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BLAH
BLAH By Bellicose Bullfeather
HERE WILL A MEMORIAL
Benefit for Jon Early Ligon on
May 15 at Babb Brothers BBQ starting at 2 pm presented by the Dallas
International Guitar Festival. The
event features The Stratoblasters,
Maylee Thomas Band, the Boogie
Men, plus “The Mint Reunion” and
surprise guests to honor Ligon and
his family. There will be a silent and
live auction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Events
IT’S FESTIVAL SEASON, AND
there’s quite a few in May across the
Lone Star State. Here’s just a few, and
others can be found on line
FestivalsOfTexas.com.
The Wildflower! Arts & Music
Festival, May 20-22, Richardson, TX;
Programming includes a Singer
Songwriter Stage featuring Eliza
Gilkyson, Gretchen Peters, Slaid
Cleaves, Terri Hendrix and Lloyd
Maines, Ellis Paul and others; Also
performing at the Festival: Peter
Frampton, Toadies, Survivor, John
Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Dennis
DeYoung and the Music
of Styx, Finger Eleven, John Waite,
Jimmie Vaughan, The Guess
Who, Soul Asylum, Black Joe
Lewis, Hoobastank and Alien Ant
Farm. Wildfower! discussed on Page
11 in Texas Nexus. . . . . . . . . . . .
Running from May 26 through
June 12 is the 45th year of the
Kerrville Folk Festival at Quiet Valley Ranch in Kerrville. For more information Visit KerrvilleFolk
Festival.org and you’ll see quite a
variety of musical genres — folk,
bluegrass, country, blues, jazz,
Americana, and lots of singer/
songwriter activities, including concerts by the 24 finalists in the yearly
New Folk competition. The line-up
includes Judy Collins, Peter Rowan,
Peter Yarrow, Andrew Delaney, Terri
Hendrix, Ruthie Foster, and more.
The 8th Annual North Texas
Songwriter’s Festival is happening
on May 14-15 this year. Come out
and support the many talented singer
songwriters who will be performing
at the Pilot Point Community Opera
House in historic downtown Pilot
Point. Jon Rutherford, Mark David
Manders, Doc Hogan and many others will share their original music.
Go to the festival’s FaceBook page
On May 14, new Whitewright
Tractor Pull Arena owners are bringing the North Texas popular Honky
Tonk Fest back to life after a severalyear silence. Playing are Mike & the
Moonpies, Reckless Kelly, John
David Kent band, the Pear Ratz,
Aubrey Lynn England. As a bonus,
Randy Brown will play a Whitewright
Volunteer Fire Department
fundraiser the night before. The Tractor Pull Arena is east of Whitewright
on State Highway 11 . . . . . . . . . .
Also that weekend is the Marshmallow Jam in the Eustace/Walton
area, 12 miles west of Athens. This is
an acoustic-in-nature event on the
West.More.Land property at 6981
CR 3901, and features A Tiger Lilly,
Straw Hat Society, Thunder Punkin
and many other musicians. Info on
this is available on Facebook under
the festival name, Marshmallow Jam.
There’s still time for bluegrass
bands to sign up for the Bluegrass
Heritage Foundation’s Front Porch
Showdown contest, scheduled to run
on June 4 at Dallas Heritage Village.
The top band will walk away with
$500 prize and another $1,000 is
split between other top-placing
bands. Interested? Sign up online at
BluegrassHeritage.org/store/ . . . . . .
On Friday, May 27th, legendary
singer songwriter and Buddy Texas
Tornado guitar player, Marc Benno
will be inducted into the Texas Musicians Museum in downtown Irving. The ceremony will include rare
memorabilia and a book signing of
his new book, The Road to LA Woman,
The Life and Times of Marc Benno. As
well as a concert with Benno performing live and telling stories about
his illustrious career. With more than
twenty albums to his credit, Benno
was a member of The Asylum Choir
with Leon Russell in the late sixties
and played rhythm guitar on The
Doors, “LA Woman,” won a Grammy
award in 1985 for the soundtrack of
Beverley Hills Cop and has worked
with such artists as Eric Clapton,
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rita
Coolidge. For more information visit
TexasMusiciansMuseum.com. . . . . .
Congratulations to Gulf Coast
resident Marina Rocks who took
top honors, which included a $1,000
prize, in this year’s B.W. Stevenson
singer/songwriting contest, held
yearly at Poor David’s Pub in Dallas.
In second place was Washington
state’s Dan Weber. Others in the
2016 finals were Tim York, Rick Babb,
Kelsey Lewis, Andrew Delaney and
Caroline Murphy, most of whom are
from the Metroplex. . . . . . . . . . . .
The name Dean Dillon is familiar
to most songwriters, as he wrote
many George Strait hits (Strait recorded at least 58 Dillon songs), plus
about dozens by other artists. Dillon
and another Nashville songwriter,
Roger Springer, are hosting a
songwriters workshop on May 27 at
The Pickin’ Parlor (The Friday night
showcase venue for numerous Texas
songwriters) in Tishomingo, Oklahoma For more information, contact
Springer at 615-427-5224. . . . . .
New Releases
Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat
announced the release of their new
CD, Live at the Kessler, is scheduled
for June 17 on Underworld Records.
Live was recorded at the storied
Kessler Theater in Dallas November
28, 2015 and was produced by Suhler
and featuring smoking live versions
of 13 songs that originally appeared
on the studio albums, Panther Burn,
Tijuana Bible, Bad Ju Ju and Dirt Road,
plus two new songs, “Doin’ the Best
I Can” and “Reverie.” The band includes Suhler (guitar, vocals), Chris
Alexander (bass, vocals), Shawn
Phares (keyboards) and Beau
Chadwell (drums, percussion). Joining as special guests on Live at the
Kessler are Tim Alexander on keyboards and Tex Lovera on cigar box
guitar. “I chose the Kessler Theater in
Dallas for the recording of our live
CD because it is the best listening
room in the north Texas area, but
still retains an excitement due to the
intimacy of the room,” said Jim Suhler
about the new album. For more information, visit jimsuhler.com . . . .
Lukas Nelson & The Promise of
the Real are on the road again, with
most of May finding them at numerous venues across the U.S.A. (After
having spent the April leg of this tour
in Texas). Then — and here’s the
extra clincher for band fans — in
June they will be touring Europe
with Neil Young, making stops in
Dublin, Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin,
and 18 other major cities. Meanwhile, fans everywhere can watch
their new video, Something Real, on
YouTube from their new CD by the
same name. The band consist of
Nelson, his brother and Micah (vocals and guitar), bassist Corey
McCormick percussionist Tato
Melga and drummer Anthony
Logerfo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Frequently referred to as “the
Mount Rushmore of country music,”
The Highwaymen – Willie Nelson,
Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash–and
Kris Kristofferson – were American
country music’s first bona fide supergroup. The Grammy-winning
group was active from 1985–– 1995:
recording three albums, touring the
world and acting in the movie–Stagecoach (1986). American Masters ––
The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End,
will premier nationwide–May 27 at
8 pm on KERA locally as part of the
30th anniversary season of this
American Masters series and explores
how these men came together and
the fruits of their historic collaboration. Watch full episodes and more
at pbs.org/americanmasters. The Highwaymen Live - American Outlaws, a
new 3 CD/1 DVD or Blu-ray box set
of concert performances will be available May 20 from Columbia/Legacy,
along with a new single-disc compilation CD, The Very Best of The Highwaymen.
Splice Records will release Texas
roots rocker John Evans’ first album
in six years entitled Polyester on May
13. “Polyester embodies the iconic
style and genre-bending Evans is
notorious for,” said Grammy-winning engineer Steve Christensen,
who engineered and mixed the album. “It defines what great American music is all about. It’s homegrown, written on the highways, it’s
got roots.” ■
MAY 2016 BUDDY 5