to keep a semblance of connection with them. Recently I was poking around my facebook profile deleting friends I couldn't for the life of me remember, and saying hi to those I did. I ran across a great high school friend of mine who's got his own good things going on.

James Bobal even back in high school was a dominant guitar player and I remember hanging out at his house listening to him mindlessly riff along with phish, the dead, and anything else that had free solos and open tempos rambling on for days. I was happy to see not much has changed over time. After serving our country for a few years and safely coming home he settled down College Station home of Texas A&M (boo hiss) and is playing with two great bands. The first is called Strawberry Jam that has a heavy jam band sound to it following reggae, funk, rock, and anything else you can smash into a blender that comes out hippie happy. I can appreciate the music they're turning out, but must be honest and say it is not my scene nor music I have enough knowledge of to chat up too long about here without sounding stupid. Another band he more recently joined is on the other side of the spectrum called The Grady Skelton Band. This band I can talk about. This band has the lead singer's name in the title which I've discussed before is usually a sign that i'll at least enjoy their sound. This band has the Texas Country in them. The recordings on their myspace site are really clean and I can see them turning up some good momentum live once the amps are brought in. There's a lot of acoustic going on in the myspace tunes but knowing James the live show like most bands in this scene, including the one I'm in, is most likely turned up a few more notches. I enjoyed the opening guitar in the first song "Bad Luck" as well as many of the song's lyrics. There isn't that too often found meter trip up that a lot of younger song writers go through when they're putting out new stuff and that is very commendable. My humble opinion is that this band is at the base musically good and will most likely evolve, with constant whoring themselves out to every bar up and down the road, and make a good name for themselves in the Texas Country scene. Who knows they may be further on that path than I know. I don't live anywhere near College Station.

What was really weird was that while I was checking out James' new band gig I started to recognize the lead singer. I am really terrible at remembering specifics outside a few years unless that someone is still around me stirring up memories. The lead singer, Grady Skelton, was actually another buddy of mine from my high school days back in Houston. The group of friends I ran around with James were never hanging out with my church side. I think that's pretty cool to see two sides of my past hanging out and making good music.

Even further down the small world trail James is now friends with another old church buddy from back in Houston who has apparently also got himself into the musician life. His name is Carter Beckworth and he is the songwriter and singer for Baker Hotel which has apparently got themselves moving up in the Austin live music scene. Their music is great and the lyrics are very well done. I'm starting to wonder how exactly so many of my friends through the years have just magically picked up the knack for dominating a stage? I guess musicians tend to make friendly with other musicians, even if it's before we all realize that is something that's in us.
Best of luck to the Grady Skelton Band, Baker Hotel and to all my old friends who have found themselves running for the stage.

Another notable time I found an old friend in my new place was when I was watching the Josh Abbott Band playing live in Midland. They are becoming a strong force in the Texas Music scene with an evergrowing fan base. They are damn catchy and heavily touring Texas so if you get a chance go see them. I was watching their electric banjo player go into a crazy pedal induced funk solo and then slapped myself in the forehead. He was yet another friend of mine from high school and college. I had completely lost touch with him a few years into college (I'm guessing when he decided to be a rock star) and then there he was on stage touring with the Josh Abbott Band.....Jerk. He jumped off stage in their break and instantly recognized me and we got to catching up. I love how small the world is.

Band News

2009-03-08T23:31:00.003-05:00

News with the Cody Hughes Davidson Band is always good to share. We have a new old drummer. Darren Harris was the drummer with the band when I first started, but had to quit because he got stuck in Washington state. Long story. Well he has returned and is now back to smashing the drums with us once again. We decided to part ways with our current drummer amicably and wish him the best. It feels good to play with Darren again he's a really nice guy and a very natural drum player. I learned the band's songs with his drumming and it feels much more natural with his fills and tempo back on stage with us.

I missed a great gig in Dallas yesterday because my job hates me. The band was booked to play in Dallas for a private party and got great pay while I got marginal pay for logging in way more hours of sweat. It's never fair.

We're playing this coming Friday at the Blue Light in Lubbock. It's a great venue and a place I'm really excited to play. Check out their website in the above link they seem to tape previous shows so maybe I'll have something to share later. I remember back when I was going to Texas Tech in Lubbock a lot of great bands traveled through and played that same stage. Actually Cody Canada from Cross Canadian Ragweed did an acoustic set there with Stephanie Briggs a year or so back. Also it's one of the bars that helped push The Josh Abbott Band into their current rise of popularity. It's a fairly small bar which gives the shows a good personal feeling to them. If the show goes right and the crowd is feeling good it should be an awesome night.

Saturday we are back in Midland playing at The Hog Pit. Opening up for us is Paul Aaron Hughes who is coming out with his first CD titled "I've Got To Have You". It should be a fun weekend and hopefully I won't almost swallow a reed like last time out. I just noticed that we have a new myspace thing to visit. This is the Cody Hughes Davidson Band fan page on myspace. Check it out. www.myspace.com/chdbfans I'm not sure if this is going to be the myspace site to visit instead of the other one from now on or this is just another link for the bookmarks tab. I'll let you know.

In other random band news Cody is looking into purchasing a more accomodating tour bus soon, hopefully, maybe. Right now we take our long road trips in an RV, which is a good size and was a great deal when bought. Cody recently has stumbled upon another deal. It's an old tour bus from a traveling choir that bunks ten, full kitchen, bathroom no shower, and a large living room setup. It sounds pretty fun and the price is right. Now we just have to sell the RV to someone for the right price, keep Cody and famiy interested in the idea, and have the bus still available once the timing hits. So here's to the RV cause I can probably put a proper tour bus in my wish pile along with my thousand dollar in ear monitors.

Flipping some pages

2009-03-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

I took a sabbatical from the internet the last few days mostly because my day job was trying to steal all my free time. It was one of those weeks where everybody was calling in or off of work for some reason or another. Luckily I was there to fill in the holes and almost loose my mind in the process. The icing on the cake was my last ultra busy day where I showed up for work at six a.m. and didn't leave until five that afternoon all without sleeping the night before. Boo Hiss. Well things have quieted down at work and I'm back again yammering on to no one in particular.

I was flipping through a free magazine circulated throughout Midland/Odessa called "Good Times". I'm sure most cities have at least one of these rags that survive completely on ad space crammed to the margins. They tell the readers what is going on this month with music and other forms of entertainment. Usually they'll have a feature one page article interviewing a big name band passing through or the theater department putting on a new run of "Les Miserable". The rest is full of the already mentioned advertisements, a blurb about some new "hot spot", a calendar of events at the local bars and venues, and some more ads. The one in Lubbock was titled "Study Breaks" and I have to say a better read, especially when I was bored waiting for class to start or sometimes bored waiting for class to end. Study Breaks had a chart of the local bars and their drink specials they offered every night so you could plan your night accordingly and know where the deals were. Sad to say the one in this town doesn't offer the same help.

As i was flipping through the glossy pages getting an idea of what bands were playing around town I noticed something really funny. There's a band in the local scene maybe even larger scene called AIDS Wolf. What? So I flipped on looking more closely at some other band names around town. Apparently Midland/Odessa is full of band name gold. there's one guy playing around town called Roland Z. Not too bad I guess but it looks like he puts on an acoustic show so why not just name the one man band after the only member? Other solid gold acts around town this month are straitjacket, Dingo Sanctuary ( I have a friend in Houston who plays in Save The Manatees), Stinky Johnson, Glove Box, Cirebrook?, Mister Happy, Wolf 359 (AIDS free), Coldwater Country Band, and Pushrod to name a few. Is it really that hard to come up with a name for your band? For these guys apparently not. I'm not saying these groups don't have talent. I couldn't say because I probably wouldn't be heading out to give Glove Box a listen.
"Hey mom I got hired to play drums for a band. Ya we're called AIDS Wolf. I can't wait for you to hear us we really rock!" Really? It is cheating to go on too long about this though since I play for yet another Texas Country band titled after the lead singer's name. I could probably rattle off a list twice as long for all the bands just in this area following that formula, but it does simplify things. We have never sat around and thought maybe we should change the name back to Herpes Wolf. I think it had such a better resonance to the fans.

While writing this I googled AIDS Wolf and they are apparently pretty big to the terminally alienated types. They're a four piece band that's been playing for some time and started out in Montreal. Not my kind of tunes, but not just guitar riffs double bass pedal screaming junk. More of an acid art creepy tunes kind of feel. Good for them for becoming popular while standing out so sorely with a name like that. Reminds me of a clip from Wayne's World, which I can't for the life of me find on youtube. Wayne walks up to the club and asks the bouncer, "who's playing?" He says, "the shitty beatles". Wayne asks, "how are they". The bouncer says, "shitty". Wayne says, "ahh so it's not just a clever name". No idea why I remember that with such clarity, but whatever.

A few fine video finds ( lazy post day, but still important things)

2009-03-03T03:38:00.006-06:00

This one is a great cover of Merle Haggard's Silver Wings. He was and still is a great pioneer in Texas music. The people covering his song are popular Texas musicians in their own right, Cody Canada, Randy Rogers, Wade Bowen, and Stephanie Briggs at the House Of Blues in Houston Texas last November. Bad quality but a great song and it looked like a great time.

This is a song and music video obviously, by Stephanie Briggs and The Oso who I spoke of in my last post. The song is a favorite and one that makes me happy no matter where I'm standing in life. This is a significant song to me that for some reason always stops me cold for just a moment.

This video wouldn't let me embed it. Boo hiss, but just click here to go see it. The song is titled "It Ain't Easy Being Me" by Chris Knight. This is a song I heard in college and was instantly attracted to. I've heard a myriad of bands cover it over time and still love hearing it from whomever can play it right on stage. There is something so terribly haunting in those lyrics that I think resonates with any man who has realized too late, that he has gone too far.

A video from my harmonica playing side. I know a great deal of harp players look down on the works of John Popper, but it is obvious that at the least he has brought a new perspective and crowd of listeners to the instrument. I have always enjoyed this song and when I found this excerpt of John Popper playing along side it, I loved how a song so familiar made room for a harp that I never thought would fit.

I'll end with this funny colored gem. It's from the great Ray Wylie Hubbard playing in Dallas. You might know his song "Redneck Mother" famous from Jerry Jeff Walker playing it. I had the great pleasure of playing with him a few months back at the Hog Pit in Midland. He was a really great guy. I had never heard a cleaner band at sound check. (This video's mix has the vocals way too high for my taste.) His show was way too fun as you could guess. He worked the crowd with his great stories of back before so and so, and he played the good ones 'til it was time to go home.

Way to go Stephanie Briggs and The Oso.

2009-02-28T14:00:00.006-06:00

One great band that I have to bring people's attention to is Stephanie Briggs and The Oso. I first heard them on a random stop at a bar called Tavern in the Gruene in New Braunfels, Texas about three or four years ago. Her music is awesome and for me really hard to define. She has extensive talent at playing the guitar, it being acoustic or electric, and her voice is just brilliant. On top of that, Stephanie and her husband Matt (The Oso) are some of the nicest people you can come by. When my friends and I first heard them we were the very sore thumbs in the corner of the bar. At the end of the show Stephanie jumped off stage made her rounds with friends and then tracked right over to us and introduced herself.

Over time, through the insistence of my friend Chase, they even set up a few gigs in west Texas that we came running to. Later when I first met Cody Davidson it was through Stephanie and Matt. She had actually sung back up in our CD on the track "Don"t Lie". They were opening here in Midland for the Cody Hughes Davidson Band and we came up for the show. Matt wanted me to play on a few songs and asked me to run home and grab my harps. By the time I got back though, I had missed the rest of their show and Cody was already up on stage. So Matt just snuck a mic to me and told me to play. After a few odd looks around stage trying to find out where the harmonica was coming from Cody saw me hiding behind the sound board and invited me up on stage. Pretty much the only reason I get to play with such a talented band is because of them. Pretty cool.

Well now I get to say congratulations to Stephanie Briggs and The Oso. On March second they will be hooking up with Cross Canadian Ragweed up in Chicago and playing along with them all the way to California on their tour. My only wish is that I had a big sack of money so I could catch a show somewhere along the way. Also in other great news for them is that in July Stephanie Briggs and The Oso will be a part of the Big Music Cruise featuring such bands as Reckless Kelly, Stoney LaRue, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Wade Bowen, Brandon Jenkins, Jason Boland, and a few more of the Texas music scene's best acts. Tickets are available for the cruise now. If you happen to have your own sack of money to go cruising through the Caribbean with some great bands I say jump on the deal.

Well I just wanted to share the good word about a great band and all my happiness for their very busy schedule coming up. There isn't another band I know that deserves these great things more than they do. Give them a listen. They really have a wonderful infectious sound that is hard to press stop to.

Radio Free Texas Top 100 Requests of 2008

2009-02-26T00:40:00.005-06:00

Here's a short one to offset my previous post that went a little long. I was browsing around the Radio Free Texas forums, and the website administrator had posted a list of the top one hundred song requests of 2008. Risky Game, our first single from the same titled album, was number thirty seven of the most requested songs. Not too shabby. Here is the list in its entirety from the forum post. Give the bands a listen and I'm sure you'll find some satisfying surprises.

We have tallied all of your requests and here are the most requested songs of 2008. Thanks to artists and fans for making RFT the number one site for Texas music on the web!

1. Hunter McKithan Band (1056)
Fallin From High
2. Jamie Richards (1026)
Drive
3. KCee Edwards (854)
Lonely Too Long
4. Granger Smith (803)
Colorblind
5. Zach Edwards Band (781)
Texas Women
6. Hunter McKithan Band (762)
Shape of it All
7. Whiskey Myers (664)
Lonely East Texas Nights
8. Ben Morris and the Great American Boxcar Chorus (627)
The Ties
9. Josh Ward Band (590)
Jebediah Beane
10. Bois D'Arcs (562)
Better Off Tonight
11. Whiskey Myers (551)
Road Of Life
12. Donny Waits (523)
Feet Up On The Dashboard
13. Johnny Cooper (508)
Devil Woman
14. Mo Robson Band (490)
Even Angels Fall
15. Ricky Fugitt (477)
Red Dirt Music
16. County Road 5 (473)
Drink I Couldn't Handle
17. Slow Rollin Lows (468)
You're All I Need
18. Randy Rogers Band (453)
In My Arms Instead
19. Casey Berry and the Live Texas Mosquitos (452)
I Know a Liar
20. Josh Abbott Band (448)
Taste
21. Stoney LaRue (432)
Oklahoma Breakdown
22. Jamie Richards (431)
Any Way You Want Me To
23. Bois D'Arcs (428)
Wasted
24. Mike Ethan Messick (425)
Kings Of Juarez
25. Bart Crow Band (413)
Wear My Ring
26. Keith Davis (409)
Leave Tonight
27. Blue Broussard Band (408)
England
28. Hunter McKithan Band (386)
Here in Texas
29. Randy Rogers Band (382)
Better Off Wrong
30. KCee Edwards (367)
Believe (Amanda's Song)
31. Cody Johnson (360)
What's Left Of Texas
32. Spur 503 (359)
It's All My Fault
33. Jamie Richards (343)
I Just Can't Love You Anymore
34. County Road 5 (340)
Drink About It
35. Mo Robson Band (327)
1892
36. Mo Robson Band (321)
Rollin' Down This Highway
37. Cody Hughes Davidson (318)
Risky Game
38. Red Dvorak (316)
That's the Way It Is
39. Marshall/Peery (309)
Baghdad Blues
40. Keith McCoy (309)
I Became Her She Became Me
41. Jason Boland & The Stragglers (302)
Comal County Blue
42. Ryan Bingham (302)
Bread And Water
43. KCee Edwards (300)
Angel
44. Luke Robinson (299)
Tequila Sheila
45. Mike Ethan Messick (297)
American Steel
46. Ben Morris and the Great American Boxcar Chorus (292)
No Saving Grace
47. Tres Womack (290)
Batman
48. Getocowboys (286)
Crazy
49. Keith McCoy (285)
How Far Has She Gone
50. Rodney Parker & 50 Peso Reward (283)
Tell Me What It Is
51. JW Lane (283)
I Want You To Come With Me To Texas
52. Terry Allen Band (269)
Eight In The Mornin'
53. Rodney Parker & 50 Peso Reward (269)
Atlantic City
54. Luke Robinson (269)
That's What I Tell Myself
55. Randy Brown (268)
All Likkered Up
56. Bleu Edmondson (268)
Last Last Time
57. Whiskey Myers (264)
Goodbye Girl
58. KCee Edwards (264)
The Last Songwriter
59. Casey Donahew Band (259)
White Trash Story
60. Reckless Kelly (258)
Ragged As The Road
61. Amie Stacy Band (255)
A Song For You
62. Highspeed Hayride (254)
Boots
63. Old Crow Medicine Show (254)
Wagon Wheel
64. Ricky Fugitt (249)
Dusty's Song (Ride Alone)
65. Brison Bursey Band (248)
Pourin' Rain
66. Ryan Culwell (247)
She Knows About Me
67. Josh Grider (247)
Crazy Like You
68. Marshall/Peery (238)
Run Out-A Tulsa
69. Zach Edwards Band (236)
Cowboy Up (And Cowboy Down)
70. Red Dvorak (230)
A Long Way From Home
71. Hazzard (229)
At It Again
72. Curtis Grimes (228)
Whirlwind
73. Mark McKinney (223)
Bonfire
74. Mo Robson Band (222)
Amarillo Sand
75. Chris Knight (222)
Here Comes The Rain
76. Randy Rogers Band (221)
Kiss Me In The Dark
77. Robert Earl Keen (221)
The Front Porch Song
78. Modern Day Drifters (218)
Tired of This Town
79. Wade Bowen (217)
Walkin' Along the Fenceline
80. Brison Bursey Band (217)
Don't Go
81. Wade Bowen (216)
You Had Me At My Best
82. Bois D'Arcs (214)
Backroads of Texas
83. Marshall/Peery (214)
When The Dust Settles
84. Whiskey Myers (213)
Thief Of Hearts
85. Jamie Richards (212)
Back To Bein Me
86. John Riley And The Lighthorsemen (211)
Mona Lisa
87. Shooter Jennings (210)
4th of July
88. Brent Allen (206)
Day Job
89. Renegade Rail (206)
Fat Girls And Weed
90. Twisted Pistols (203)
Cold
91. Rotge (199)
Lonely Land
92. Walt Wilkins and The Mystiqueros (198)
Big Shiny Cars
93. James McMurtry (197)
We Can't Make It Here
94. Ben Morris and the Great American Boxcar Chorus (195)
Lupe's Daughter
95. Fred Eaglesmith (192)
Harold Wilson
96. Cory Morrow (190)
He Carries Me
97. Rotge (190)
Eyes Wide Open
98. Mike Ethan Messick (183)
First Of October
99. Casey Berry and the Live Texas Mosquitos (180)
Sister So Long
100. Ben Morris and the Great American Boxcar Chorus (179)
Hit Man

I have to admit I have no idea who some of the bands are on the top of the list, but they obviously have a good following or a lot of time on their hands requesting their own song.
Here's an old Youtube video of our song Risky Game at our favorite venue The Hog Pit back before I joined the band. If you're wondering when I'll be on some recording with the band, Cody is currently sifting through producers for our next album that we will hopefully be recording this summer.

Long Long Saturday

2009-02-24T02:31:00.004-06:00

Saturday was a good one but a weird one. I started the day off getting to Cody's house with not enough sleep. The RV we usually take on road trips had destroyed its starter so we jumped in a few trucks and headed to the San Angelo Rodeo. We got to the rodeo and unpacked our gear and watched the band lined up before us play. I should have known this was the precursor to my entire day. The band was a "Chicago style" big band. The lead singer was playing the keys. There was a bassist and a drummer, but there was also a full horn section. One man was playing the sax, another playing the trombone, and another playing clarinet as well as the trumpet. If I were in let's say, an elevator or a wedding, I would have understood why these guys were playing ahead of us. Don't Get me wrong I really do love the full sound that a band with that depth has, but it was more so the song choice as well as the way they put the show on that really threw me off. They played such hits as "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond and "I Ain't Got Nobody" by originally the Mills Brothers but more memorably rerecorded by David Lee Roth. It was just weird. It didn't fit my premonition of what this show was going to be like. I stood outside of the big front opening of our venue as people walked by the sound going to and from the carnival midway. I watched as old people hopped along to their favorite oldies and a few even trickled into the show to see the band. I just knew the second we started playing they would be turning right back around out the door. In a nutshell that's exactly what happened. There were some great people there as well, who knew who we were and were really excited to see us play. While playing I focused on those tables that were actually watching us, and had a great time running though our set list to those people who were interested in what we sounded like this time around. I was just really entertained by the way everything looked before we got on stage. We had a good show for two in the afternoon at a rodeo stage following an old timey big band with broken on stage monitors, and I was proud of that. (the mix on the monitors was the main's mix which was really weird to play to, but kind of cool to see where I sat in the sound of our band)

If you're looking down at the post before this one, regarding the lineup of the rodeo to see who opened up before us, it wasn't the band on the list. I know the band's name who played before us, but I'd rather not write it down because they were nice guys but just not what I was in the mood to hear or play after that afternoon. Apparently a few bands had to cancel for one reason or another so a lot of the lineup was shuffled around. I found out that we were actually originally slated to close the line up for the Saturday after, but couldn't do it because of scheduling conflicts.

We packed back up and headed back to Midland finally awake and full of fair food. We got to The Hog Pit and unpacked again for our second show of the day. After some time Micky and The Motorcars as well as Jeremiah Houston had sound checked. It was running late so we decided to let Jeremiah Houston go ahead and open, strike their gear, and then we would do a quick on stage monitor check and play. Jeremiah Houston put on a great show and then it was our turn. We jumped on stage, checked in our monitors, and went right into a great set. Apparently having a show before hand really gets you well practiced for your following same day gig. We had good energy, the crowd response was great, and people were having a great time dancing and cheering. I felt really on compared to the show we had earlier. My harp's reeds were much warmer inside than in our open breeze barn from earlier and the notes were coming smoothly instead of an awkward fight.

Just about half way through our second to last song my D harp started feeling and sounding a bit off. That was bad news since the last song, our newest and my most expressive song for me at least, was also played with my D harp. I kept noticing right when i played over my sweet spot note in the center draw of my harp it had a funny click to it that you could feel and the note warped a bit. Of course all this thinking is in a nano-second while I'm playing, watching the crowd, listening to the music, and having a good time on stage. I dismissed it and finished that song with a change up form my usual solo that i felt went well enough. Our last song started called "yesterday" I really can't wait until it's on an album because it's a blast to play. It's an up tempo blues song that give me a ton of room for solos as well as room to play in the high end of my harp kind of like Blue's traveler style which I have been working on a lot lately. So the song plays and we are all grooving along, and it gets to the introduction of the band. Cody gets to my name and I hear a few people cheer and I get amped up for a good little harp ditty to say hi. I draw in I jump up and down the scale and then all of a sudden the center of my harp goes mute. I tried jumping around the two notes that have gone completely sour, but realize how much I used them for trills and fast hole work. So I end my introduction of the band solo with a hobbling low end trill and wave to the crowd. Cody goes through all the intros and we get back into the song. My solo part comes back up and I jump back into it trying to get around the man hole of a mute spot in my harp. I give up and try to force, what I thought was just a blockage in the reed, out in the middle of my solo by finding the note that wasn't playing and trying to suck really really hard for an instant of time in the song. I pulled it in and all of a sudden something is stabbing me in the throat. I had inhaled the reed from my harp. I spit and sputtered in the middle of my solo and hacked out into my hand a shiny tiny brass rectangle that had tried to wiggle down my throat. I heard in the back some girl say, "ewwww" and I went back into playing. the song ended we got off stage and we were done for the day finally. Micky and The Motorcars went up and rocked the house and the rest of my night was awesome. My girlfriend showed up and loved our set and we had a great time watching Micky's show and dancing.

I guess the best piece of advice I can give from this story is, don't play after full voodoo giving horn section bands in a cold shaded open air place that only attract elderly people who sneer at your rock music style when it's your turn and walk back to the carney rides while your harp reeds get hypothermia, if you intend on going to a rocking gig later with central air unless you want your harp reed to go into seizures and snap off in the middle of a song and try to kill you by stabbing your throat and trying to wiggle down into your belly.

Just wanted to share my weird day with you guys. I am really tired so off to bed and sorry for the typos.

San Angelo Rodeo Show Lineup

2009-02-21T00:47:00.003-06:00

This is the live show lineup for the San Angelo rodeo. We are playing there tomorrow the 21'st, but the whole weekend and the next looks like great times. I stole the dates from RadiofreeTexas.org so tell them thanks. Hope to see you there. I was pleasantly surprised with the bands playing. It's a shame we pretty much have to play and run back home for our next show, because I would have loved to hear a bunch of these bands live for the first time.

Friday, Feb 20th
4-5pm Joe Rodriguez
530-645pm Fryza Lyza
715-830pm Ida Road Band
9-1015pm The Captain Legendary Band
1045-12am Jeremiah Houston Band

Sat, Feb 21st
11a-1215pm The Buster Bledsoe Band
1245-2pm Sean Kendrick
230-345pm cody Hughes Davidson
415-530pm Brushfire
6-715pm Jamie Talbert
745-9pm Slow Rollin’ Lows
930-1045pm Chad Johnson & Down 1450
1115-1230am Donny Waits Band

Fri, Feb 27th
4-515pm Steve Ferguson Band
545-7pm Cody Gill Band
730-845 Hogg Maulies
915-1030 Mo Robson Band
1045-12am Spur 503

Sat, Feb 28th
1115-1230pm The Flinchers
115-230pm Monty Branham
3-415pm Hank Billings & The Travelers
445-6pm Bill Rice Band
815-930pm Tommy Gallagher Band
10-1115pm Whiskeyfish
1145-1am Kyle Bennett Band

Gloves off, nemesis you're going down.

2009-02-19T04:35:00.003-06:00

Okay. So apparently one youtube video wasn't enough for him. Harp player for Texas Renegade Kasey Klepfer, and personal harp nemesis, has got himself a brand new shiny video of his harp solo madness. I have to say I was impressed the first time around with the solo video I posted last week of him recorded in 2006. This one though, not so much. It's rehearsed with the band, which kind of cuts the fun of a solo out, and it's just stuffed with repetitive trills and blow/suck chugging.

I'm not mad I'm just disappointed. (dominant parent shame attack) Where's the chops? Where's the speed and articulation? Where's something that's from the top of your head expressing those goods I know you're hiding? Why are you holding back? Are you just messing with us? You wanna play head games? Play them on your own time like on a stage somewhere with your band. Wait scratch that last one.

You think you're too good to show off? Well that's just smug and rude. No one here appreciates that kind of apathy. If we're going to be enemies you better get your A game out and put some polish on it, because this just isn't going to cut it out in the fields with Charlie. That mud is thick and the rainy season isn't bringing any butterflies or gumdrop kisses.

It's on.

Ho Hum You Play Harmonica

2009-02-18T10:27:00.002-06:00

This is not how I play harp, but I like the humor in it. Lord knows I've heard the, "Ohhhh you play harmonica for the band........" more than enough times.

Good times on valentines

2009-02-16T01:26:00.005-06:00

Last night we played down at The Hog Pit in Midland for Valentines day. Brett Crenshaw and his band opened up for us and I have to say it was a blast. Crenshaw has a very talented group of musicians in his band and it was great to hear them have a go at it live. Two things of note are his fiddle player who has only been playing for two years, but sounds a decade further along, and his lead guitar player who was really fun to watch slide on his frets. The entire band was great and they were really cool guys to meet and talk to after the show.

After Crenshaw had warmed the crowd we took to the stage and had a really good show. We had a ton of energy off the bat, and it was great to see the crowd follow suit. Cody during our break went up and played a short acoustic set with Brett Crenshaw's fiddle player. There is something to be said about the accompaniment that a fiddle brings to an acoustic song. It was nice to hear something different come from some songs I've heard quite a few times and feel as if they were brand new. We finished the show with a long jam of Knocking On Heaven's Door. Brett Crenshaw and his guys came back up on stage and played it out with us. All around it was a really fun night. If you're ever in the hill country area of Texas they would be a great band to catch live. Their tour dates are on their website.

We have a pretty busy schedule ahead for the next month or so. This coming Saturday we are playing at the San Angelo Rodeo then driving back to open for Micky & The Motorcars in Midland on the same day. It's going to be a long day, but tons of fun. Full weekends like this make me hate my day job so much. Working odd shift hours it's always such a pain to make sure I get the days off I need to go do what I love. Also I get so psyched for that coming up show that my regular day at work goes stale rather quickly. I suppose that comes with any job though. Unless you went out and found a great passion that paid the bills. Maybe someday.

You always need a nemesis.

2009-02-12T23:46:00.005-06:00

I don't think any good can be done without the aspiration to crush someone else. This is Kasey Klepfer and he plays harmonica for Texas Renegade. This video is from 2006 at I think Waterloo Records in Austin. I really like the part of the solo where he brings in the harp riff from the song Lowrider by the band War. We both play Lee Oskar harps that are made by the harmonica player of that band, Lee Oskar. Also there's a spot where he works a dominant trill all the way up the comb that i still hate watching for my lip's sake. All around it is an awesome solo with great virtuosity and depth. Texas Renegade have a great sound I like their music a bunch. Kasey himself is a really nice guy and i got to talk with him for a little bit back stage at the Lone Star Music Fest in San Angelo where both of our bands played. We talked about harps, playing styles, and our gear. It was a good conversation. He complimented me for my sound. He asked me about my weird microphone I was using at the time. I asked if he was still playing with his same set up and I even told him good job on this very solo that I saw on Youtube. Really great great guy.

Why does he have to be destroyed? Because you always need your nemesis and there's only so many harmonica players in Texas Music worth taking down. There are the countless lead singers who pull a Marine Band out from their pocket and do the suck and blow number for a couple of songs. I've even seen a few neck holder rigs on stages for the longer numbers.(not pointing any fingers Cody Canada) Really when you boil down to it the bona fide harp players are few and far between.

It's a much harder instrument to play than it looks. People look at you funny when you answer, "harmonica player" when they ask you what it is you do in that band. Also there aren't too many bands who are willing to take on a pay split with a guy who can bring his instrument to the show in his pocket not to mention, set up his rig in two minutes flat. By my count and this may be a bit off to some people's measure, but there are three harp players in all of the Texas Music scene. Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson's harp player), Kasey Klepfer, and me. So the way I see it is there's really only two people I need to take down before I'm touring with Willie. I'm just kidding about there only being three great harp players out there in Texas Music, but there really isn't much to sift through so I might be pretty close. Go me. Also, Mickey doesn't count since Willie has gone Nashville and Hollywood on us......... So then there were two.

Rocky had his Russian. Danny Glover had Predator. Rambo had the entire Vietcong army. Now I have Kasey and he's going down.
Laws of nature.

Good One

2009-02-11T04:00:00.004-06:00

I can never define Texas Music.

2009-02-09T18:56:00.007-06:00

I draw a blank every time i try to define Texas Country to someone who has no idea what I'm talking about. I usually rifle through a list of the larger stars of the music and hope something pings in their head. A song, a show advertisement, a friend of a friend's roommate who went to this great concert, nothing? At the same time I hope that person doesn't find shared ground with me because he recognizes said artist for his newest "sell out" song on CMT while the band blinds the camera lens with bedazzled denim jackets and coaxed choreography. (That of course is a bit too far but it was a fun mental image.) No usually i see this absolute sense of understanding in their head that I'm talking about some kind of country western hee-haw show I went to and had a grand old time listening to some guy blow into a whiskey jug for accompaniment. Of course by that point I have completely lost in defining what the music is to the guy or gal.

To those uninitiated to Texas country or Texas music it really covers a wide array of genres. Generally Texas Country is not just bass plucking and yodeling garbage.(There are of course a couple bands that have taken that route and became quite successful in their minimal efforts. Always an exception.) The band I play in The Cody Hughes Davidson Band for example, has a lot of blues and southern rock in it. I play a dark toned harp on most of the songs and that is not something most people would attach to a "country" style music. There are people like Roger Creager who has a Tex-Mex sound to a lot of his songs. Many of his songs feature the accordion which makes its own arguments by itself as an anti-country sound. Cory Morrow made his name by making his music an amalgamation of bluegrass, blues, swing, and outlaw on stage. The concerts I have seen him in are high powered, fast guitar, and soulful singing. Then of course there are the bands who just fall into their own thick stew of genres and time lines, but still stay under the umbrella of Texas Music. Band of Heathens, Josh Abbott Band, and Stephanie Briggs and the Oso all have very little in common with one another other than the fact that they have extraordinary talent and have all been associated with the Texas Music scene. No it isn't that regular vision people get when you associate the word "country" to a style of music. Of course there is country down in those roots somewhere worming about. Some bands bring that style closer to the surface and others shove it real deep. It's there, but it is not what defines this music. What does though?

It's a hard thing to make a finite definition of what all can be considered Texas Music, but to make a vague attempt it could be defined as such. Any music made in Texas that in one way or another is an eclectic sound including, at some base point, acoustic guitar, with some sprinkle of country style, with the addition of any other musical style, genre, tone, or magical potions.
Cop out I know, but the whole subject of this post is about how impossible it is to define. Where else is there such an enormous mix of style, tone, lyrical choice, and sound living under one roof? It's a very cool thing but miserable when you set out to make a post about defining it. Find a band support their efforts to make their music the way they like to and enjoy the show.

First thing's first

2009-02-09T01:02:00.004-06:00

The best first post, I would think, would be about me and what it is you'll find here.

I live in West Texas, I'm 24, and I play harmonica for The Cody Hughes Davidson Band. We are an up and coming Texas Music band that has tones of rock, country, and blues. The lead singer Cody Davidson is an excellent songwriter and of course i would say our CD is worth a listen. You can buy it on itunes, cdbaby.com, and other online music stores. I'm not featured in the CD because i came along just after its production, but it is a fine album just the same. I started playing with the band a year ago and have really enjoyed the journey so far. I have met a myriad of great musicians, some famous, some still waiting, and have experienced enough to one day decide maybe i should share some of this on a blog. We travel fairly often to shows, but play the majority of our shows in the Midland/Odessa area opening up for larger names or headlining at bars and events.

I've been playing blues harp for roughly ten years. I play with mostly Lee Oskars harmonicas along with a few other types that I've found here and there when i needed a key and they didn't have my favorite brand in stock. I just switched microphones from a Shaker Madcat (a small almost lavaliere type mic with a volume pot) to a vintage Shure 545s series 2 unidyne III with the pistol grip. (Sorry to everyone who just read that and completely lost me. This paragraph is for the handful of harp players who may be reading along. So if you have no interest in the harmonica stuff just skip to the next paragraph.) I play through a Hohner amp that has held up nicely. I have two effect pedals. I use a Boss harmonist pedal to make my harp sound like an organ on some songs where i just want to sit in the background. I used to use a Boss blues driver but have phased it out with the introduction of my new mic since it breaks up quite nicely when heavily cupped. I am trying to figure a way to still keep it in rotation as maybe a solo volume pedal. My problem right now is it's packed on the band trailer while my mic and harps are at my home. Hard to experiment when you don't have the test subjects.

Other than playing harp for the band I live with my wonderful girlfriend in an apartment in Odessa, and work full time as an assistant manager for a national pharmacy chain. It's a strange dichotomy being up on stage during the weekends entertaining and then on a sales floor getting screamed at by an old woman who wants her Loritab filled a week too soon. I have a great deal of time to think when I'm at my day job. I feel this blog will have a good amount of waxing philosophies from me observing and thinking too much at work. The other half of course will be what my weekends bring.

I graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. I have published a few short stories and self published a novel which i will not steer you to from here. Long story short I got too excited put it to print and then realized where the text needed some help. The story was good, but it could have used some polishing. I am not going to claim to be some great writer. I think it is clear on this blog that my technical skills could use some refreshing.

The blog sometimes seems like it was an invention for people to shout on their soapbox about their opinions. Hopefully I won't get too preachy with my posts, but let me know if I head that way. This blog should be more of a fun window into my life and interests, that being either rants about people and situations from work, or some interesting experiences from my life as a musician and beyond. It will be fun to follow either way. I have done and seen a lot of things. I've lived in foreign countries, had many odd hobbies, and had the luck to experience some unique stuff. In the simplest explanation this blog will pull from everything I have done and currently take part in. I hope that it is worth reading about to someone else.