There’s no reason to fear anything or anyone when you have people’s respect.

I don’t have a care in the world who they talk to or who they try to persuade, that I’m full of shit… that I don’t know what I’m talking about or that I’m two faced. I’ve tried to build a road out of truth and respect with everyone I come in contact with in both this music scene and in life. It may not be a perfect record… but it’s pretty damn good.

Well, I know all the guys that you’d hire to come after me, and they like me better than you. ~Danny Ocean (Oceans 13)

In the film, Ocean’s life was threatened and he didn’t care the slightest. Do your work with respect and you’ll have the power to influence people and have a long line of people that will stand before you when the bullets start flying.

Reputation is powerful. It starts with truth and respect.

Check it out HERE.

What do you think?

Either night would be a fantastic time to check out this venue if you haven’t, but we’re going with the Saturday night Quails show as one to definitely see.

Sat Feb 25-Billy’s Ice in New Braunfels featuring The Damn Quails

Still a relative newcomer to the game, east Texas native JB Patterson is making quite the name for himself these days with his Moonshine Band.  On the eve of his sophomore album release Beer for Breakfast and a national tour, JB tackles our 20 Questions.  In it, he discloses that he actually does enjoy beer for breakfast, why he prefers Waffle House over Whataburger for his late night cravings and what he feels makes his music standout.

1. You’re in the midst of releasing your second record, Beer For Breakfast. Tell us a bit about the album. Who played on it? Where’d you record it? Why’d you go with that title?

This album has a lot of variety as far as songs go. There are some love songs, some drinking songs, some ballads, and even a few off the wall songs. We tracked the album at Mickey Jack Cones’ Westwood Studios in Nashville, and did a lot of overdubs in Bullard, TX at our friend Donny’s house. I’m singing and playing guitar on the album, Chris Flores on bass, Hayden McMullen on leadguitar, and Gabe Guevara on drums. Additionally, we had world renowned fiddle player Rob Hajacos and monster steel player Mike Johnson sit in on a few tracks. I like to drink beer for breakfast, which turned into a song. I thought it had a nice ring to it so that’s what I named the album!

2. You’re a former advertising executive. Give me your best sales pitch for JB & The Moonshine Band’s music.

“JB and the Moonshine Band take pride in the fact that their material is completely original. They aren’t afraid to push the envelope, striking a unique balance between unorthodox and mainstream. Their music spans genres as well as generations. A must-have for any music connoisseur!”

3. Name association:

-Casey Donahew-Great businessman and Songwriter

-Rich O’Toole -Hard core stage crasher!

-Kevin Fowler- Showman

4. You’re about to embark on a major national tour with Colt Ford, Rehab, The Lacs and Lenny Cooper. Your music doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of those acts. How’d you get roped into that? Any fear of a backlash among your Texas fans for touring with those guys?

(Laughs). Well, I wouldn’t describe it as something we got “roped into” but rather as a great opportunity to get in front of an extremely significant number of people. Though our musical styles are obviously different, we are fortunate to share the same fan base. I accepted the invitation to join this tour knowing it would put us in front of thousands of people per show.

I don’t think our Texas fans are going to get mad. It’s a 2 1/2-month long tour. We’ll be back in Texas just in time, with hopefully a healthy crop of new fans and supporters!

5. You had a pretty fast rise from off the radar to success. What do you think was the biggest factor in helping boost your career?

I wouldn’t really attribute our success to one specific thing. I think the fact that we write good songs that people identify with is a factor. Playing as many shows as we possibly can is a factor. Genuinely appreciating our fans is a factor. Our label is a factor. There are lots and lots of factors involved and we’re very grateful!

6. Your band came together organically through auditions and woodshedding together in the beer joints of Texas. That creates a bond that many of the national acts can’t duplicate. Could you tell us a bit about each guy in the band and what they bring to the table.

The bond you speak of is real. We spend half of our lives together and you can’t help being close. I feel like that is portrayed in our performances and in our music. Chris Flores, we call him “Flo”,  is a musician by blood. Music runs in his family and in his veins. He’d never played bass before joining this band! He’s a great harmony singer as well, which is something you just can’t teach.

Hayden McMullen plays lead guitar. He really just came out of nowhere and emerged on the scene as one of the most revered up and coming guitarists on the scene.

Gabe Guevara plays drums. He keeps us in time on stage and in stiches off the stage. I really couldn’t ask for a better group of guys. They are truly my extended family.

7. You’re based out of east Texas which is different than most artists who make their business homes in Austin or Nashville. What are the pros and cons of having a Piney Woods home base?

I could answer this question a thousand different ways. I think we probably miss out on an opportunity here and there because of it, but I think it actually works in our favor, somehow giving our music a fresh perspective and unique sound. Additionally, all our families live in East Texas so we don’t have to travel far to see them.

8. Who is a band in the Texas scene you feel doesn’t get enough hype or respect?

One of our favorites is the Cody Johnson Band. Great song writer, singer, and performer! I don’t think they are particularly lacking in the hype/respect category, but I do think they deserve a larger fan base and I’m excited to see it constantly growing.  I’m excited to see the same thing happening with us, too! It’s cool to see us both coming up at the same time.

9. Favorite touring memory of the following towns:

-Austin-We played our fifth show ever at Antone’s. Performing on a stage that so many greats have played on made us feel like we’d already made it.

-Tyler-My favorite memory of Tyler is playing to a sold out crowd and reuniting a soldier, Alek McPike, with his mom on stage after over a year of service abroad.

-College Station-Playing the Hall before it shut down. I took over merch sales one night there so that our merchman Torren could dance with this ol gal… priceless.

10. Who are your three biggest influences musically?

Hank Jr., The Band, and Metallica. Ask me tomorrow and I’ll tell you three different names.

11. What well-known acts have been the most supportive of your music? How so?

Well, Casey Donahew recently asked me to come to Ft. Worth and write a song with him, so I did. We wrote a song called “Double-Wide Dream”. It went #1 so that was cool. He’s been pretty supportive, putting us on a few shows and inviting me up on stage.

12. Stories behind the following songs:

-Ain’t Going Back To Jail -You gotta come to a show to hear this story!

-Beer For Breakfast- My favorite time of day to drink beer is right when I wake up. It’s been that way for a long time. That doesn’t mean I continue drinking throughout the day, I just like to have one or two with breakfast.

-Black and White- This song is mainly about how being on the road can put a strain on a relationship, but that love can prevail.

-Chasin’ Rainbows- When we first started it was rougher than rough. Little pay, grueling hours, sleep deprivation, and everybody that I knew thinking I was absolutely insane for trying to start a band. A friend of mine told me it was like “chasing rainbows” –you can see the prize over the horizon, but you can’t ever get to it. I told him that if that’s the case, ”I guess I’ll be chasin rainbows ‘til I’m gone.”

13. If a fan wants to send a round of shots to the stage for you guys…what should they buy?

I’m a fan of a product called Jack Daniels. I think my band likes Jäger Bombs.  So, 1-Jack Daniels, 3- Jäger Bombs…please!

14. If you had to play one cover in every set for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

This question hurts my brain… hmmm… I guess I’ll go with the theme song from “Fall Guy” because that’s one of the first songs I ever liked.

15. In the past, we’ve heard tales from bands of playing on flatbed trailers that collapsed to being paid in $1 bills. Sparing the names if you’ d like, what was the worst gig you ever had?

I’ll get back to you.

16. When did you write your first song?

I wrote my first song when I was around 15 or 16 years old. It was a break up song. It sucked…bad.

Is it still around in some form?

No, thank God it’s not around in any shape, form or fashion (except for probably a four track cassette in my attic).

17. Say it’s 4AM after a gig, you can only stop one place, where would it be… Whataburger or Waffle House?

If I have enough time I’d say Waffle House for sure. They usually have a jukebox.   If I’m just trying to get some quick sustenance I’ll go with Whataburger.

18. Rapid fire:

 -Salsa or queso? Salsa

-Apple or PC? Bootcamp

-Texting or calling? Texting

-Twitter or Facebook? Neither!

-Favorite Hank: Sr, Jr or III? Jr all the way, beh beh!

19. What’s your favorite George Strait song and why?

That’s just not fair! (laughs) I think he has like 58 number one songs. We cover a song of his called “Nobody In His Right Mind Would Have Left Her”… I like that one along with many,  many others. He has a way of picking songs that really speak to people.

20. What do you feel makes your music unique?

I think the fact that we have such diverse influences and the fact that we’re not afraid to challenge the borders of our genre. It also doesn’t hurt that we love what we do and we play by our own rules. I’ve said it before… we’re real, we’re raw, and we don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for it.

**Check out JB & The Moonshine Band on The Drop

I’m really diggin’ the Stephen King book 11/22/63. I’m a slow reader but this one has me hooked at the moment. Should be done soon!

Also, really enjoying an artist by the name of Charlie Worsham. Kid has opened for us recently and I’m blown away at the talent level and charm. He’s easy to like. You’ll hear his name all over soon! Check out his EP on iTunes.

The Damn Quails have burst onto the Texas/Red Dirt scene over the past few months on the strength of one of the best albums of the past half-decade, Down the Hatch, a radio hit “Fool’s Gold” and a blistering live show.  One half of the duo, Bryon White sat down to tackle our 20 Questions.  It’s one of the most entertaining and information packed one’s we’ve ever conducted.  Find out about how paying back a cop’s snide comment inspired their biggest song, why seeing a clown in full make-up on the highway actually made them on time to a gig and just where that unique band name came from.  All that and more in this edition of 20 Questions.

1.  Let’s get this out of the way first.  What’s up with the band name?

It’s not nearly as interesting or politically motivated as everyone thinks.  The truth boils down to Christmas ornaments.  I was living in a small apartment with a Christmas tree just to the right of the front door.  The tree was decorated with tiny stuffed bird replicas and the bottom limb, the one closest to the door, was home to a covey of quail that sat even to the height of my guitar case when I stumbled through the front door.  “Damn Quails!” was our exclamation every time I hit that branch and knocked them all to the floor.  Sorry Dan Quayle fans!

2.  Like so many other bands, your big break has come about from working with Mike McClure.  What’s Mac like to work with in the studio?  Joe Hardy also had a big hand in y’alls record.  What’s the best piece of advice they’ve given you?

Mac is every bit as nuts as he seems to the public and then some.  The guy has been up and down every rung of the music industry ladder and we were really excited to have all his experience on hand, both for making the record and in the inner workings of 598 Recordings with Chance Sparkman, our humble benefactor and the other head of the label.

Making Down the Hatch was one of the most comfortable and fluid experiences I’ve ever had in the studio.  Mac knew that we had a vision for the album and we were all completely on the same page with the final product.  He was also really good at helping us notice and buff out our own mistakes before we committed them to tape without making us feel like hacks in the process.  It’s a fine line and he’s walked it.  Hell, he probably drew part of it and he definitely snorted some of it back in the day.

Joe Hardy is pretty reclusive, but we had a great rapport with him from the start and he really made the album shine with his contributions and his incredibly keen ear.  I’ve still never met him in person, as he’s not the kind to leave the house for anything but smokes, booze, and Mexican food.

Best advice Mac’s ever given?  “Don’t let ‘em see you sweat…sweaty dude.”  I sweat.  It’s a fact.

3.  Name association:

-Even Felker – Oklahomie

-Jason Boland – Bowlegs

-Stoney LaRue – Party Bus

-Brandon Jenkins – Beard Competition

-Cody Canada – Pantene

-Steve Rice – Yes Justin

-Josh Abbott -  Helluvaguy

-Randy Rogers – Band

-Adam Hood – Sweatshirt

-Jason Eady – Mindy McCready

4. If you weren’t a professional musician, what would you be currently doing?

Hating my life. I’ve tried a whole lot of different things to make money, from staring at a computer screen and designing sewer pipes and parking lots to dealing poker in smoky Indian casinos.  Every since I played my first solo gig at a coffee shop in my hometown and walked away with 200 bucks in my pocket at the age of 16, I knew nothing else was ever going to cut it.

5. Y’all became a duo sort of out of necessity by taking each other’s solo tunes and working them up together.  Were there any apprehensions about becoming a group and forgoing solo careers?  Or was it just something that felt natural?

Both Gabriel and I had been working solo careers for nearly a decade and were both doing fairly well as far as making the rent and paying the bills.  After the first few shows where we really got into our rhythm, we knew there was something special about the way our voices blended and our writing styles were different yet complimentary. I think the fact that we keep our writing separate (with a McClure co-write on “Graceful Swandive” as the sole exception thusfar) keeps that magic moving instead of trying to combine and possibly stagnating each others’ styles and getting in each others’ way.

6.  You once proclaimed that y’all never play a song the same way twice.  Do you still think that’s true?

Admittedly, you start to fall into patterns when you play the same songs night after night.  Certain songs have a basic pattern that they follow but we like to keep the creative spirit alive by switching it up on a whim.  Sometimes the harmonica will take the fiddle break, sometimes the alto sax solo becomes a baritone sax solo, just depending on how we feel or what mood we’re in that particular night.  It’s one of the things that we’ve retained from playing those initial weekly shows: the ability to take something that a show-goer has seen 20 or 30 times and make it somewhat new every single time.

7.  Stories behind the following songs:

Midnight Swagger – I was honing my lead guitar chops in my brother-in-law’s red dirt band Lower Middle Class at the time I penned this one.  I woke up one morning and decided to write a tune that would fit in with the set and be a fun rocker to boot.  A few cigarettes and a pot of coffee later and this one was finished.

Another Story – A tune about events occurring at a little trout fishing camp I’ve been going to since I was a kid in Gore, Oklahoma.  It’s one of those relationship type tunes.

Fool’s Gold – On one of my first major road trips playing music to a little town called Goodland, Kansas, I was detained and subsequently arrested by the local law enforcement (all of them…6 if I remember right) for engaging in some “set break” activities that we didn’t see eye to eye on.  48 hours later I was released to some angry people that loved me nonetheless and I started formulating this song on the drive home in response to a snide remark by one of the bailiffs.  “Maybe you’ll write a song about this”.  I did.  And it just so happens to be climbing various charts like a tweaked out orangutang.

California Open Invitation – I’ve explained this song a few different ways to a few different people.   I’m not really sure which version is the truth or if any of them are even close.  The important thing to know about it is that the subject of the tune was always a blurry and faceless figure to me until very recently.  It’s the thing you’re waiting on that you never knew you were waiting on until it hits you like a ton of bricks and knocks you to your knees with a force you never knew existed and have absolutely no hope of denying.

Mary – Another one of those relationship songs, this one about the same subject of “Another Story” in a roundabout way.  I came really close to burying this song and never playing it again until I made the beautiful mistake of playing it in front of some of our die hard female fans from Norman and OKC.  They haven’t let me stop since.

Iceman – During my time as a card dealer, I was watching a lot of History channel docs at 4am between studying for college and sleeping.  I happened upon the Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer and was determined to write the creepiest tune I could come up with in the dark before the dawn. This one creeped me out so much I couldn’t sleep for days.  The power of the human mind has always been of serious interest to me, especially a mind as warped and twisted as that of a remorseless sociopath and contract killer.

Dollars – I wrote this tune after the “Fool’s Gold” debacle during my first road trip to Texas by myself.  I drove down from OKC through Fort Worth, Houston, and all the way down to the Mexican border to glean some wisdom and advice from my grandpa.  He ended up clearing away a lot of the haze I found myself swimming in and I came back with a better knowledge of myself and what I was supposed to do with the rest of my life, i.e. write songs and play them.

8.  If you could emulate one artist’s career…who would it be?

Tom Waits is a singer/songwriter/performer that has never compromised his music or his ideals for any reason.  The man has been making music that is beautiful, strange, haunting, and incredibly personal for going on 4 decades now and has ended up in a place that every serious songwriter that performs their own works would be more than happy to end up. He is the king of cool and we’re lucky enough to have our name floating around his on the national Americana Music Association charts as of late.

9.  Y’all sprang out of the Norman scene.  It has a strong musical tradition of its own, but is sometimes overshadowed by Stillwater, Tulsa and other Oklahoma locales.  How has coming from the Norman scene been a blessing?  Any ways it’s been a curse?

Norman has been extremely kind to us, both as musicians and citizens.  The host of talent that’s been kicking around Norman for the past 20 years runs deep and it’s kind of disappointing that it does get overshadowed by some of the more “noteworthy” cities around the state.  Some of the most prolific songwriters like Mike Hosty  and spot-on performers like Travis Linville are Norman residents and we’re really glad to be doing our part in bringing it back into the public consciousness.  There’s a lot more where this came from, including the likes of Camille Harp, a younger kid named Parker Milsap, Jesse General Thompson, the list goes on.  Be watching for them.

10.  Favorite touring memory of the following towns:

-Fort Worth – Hanging out with the Dirty River Boys at the old faithful Extended Stay across the way from Woody’s Tavern.  From what I remember, it was a helluva night.

-Houston – Waking up late to leave for the Texas Red Dirt Roads show with Justin Frazell after a Jager-soaked night at the Hardy Street Tavern in Houston and driving way too fast to get to Mansfield on time.  As we blew past a Scion wrapped in a picture of a clown with the same clown driving said Scion in his clown costume, we decided life was too short to die on account of being hungover and leaving late, so we slowed down for a picture and ended up getting there right on time.

-Tulsa – I had tickets to see the Pixies perform Doolittle in its entirety but booked a show with our good buddy Joe Mack at the infamous Colony Pub and decided to give up my tix to play our first Damn Quails show in Tulsa.  We arrived and realized that Joe was nowhere to be seen.  When he finally rolled in about an hour late,  he revealed that he had been at said Pixies show.  I knew I should have kept those tickets.

-Dallas – While gathering the rest of our gear from the van parked caddycorner to the OU/Texas Red River BBQ Shootout gig at the Main Street Gardens, a man approached us from the bus stop on the corner and asked if we wanted to fight him.  “No”, we politely replied.  He proceeded to ask us where his clothes were and how far he was from his mother’s house.  Then, he laid down on the ground in some sort of heroin-induced super haze.  Nice guy.

-Oklahoma City – Ditching a pistol after an unfortunate incident involving a drunk dude cut off by the bar, Buffalo Rogers’ Town Car, a baseball bat, and Biggie.

-Lubbock – Answering these 20 Questions and probably the Buddy Holly Center which I’m about to visit.

-Austin – Rolling around 6^th Street with the Krugs after an acoustic gig at Threadgills and reveling in the fact that we were a band with a good record that was still relatively unheard at the time.  It was like walking around with a secret you’re dying to tell everyone but you know it’s going to be better when they figure it out on their own.

-New Braunfels – Playing at Lone Star Music on the official release date of Down the Hatch with the full 7 piece philharmonic and drinking Ziegenbock to our hearts content.  While the rest of the guys cavorted with the Lonestar staff and terrorized the streets of Gruene, I was eating dinner with a woman I hadn’t seen in 7 years and beginning the process of re-realizing just how deeply I felt for her.  A night to remember indeed.

-Stillwater –College Bar.  Ladies Night.  You get the picture.

-Chicago—Playing a kickass venue to a nearly packed house on a great sound system in a place we’d always wanted to see.  Also, the acoustic dobro/mandolin/banjo jam on the Josh Abbott Band bus with all the guys was a hoot and holler.

11.  Y’all are gaining some excellent buzz for your live show.  In that regard, who is your favorite act or band to see live?

Good question, compadre.  Our buddies in the Dirty River Boys are quite the live act.  They take a simple setup and make it work flawlessly, which ends up being an energy packed and somewhat raw live show that constantly makes you wonder how on earth they sound so huge without an actual drum kit on stage. Also, I like playing with them because Nino and I share the same stage position and he’s the only person whose mic I have to move up to sing into.  They’re also some of the coolest guys we’ve run into on the road and they’re certainly a match for us in the “our band rolls hard” competition.

A little closer to home, our buddy John Fullbright is one of the strongest singers, writers, performers, and musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure to share a stage with…and write a badass train song with.  Plus,  his shows never disappoint, especially with Terry “Buffalo Ware” on lead guitar, Giovanni “Nooch” Carnuccio on the kit, and Wes Sharon on the bass.

Lest I forget, watching the Mike McClure band in all their glory is still a sight to behold and even more fun to jump onstage and become a part of.  How they make a 3-piece sound so damn rockin’ is beyond me…and I’ve been in a punk band.

12.  Down the Hatch encompasses a variety of musical labels and styles.  How would you describe your sound?

Of all the terms that have been bandied about, I think we’re mostly a Folk/Americana band at heart.  We have a lot of elements from more genres than you can shake a stick at and confining that to a simple style is almost impossible when you get down to it.  Being Okies ourselves, Red Dirt would seem a fitting genre and we can kind of squeeze into that, but I don’t think it suits us as well as Folk/Americana.

13.  You’re a pretty active blogger on the band website and really give a good glimpse behind the scenes at your life on the road.  Is that an outlet you enjoy?  Or is it more a cathartic process?

It started out as a necessity but it’s turned into something I really enjoy doing. First and foremost, it keeps me in touch with the fans and followers that are truly instrumental in the success we’ve had so far. Writing has always been my favorite part of this whole crazy shindig and blogging gives me a chance to unleash the inner wannabe novel writer that I never quite turned into.  Writing songs is a challenge in that you’re forced to compress a sometimes vast amount of detail into a 3 or 4 minute work and it’s nice to be able to pour out a few hundred or thousand…depending on my road-weary brain… words without having to shorten and snip and edit my thoughts like I would if I were songwriting.

On the flip side of that, I’m a self-professed Twitter addict and I really enjoy the character limit as it keeps my mind limber and forces me to find new ways of saying things that don’t take an entire afternoon to get through.

14.  As you were coming up, you held down a regular, weekly Monday night gig.  That had to make you a better musician.  Do you feel that all singer/songwriters should go through a similar experience? 

Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  Three times.  There’s a lot to be said for paying your dues, and our weekly gigs…we had 3 going for at least a year and a half, were instrumental in creating the sound and working up the songs that we’ve come out of them with.  Those kinds of shows also force you to find new ways to play those tunes so as not to bore the folks that come out and see you week after week.  I’m a firm believer in the fact that Down the Hatch wouldn’t be nearly as well put together had we not had the experience of playing those weekly gigs for so long.  They also give you a chance to tell stories and get comfortable with a crowd of people while helping you figure out how you can control the flow of energy in a room just by your song selection or how you perform the tunes night after night.

15.  Has the radio success of “Fool’s Gold” taken you by surprise?  Or was it something you envisioned?

It was something I hoped for but tried not to think about at first.  When you spend a decade trying to make a career out of playing your own songs, you end up getting instilled with a sense of cautious skepticism.  For right or wrong, getting your hopes up time and again over something someone says about someone they know making you famous or passing your demo on to a producer that’s going to make you a million dollars eventually takes its toll on your optimism.

I knew “Fool’s Gold” went over well with a crowd and I also felt like it had some interchangeable themes that people could put themselves into and make the song personal as opposed to being told every intricate detail of a story that no one else could relate to.  The ability to personally interpret a song to your own situation has always been a characteristic of a really great song in my eyes and I’m beyond glad that people have taken to it in such a huge way.

16.  How many times have you been mistaken for Bryan White of “Rebecca Lynn” fame?

More than I care to count.  Although the time that sticks out was back in my early college days playing at the Bean and Berry Bistro in my hometown of Shawnee, Oklahoma.  Shawnee hosts the International Finals Youth Rodeo every year and the rodeo folks that invade the town during the week of the IFYR are always rolling around town and looking for something to do.  A group of 15 or so cowboys and cowgirls saw my name on the sign, walked into the coffee shop, listened to a half a song and left saying something about “My Heart Sittin’ on Go”.

17.  What’s your best Tom Skinner story?

After a particularly raucous night in Joplin, Biggie and I were foaming at the mouth to find the world famous Hornet Spook Light (an unexplained light of unknown origin that’s been seen and documented for centuries) on the Devils Promenade between the Missouri and Oklahoma border.  We secured a 5^th of Popov’s Vodka from the gas station…abig score for Okie boys at 1AM and headed off into the night to see the only truly unexplainable thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

In the midst of screaming like little girls as we watched the old spooklight dance around the Devil’s Promenade, we got a call from Tiny saying how much he’d always wanted to see the damn thing.  As Biggie and I were determined to show someone of more reliable social status, we headed back and rounded up Tom and Gabriel, drove back out to the Devils Promenade, and chased that damn spooklight all across the country side.

All the while, Skinner just kept saying “Well boys, that’s the weirdest damn thing I’ve ever seen”, and trust me, dude has seen weird.

The next morning, Tom had the idea for Red Dirt Rockin’ Ghost Hunters, a television show in which we, with Skinner as our fearless leader, traipse about the countryside playing folk music and “rootin’ up the undead and unexplained” after the gigs.  We’re still waiting on the Discovery Channel to get back with us.

18.  Rapid fire:

-Sooners or Pokes?
Sooners

-Pacino or DeNiro? |
Pacino. Godfather. ‘Nuff said.

-Favorite venue to play?
The Deli, our old home base.

-Favorite time-waster in the van?
Twitter…or keeping up the various blog portals to the music world, Galleywinter and Rawhide & Velvet in particular. Or listening to Biggie tell stories about Bob Moore, our resident musical guru and spirit guide.  Or trading Norm McDonald text message quotes with John Fullbright.  Tons of time to waste in the van, especially since I’m not the only driver any more.

-Biggest musical guilty pleasure?
I’d say The Cars, but I don’t really feel guilty about that.  Garbage…that I feel a little guilty about.

19.  What’s your favorite George Strait song and why?

“Carryin’ Your Love With Me”, because in spite of everything I can’t stand about it, it still gets stuck in my head at random times for absolutely no reason.

20.  To what do you attribute the way your music has connected and resonated with Texas/Red Dirt fans in a relatively quick span?

I think we make music and live our lives by a simple formula:  Write good songs, play them well live, and be good to the people that are good to you.  We know that we wouldn’t be where we are without the people that support us and we try our damndest to make sure our fans know we know it.  If you have passion, belief in what you’re doing, and a good work ethic, things are bound to work out one way or another.  A little luck doesn’t hurt, either…

Belton Surprise

Fri Feb 17 at Bell County Expo Center in Belton, TX.  Randy Rogers Band, Pat Green and Bart Crow

While I love Willie, lionize Cash and respect Kristofferson…Waylon was the Highwayman that resonated most with me.  He first grabbed a hold of me as the balladeer from the Dukes of Hazzard and as a kid I enjoyed his late career turns with “Wrong” and “If I Can Find a Clean Shirt” featuring Willie.   Yet, it wasn’t until I was a teen fascinated with spicing my country with metal that I truly understood Waylon’s greatness.

What’s not to like?  Especially in a continually plastic and fractured music business.

The don’t give a damn what you think attitude, the cut the songs my way with my band determination, the leather bound Tele, the stick it to the man rebelliousness, the simple songwriting, the signature sound, the stories, the music…the movement.

The kid who gave up his seat on Buddy Holly’s ill-fated flight grew into one of the greatest American musicians of all time.

Waylon influenced millions and ushered in a new way of doing things at a time when Nashville sounded more like Manhattan.  From the first moment he began catching lightning in a bottle doing things his way, he’s been cited as a major influence by any number of people.  His admirers range from Kid Rock and James Hetfield of Metallica to Cody Canada and Wade Bowen.

Even when he was still with us, Waylon scoffed at the hypocrisy of the music industry and foresaw the rise of the faux outlaws that would come in his wake and try to trade on his name.  In the ten years since his passing, he’s become an easy namecheck for bands on the come up to reference as an attempt to seem legitimate.

Guys like Jason Aldean, Eric Church, and Brantley Gilbert talk about Waylon with reverence, but I don’t think they truly understand what he was all about.  They like to fashion themselves Outlaws, but Waylon never tried to be one or built a marketing plan around that…he was just himself.  He rarely showed up for award shows, and if he did he didn’t sit with his aviators on all night to make a fashion statement.  He didn’t sing a duet with a pop star to cross over. He embraced the worlds of rap and metal with respect and not lazy, pandering ripoffs.

From his attitude to his music.  Right or wrong, what you saw is what you got.  In this era of I’m more country than you and listen to that kick drum and rock guitar while I rap about dipping snuff, we could use Waylon more than ever.  I’d love to hear his take on country music these days…I think it would be hilarious.

Waylon didn’t live a very long life due to some of his habits that he finally was able to overcome…but he led a very full life.  Alas, he didn’t live very long like that, and country music won’t either unless it rehabs itself soon.

Rest in Peace Waylon.  We love you.

You know MusicFog.. they are the badass group of folks that slave tirelessly at events to bring you a) live streams and b) youtube videos to watch after its all done. They are the best at what they do and continue to up their game.

You know how I know you know who they are? Because I see you sharing their videos when you want to tell someone about an artist. It’s top quality.. why wouldn’t you, right?

Well, they are going in and going to do the same sort of thing at SXSW again this year. 45 bands in 4 days! But they need all of our help to make it happen… they’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to cover their production costs for the 4 days onsite and countless days off site producing the videos.

Give back a little for what they’ve given us for free… for years. We have to make this a sustainable thing for them or we’ll all be forced to sharing iPhone videos again!

Music Fog Kickstarter Page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCKcFHM_rvU