FEATURED ARTISTS
Maddie & Tae
Charley Crockett
Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights
Maddie & Tae
Maddie & Tae boldly introduced their debut single "Girl In A Country Song" shortly after signing with Dot Records. Featured on their debut album START HERE, of which they penned each of the eleven tracks, the PLATINUM-certified breakout hit soared atop the Country radio charts and made them only the third female duo to peak their debut single at #1 in the history of the Billboard Country singles chart. The gender-flipping video garnered over 38 million views and scored the duo their first-ever award: CMA Video of the Year. The pair, from Texas and Oklahoma, respectively, also swept the 2016 Radio Disney Music Awards, winning both Favorite Country Artist and Favorite Country Song for GOLD-certified “Fly.” They have previously been nominated for ACM, CMT and CMA Awards. Receiving critical acclaim from NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post and Glamour, among others. Maddie & Tae have appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, TODAY, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Live! with Kelly and Michael and most recently on The Talk, where they performed a cleverly written tune about dealing with bullies called "Sierra."
Sharing their songs with fans on the road, Maddie & Tae conquered their first headlining START HERE TOUR last fall before joining Lee Brice’s LIFE OFF MY YEARS TOUR and most recently wrapping dates with Brad Paisley’s LIFE AMPLIFIED WORLD TOUR. The vibrant talents have also partnered with Bloomingdale's on a Special Capsule Collection for Fall 2016 that embodies their youthful sense of adventure and unyielding girl power spirit. AQUA x Maddie & Tae is peppered with an eclectic mix of textures, colors, and silhouettes; the full assortment is available now in all Bloomingdale’s stores and bloomingdales.com with retail prices ranging from $38.00 to $498.00. Maddie & Tae embarked on a Bloomingdale’s "tour" in Chicago, New York City and Chestnut Hill where they gave fashion presentations and in-store acoustic performances.
Charley Crockett
With a pawn shop guitar that his mom bought for him when he was 17, Crockett taught himself to play. Summers in New Orleans with his uncle sparked his ear, while the Dallas blues and Valley’s Tex-Mex slipped into his bloodstream.
Across six albums in the past five years, the Texan has defined his own distinct roots style. Even on his platters of deep-cut blues and country covers like Lil’ G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee (2017) and Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza (2018), Crockett pushes a suave and soulful classic Americana that melds genres and is as restless as the artist himself.
His delivery hinges with New Orleans clip, and voice slides with a slight lisp that melts around his phrasing like oil skirting the surface of a pond. His ear tunes an amalgam of East Texas blues, border Tex-Mex, classic honky-tonk, and Louisiana soul, swerving effortlessly between weeping George Jones-worthy country ballads and hot smoked Lazy Lester-swaddled blues. And Crockett’s own songwriting showcased on 2016’s In the Night and 2018 breakout Lonesome as a Shadow, cuts with an equally timeless quality.
That independence remains essential to Crockett. Although courted by major labels and big-name producers, Crockett is determined to continue forging his own path. Along the way, he’s begun to garner critical praise from national outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and NPR, and made his mark at major festivals ranging from Stagecoach and Pickathon to ACL and Newport Folk. This winter, Blue Bonanza hit #10 on Billboard Blues Chart and the Americana radio album chart.
At 35, Crockett still spends most of his time on the road, and he’s hardly slowing down. This summer, he makes his debut at the Grand Ole Opry as he sets out for headlining US and European tours.
Bart Crow
Samantha Fish
Kody West
Bart Crow
Born and raised in Maypearl, Texas, country music singer/songwriter Bart Crow is gearing up for 2018 with new music & even more shows! Bart made his first attempts to write songs while in the United States Army and started first performing live while studying at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX. Perhaps the most significant milestone in his past involved moving with his wife Brooke to Austin, where they worked tirelessly to establish as Bart an artist.
Crow has put together an impressive track record as a recording artist, having lofted six No. 1 singles onto the Texas Music Chart – one of which, “Wear My Ring,” sold over 165,000 copies. He has sold over 40,000 albums, released five self-co-produced records in just over a decade, including Dandelion, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers South Central chart. He’s been cheered in Country Weekly, on CMT, and one of Rolling Stones “artists you need to know”. His YouTube videos and concert footage have drawn more than 5.7 million views.
Samantha Fish
That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.
Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all.
Kody West
Kody started playing music in the beginning of 2014, eager to take on as many acoustic gigs and songwriting competitions in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that he could. As a frequent support act of the Texas Country/Red Dirt band Dalton Domino and the Front Porch Family, he took on the role of tour manager beginning of 2015. On the road with the band, he rapidly gained valuable hands-on experience working and playing music across the state of Texas. Thanks to his time on the road and his ability to fill in and play when needed, he was quick to gain a fast following of loyal fans.
Kody recorded his first full production EP later that year in Stephenville, Texas with producers Ben Hussey and Josh Serrato. The EP titled Higher Ground released January of 2016 with "Playing Cards" as the first strong, poignant single. Kody's music has been described as a mix of Texas Country and Bluegrass with some good-for-the-soul grooves.
Shortly after his EP release, Kody formed a full band in order to continue his commitment to travel across the country playing his tunes to the masses.
Casey James
Kirk House
Courtney Patton & Jason Eady
Casey James
Anyone who has followed his journey from American Idol to Sony Music Nashville will be thrilled to discover the passion that drives the guitar-slinging Texan is dialed to 11. His 2012 self-titled debut won rave reviews and yielded Top 15 single “Crying on a Suitcase – and Top 20 single “Let’s Don’t Call It A Night”. His follow up gut-wrenching single “Fall Apart,” powerfully showcased his skills as a producer, intense vocalist and lead guitarist.
James has had an impressive career spanning from a local musician to playing for an audience of 22 million people weekly during his run on “American Idol.” From touring his hometown to touring the world while playing his own material, he has been consistently growing and evolving as an artist. In 2015 James decided to split ways with Sony, the tight creative limitations on commercial country overlapped only partially with the music at the center of his soul. James became independent in the hopes of being able to fully demonstrate his creative vision. With his 2017 album Strip It Down, Casey James made the blues project he’d always envisioned. This latest effort introduced his music to a whole new demographic and was well received worldwide. Teaming up with Grammy Award Winner Tom Hambridge was a great start, and at the conclusion of the crowd-funded creative collaboration, James was left with a record that garnered rave reviews from Blues/Rock/Americana media outlets and fans across the world with the Rock Doctor raving that that Strip It Down was “one hell of a delightful surprise!”
“The last few years have seen so many of my dreams come true. I'm finally interacting with people that I respect and admire; artists, producers, writers, musicians, and the fans. These are all people that have the same heart for music that I have. It's been an absolute pleasure working alongside artists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Delbert McClinton, Tom Hambridge, Lee Roy Parnell" and the list goes on. The point is that after a lifetime of dedication and work, James is finally busting in to the scene that he's always wanted to be a part of. "To drive down the road and hear my song being played on SiriusXM BB King's Bluesville is one of the best feelings I could ask for. I’m thankful to have a dedicated audience that believes in who I am and what I do. I couldn’t ask for more and I’m always excited for what’s next.”
Now with the 2020 follow-up, If You Don’t Know By Now, James digs in deeper on the genre, exploring its range while setting himself apart as an inspired, melodic guitarist and as an expressive, soulful vocalist. It’s a stark commitment to a musical form lodged firmly in his soul. James attacked If You Don’t Know By Now with a new level of confidence, thanks in part to his affirming experience with Strip It Down.
We need to remind humanity what music is about,” James says. “It's not about money. It's not about fame. At the end of the day, you can remove all that, take away technology, take away marketing, but the music will remain. It's unkillable. As long as human beings live, music will remain, and that brings me joy.”
Kirk House
Kirk House calls himself an Arkansan Texan. He says his heart is one part Arkansas, other part Texas and as a whole, full of love and soul. Kirk grew up singing in church attributes the passion in his singing to his late grandfather, Clarence House.
As an artist, it's hard to pin Kirk into one genre. He's blues, rock, country and he's a lot of soul. Kirk says, " Music is my bridge and my sledge hammer. It brings people together from any and all backgrounds and it breaks down any and every wall or barrier. As an artist, as a Musician, that's my goal," says Kirk. Kirk's voice and subtle guitar work will leave you wanting more all while wondering, what will he sing or play next.
Courtney Patton & Jason Eady
Courtney Patton
Courtney Patton is a storyteller. She’s also a mother, a wife, a producer, a singer, a songwriter, a tour-van driver and a musician-as well as a world-traveler when she’s out on tour throughout the continental U.S., Canada and Europe. But to anyone lucky enough to be sitting in the audience while listening to her expansive Texas twang belt out her version of deep and soulful country music, she’s a storyteller. In a musical era in which clichés and bravado are mistaken for bold noteworthiness, there is something far more brave in peeling back highly personal and emotional open-book songs and delivering them with sensitivity and sentiment. Patton does just that. She is the consummate storyteller in her music. Heartache isn’t just described, it is tangibly felt. Following her previous solo albums, Triggering a Flood (2013) and So This Is Life (2015), and her acoustic collaborative project with her husband and fellow Texas troubadour Jason Eady, Something Together, (2017), Patton has drawn on true life day-to-day autobiographical life experiences and released her third album, What It’s Like To Fly Alone, earlier this year.
After having Kennedy produce her last album, Patton took the production reins this time around, further cementing this as her most personal work to date. There is no marketing team or music label support. It’s Patton and her spirited passion for the music that has her hands-on over every part of her career. That makes the fact that What It’s Like To Fly Alone debuted as high at #4 on the iTunes country chart and made a mark across four different Billboard album charts (including a Top 20 mark on their Americana Albums Sales chart) all the more remarkable. But then again, Patton is a storyteller. It only makes sense.
Jason Eady
Since the 2005 release of his debut album, Mississippi-bred singer/guitarist Jason Eady has brought a rare balance of unguarded honesty and poetic sophistication to his songwriting. With his catalog spanning from blues-infused Americana to bare-bones reimagining of classic country, Eady’s seventh full-length takes on a looser, livelier, more groove-driven sound than ever before. But while I Travel On brims with a feel-good spontaneity, the Fort Worth-based artist continues to instill each song with the subtle insight and emotional depth that makes his music so powerful.
The follow-up to his 2017 self-titled effort, I Travel On marks the first time that Eady’s recorded an album with his road band—a lineup whose rhythm section is made up of musicians from an R&B/roots background, and whose lead players hail from the bluegrass world. With Grammy Award-nominated duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley joining them in the studio, I Travel On wholly captures the unbridled energy and kinetic camaraderie that the band’s recently displayed in their relentless touring and in sharing stages with the likes of Sturgill Simpson.
Southern Avenue
Elaina Kay
Southern Avenue
2020 Grammy Nominees SOUTHERN AVENUE (Stax/Concord) are a boundary-breaking Memphis combo that carries the Southern soul legacy into the 21st century and beyond. Fueled by their powerful chemistry and electrifying live show, this fiery five-piece has performed in over fifteen countries and wowed audiences at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Firefly, Electric Forest and Lockn’. Relix calls them “a deeply soulful Memphis blues band that’s turning the scene on its head,” and No Depression commented that it's "easy to imagine Southern Avenue as a house band in their native Memphis or Muscle Shoals in the glory days of the '60s, sent back to the future to save us from inauthenticity and our collective hurt.
"What makes it Southern Avenue," singer Tierinii Jackson states, "is that when we come together, the music we make together is music we could never come up with individually. It's really rewarding to have so many influences in the band, and that we can find the balance between them."
"I'm proud that we don't sound like anyone else," guitarist Ori Naftaly asserts. "I've waited all my life to be in a band like this, and it's amazing to me that I get to play with these people every night."
Elaina Kay
Kay talks like she writes: defiant but vulnerable, hopeful but wry. Her new album wraps all those occasionally opposing forces in Kay’s countrified rock-and-roll to create a modern portrait of steely femininity that’s sad, funny, and ultimately, inspiring. Backed by The Texas Gentlemen, Kay’s moody soprano slides from breathy storytelling to golden-era country songbirding and back again, nuanced and captivating. She wrote or co-wrote every track, and the result is a layered collection that is both starkly personal and intensely relatable.
Kay comes by her self-reliance naturally. She grew up on her family’s ranch in Wichita Falls, Texas, 15 miles south of the Oklahoma border. Up at 4 a.m. every day, she helped farm and raise cows and cutting horses. In between ranch chores at dawn and dusk, Kay discovered music. Her grandmother, Meemaw, noticed, and took her to perform at county fairs, beauty pageants, nursing homes, and everything in between. Kay remembers vividly when she began composing her own songs.
For college, Kay loaded up two horses and her dog and headed to Tarleton State University, where she joined the rodeo team. Kay loved to rodeo, but she realized she loved music more. So she took her horses home and hit the road, this time with her guitar, singing songs in bars throughout the South. Nashville beckoned, and without a safety net or fully formed plan, Kay packed up and moved to Tennessee. She rented a room in what she became to know as the “rock hostel,” a three-story house full of boys in bands. Kay didn’t know a soul, but she jumped in, wrote more songs, and made more friends.
On Issues, Kay uses pieces of her unconventional upbringing to fuel her songwriting. The album opens with the strutting “Daddy Issues,” a true story about Kay’s biological father running afoul of the law. Kay says “more importantly, the song is about embracing our issues or problems that stem from our upbringing and to make light of the term ‘she’s got daddy issues.’ This shouldn’t be a bad or sad thing; it’s about being proud of what made us who we are.”
Maddie & Tae
Maddie & Tae
Maddie & Tae boldly introduced their debut single "Girl In A Country Song" shortly after signing with Dot Records. Featured on their debut album START HERE, of which they penned each of the eleven tracks, the PLATINUM-certified breakout hit soared atop the Country radio charts and made them only the third female duo to peak their debut single at #1 in the history of the Billboard Country singles chart. The gender-flipping video garnered over 38 million views and scored the duo their first-ever award: CMA Video of the Year. The pair, from Texas and Oklahoma, respectively, also swept the 2016 Radio Disney Music Awards, winning both Favorite Country Artist and Favorite Country Song for GOLD-certified “Fly.” They have previously been nominated for ACM, CMT and CMA Awards. Receiving critical acclaim from NPR, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post and Glamour, among others. Maddie & Tae have appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, TODAY, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Live! with Kelly and Michael and most recently on The Talk, where they performed a cleverly written tune about dealing with bullies called "Sierra."
Sharing their songs with fans on the road, Maddie & Tae conquered their first headlining START HERE TOUR last fall before joining Lee Brice’s LIFE OFF MY YEARS TOUR and most recently wrapping dates with Brad Paisley’s LIFE AMPLIFIED WORLD TOUR. The vibrant talents have also partnered with Bloomingdale's on a Special Capsule Collection for Fall 2016 that embodies their youthful sense of adventure and unyielding girl power spirit. AQUA x Maddie & Tae is peppered with an eclectic mix of textures, colors, and silhouettes; the full assortment is available now in all Bloomingdale’s stores and bloomingdales.com with retail prices ranging from $38.00 to $498.00. Maddie & Tae embarked on a Bloomingdale’s "tour" in Chicago, New York City and Chestnut Hill where they gave fashion presentations and in-store acoustic performances.
Charley Crockett
Charley Crockett
With a pawn shop guitar that his mom bought for him when he was 17, Crockett taught himself to play. Summers in New Orleans with his uncle sparked his ear, while the Dallas blues and Valley’s Tex-Mex slipped into his bloodstream.
Across six albums in the past five years, the Texan has defined his own distinct roots style. Even on his platters of deep-cut blues and country covers like Lil’ G.L.’s Honky Tonk Jubilee (2017) and Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza (2018), Crockett pushes a suave and soulful classic Americana that melds genres and is as restless as the artist himself.
His delivery hinges with New Orleans clip, and voice slides with a slight lisp that melts around his phrasing like oil skirting the surface of a pond. His ear tunes an amalgam of East Texas blues, border Tex-Mex, classic honky-tonk, and Louisiana soul, swerving effortlessly between weeping George Jones-worthy country ballads and hot smoked Lazy Lester-swaddled blues. And Crockett’s own songwriting showcased on 2016’s In the Night and 2018 breakout Lonesome as a Shadow, cuts with an equally timeless quality.
That independence remains essential to Crockett. Although courted by major labels and big-name producers, Crockett is determined to continue forging his own path. Along the way, he’s begun to garner critical praise from national outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard, and NPR, and made his mark at major festivals ranging from Stagecoach and Pickathon to ACL and Newport Folk. This winter, Blue Bonanza hit #10 on Billboard Blues Chart and the Americana radio album chart.
At 35, Crockett still spends most of his time on the road, and he’s hardly slowing down. This summer, he makes his debut at the Grand Ole Opry as he sets out for headlining US and European tours.
Bart Crow
Bart Crow
Born and raised in Maypearl, Texas, country music singer/songwriter Bart Crow is gearing up for 2018 with new music & even more shows! Bart made his first attempts to write songs while in the United States Army and started first performing live while studying at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX. Perhaps the most significant milestone in his past involved moving with his wife Brooke to Austin, where they worked tirelessly to establish as Bart an artist.
Crow has put together an impressive track record as a recording artist, having lofted six No. 1 singles onto the Texas Music Chart – one of which, “Wear My Ring,” sold over 165,000 copies. He has sold over 40,000 albums, released five self-co-produced records in just over a decade, including Dandelion, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers South Central chart. He’s been cheered in Country Weekly, on CMT, and one of Rolling Stones “artists you need to know”. His YouTube videos and concert footage have drawn more than 5.7 million views.
Samantha Fish
Samantha Fish
That was my mission on this album: To really set these songs up so that they have a life of their own,” says Samantha Fish about Kill or Be Kind, her sixth solo album and her debut on Rounder Records. “Strong messages from the heart – that’s what I really set out for.” Indeed, what comes across immediately on hearing the album is the extraordinary level of songcraft on its eleven tracks, the way these songs are so smartly put together to deliver a potent emotional impact.
Anyone who has ever heard Fish’s previous albums knows that she has earned a place in the top rank of contemporary blues guitarists and that her voice can wring the soul out of a ballad and belt out a rocker with roof-shaking force. And, rest reassured, those virtues are fully in evidence on Kill or Be Kind. But each of the songs on the album does far more than simply provide a setting for Fish’s pyrotechnics. They tell captivating stories, set up by verses that deftly set the scene, choruses that lift with real feeling, and hooks that later rise up in your thoughts, even when you’re not aware that you’re thinking of music at all.
Kody West
Kody West
Kody started playing music in the beginning of 2014, eager to take on as many acoustic gigs and songwriting competitions in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that he could. As a frequent support act of the Texas Country/Red Dirt band Dalton Domino and the Front Porch Family, he took on the role of tour manager beginning of 2015. On the road with the band, he rapidly gained valuable hands-on experience working and playing music across the state of Texas. Thanks to his time on the road and his ability to fill in and play when needed, he was quick to gain a fast following of loyal fans.
Kody recorded his first full production EP later that year in Stephenville, Texas with producers Ben Hussey and Josh Serrato. The EP titled Higher Ground released January of 2016 with "Playing Cards" as the first strong, poignant single. Kody's music has been described as a mix of Texas Country and Bluegrass with some good-for-the-soul grooves.
Shortly after his EP release, Kody formed a full band in order to continue his commitment to travel across the country playing his tunes to the masses.
Casey James
Casey James
Anyone who has followed his journey from American Idol to Sony Music Nashville will be thrilled to discover the passion that drives the guitar-slinging Texan is dialed to 11. His 2012 self-titled debut won rave reviews and yielded Top 15 single “Crying on a Suitcase – and Top 20 single “Let’s Don’t Call It A Night”. His follow up gut-wrenching single “Fall Apart,” powerfully showcased his skills as a producer, intense vocalist and lead guitarist.
James has had an impressive career spanning from a local musician to playing for an audience of 22 million people weekly during his run on “American Idol.” From touring his hometown to touring the world while playing his own material, he has been consistently growing and evolving as an artist. In 2015 James decided to split ways with Sony, the tight creative limitations on commercial country overlapped only partially with the music at the center of his soul. James became independent in the hopes of being able to fully demonstrate his creative vision. With his 2017 album Strip It Down, Casey James made the blues project he’d always envisioned. This latest effort introduced his music to a whole new demographic and was well received worldwide. Teaming up with Grammy Award Winner Tom Hambridge was a great start, and at the conclusion of the crowd-funded creative collaboration, James was left with a record that garnered rave reviews from Blues/Rock/Americana media outlets and fans across the world with the Rock Doctor raving that that Strip It Down was “one hell of a delightful surprise!”
“The last few years have seen so many of my dreams come true. I'm finally interacting with people that I respect and admire; artists, producers, writers, musicians, and the fans. These are all people that have the same heart for music that I have. It's been an absolute pleasure working alongside artists like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Delbert McClinton, Tom Hambridge, Lee Roy Parnell" and the list goes on. The point is that after a lifetime of dedication and work, James is finally busting in to the scene that he's always wanted to be a part of. "To drive down the road and hear my song being played on SiriusXM BB King's Bluesville is one of the best feelings I could ask for. I’m thankful to have a dedicated audience that believes in who I am and what I do. I couldn’t ask for more and I’m always excited for what’s next.”
Now with the 2020 follow-up, If You Don’t Know By Now, James digs in deeper on the genre, exploring its range while setting himself apart as an inspired, melodic guitarist and as an expressive, soulful vocalist. It’s a stark commitment to a musical form lodged firmly in his soul. James attacked If You Don’t Know By Now with a new level of confidence, thanks in part to his affirming experience with Strip It Down.
We need to remind humanity what music is about,” James says. “It's not about money. It's not about fame. At the end of the day, you can remove all that, take away technology, take away marketing, but the music will remain. It's unkillable. As long as human beings live, music will remain, and that brings me joy.”
Kirk House
Kirk House
Kirk House calls himself an Arkansan Texan. He says his heart is one part Arkansas, other part Texas and as a whole, full of love and soul. Kirk grew up singing in church attributes the passion in his singing to his late grandfather, Clarence House.
As an artist, it's hard to pin Kirk into one genre. He's blues, rock, country and he's a lot of soul. Kirk says, " Music is my bridge and my sledge hammer. It brings people together from any and all backgrounds and it breaks down any and every wall or barrier. As an artist, as a Musician, that's my goal," says Kirk. Kirk's voice and subtle guitar work will leave you wanting more all while wondering, what will he sing or play next.
Courtney Patton & Jason Eady
Courtney Patton & Jason Eady
Courtney Patton
Courtney Patton is a storyteller. She’s also a mother, a wife, a producer, a singer, a songwriter, a tour-van driver and a musician-as well as a world-traveler when she’s out on tour throughout the continental U.S., Canada and Europe. But to anyone lucky enough to be sitting in the audience while listening to her expansive Texas twang belt out her version of deep and soulful country music, she’s a storyteller. In a musical era in which clichés and bravado are mistaken for bold noteworthiness, there is something far more brave in peeling back highly personal and emotional open-book songs and delivering them with sensitivity and sentiment. Patton does just that. She is the consummate storyteller in her music. Heartache isn’t just described, it is tangibly felt. Following her previous solo albums, Triggering a Flood (2013) and So This Is Life (2015), and her acoustic collaborative project with her husband and fellow Texas troubadour Jason Eady, Something Together, (2017), Patton has drawn on true life day-to-day autobiographical life experiences and released her third album, What It’s Like To Fly Alone, earlier this year.
After having Kennedy produce her last album, Patton took the production reins this time around, further cementing this as her most personal work to date. There is no marketing team or music label support. It’s Patton and her spirited passion for the music that has her hands-on over every part of her career. That makes the fact that What It’s Like To Fly Alone debuted as high at #4 on the iTunes country chart and made a mark across four different Billboard album charts (including a Top 20 mark on their Americana Albums Sales chart) all the more remarkable. But then again, Patton is a storyteller. It only makes sense.
Jason Eady
Since the 2005 release of his debut album, Mississippi-bred singer/guitarist Jason Eady has brought a rare balance of unguarded honesty and poetic sophistication to his songwriting. With his catalog spanning from blues-infused Americana to bare-bones reimagining of classic country, Eady’s seventh full-length takes on a looser, livelier, more groove-driven sound than ever before. But while I Travel On brims with a feel-good spontaneity, the Fort Worth-based artist continues to instill each song with the subtle insight and emotional depth that makes his music so powerful.
The follow-up to his 2017 self-titled effort, I Travel On marks the first time that Eady’s recorded an album with his road band—a lineup whose rhythm section is made up of musicians from an R&B/roots background, and whose lead players hail from the bluegrass world. With Grammy Award-nominated duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley joining them in the studio, I Travel On wholly captures the unbridled energy and kinetic camaraderie that the band’s recently displayed in their relentless touring and in sharing stages with the likes of Sturgill Simpson.
Elaina Kay
Elaina Kay
Kay talks like she writes: defiant but vulnerable, hopeful but wry. Her new album wraps all those occasionally opposing forces in Kay’s countrified rock-and-roll to create a modern portrait of steely femininity that’s sad, funny, and ultimately, inspiring. Backed by The Texas Gentlemen, Kay’s moody soprano slides from breathy storytelling to golden-era country songbirding and back again, nuanced and captivating. She wrote or co-wrote every track, and the result is a layered collection that is both starkly personal and intensely relatable.
Kay comes by her self-reliance naturally. She grew up on her family’s ranch in Wichita Falls, Texas, 15 miles south of the Oklahoma border. Up at 4 a.m. every day, she helped farm and raise cows and cutting horses. In between ranch chores at dawn and dusk, Kay discovered music. Her grandmother, Meemaw, noticed, and took her to perform at county fairs, beauty pageants, nursing homes, and everything in between. Kay remembers vividly when she began composing her own songs.
For college, Kay loaded up two horses and her dog and headed to Tarleton State University, where she joined the rodeo team. Kay loved to rodeo, but she realized she loved music more. So she took her horses home and hit the road, this time with her guitar, singing songs in bars throughout the South. Nashville beckoned, and without a safety net or fully formed plan, Kay packed up and moved to Tennessee. She rented a room in what she became to know as the “rock hostel,” a three-story house full of boys in bands. Kay didn’t know a soul, but she jumped in, wrote more songs, and made more friends.
On Issues, Kay uses pieces of her unconventional upbringing to fuel her songwriting. The album opens with the strutting “Daddy Issues,” a true story about Kay’s biological father running afoul of the law. Kay says “more importantly, the song is about embracing our issues or problems that stem from our upbringing and to make light of the term ‘she’s got daddy issues.’ This shouldn’t be a bad or sad thing; it’s about being proud of what made us who we are.”
Southern Avenue
Southern Avenue
2020 Grammy Nominees SOUTHERN AVENUE (Stax/Concord) are a boundary-breaking Memphis combo that carries the Southern soul legacy into the 21st century and beyond. Fueled by their powerful chemistry and electrifying live show, this fiery five-piece has performed in over fifteen countries and wowed audiences at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Firefly, Electric Forest and Lockn’. Relix calls them “a deeply soulful Memphis blues band that’s turning the scene on its head,” and No Depression commented that it's "easy to imagine Southern Avenue as a house band in their native Memphis or Muscle Shoals in the glory days of the '60s, sent back to the future to save us from inauthenticity and our collective hurt.
"What makes it Southern Avenue," singer Tierinii Jackson states, "is that when we come together, the music we make together is music we could never come up with individually. It's really rewarding to have so many influences in the band, and that we can find the balance between them."
"I'm proud that we don't sound like anyone else," guitarist Ori Naftaly asserts. "I've waited all my life to be in a band like this, and it's amazing to me that I get to play with these people every night."
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, November 13
| TIME | ARTIST |
|---|---|
| 4:00 PM | ELAINA KAY |
| 5:10 PM | JONATHAN TYLER |
| 6:40 PM | SOUTHERN AVENUE |
| 8:10 PM | KODY WEST |
| 9:55 PM | CHARLEY CROCKETT |
saturday, November 14
| TIME | ARTIST |
|---|---|
| 3:00 PM | KIRK HOUSE |
| 4:05 PM | COURTNEY PATTON & JASON EADY |
| 5:15 PM | CASEY JAMES |
| 6:45 PM | SAMANTHA FISH |
| 8:15 PM | BART CROW |
| 10:00 PM | MADDIE & TAE |