Pat Green, Randy Rogers…Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang??
When most folks think of “Texas Country,” names like Robison, Ingram, Green and Ragweed come to mind. Sadly, many bands that offer glimpses into other brands of “Country in Texas” get sold short by such a short list of names. Here are some to add to your list of names to associate with great bands that represent the diversity that makes Texas music so amazing, Spitfire and Rotten Apple.
- Electric Mountain Rotten Apple Gang: Hailing from Ft. Worth (among other areas) this bands gigs all around Tejas. Their brand of Progressive Acoustic and Bluegrass on Crack (I mean that in a very good way) belongs on any list of emerging bands that are looking to form a new stream in the Red Dirt that clogs the club listings throughout the Southwest. Give their Myspace a listen and dig their “Black Lung” jam.
- Spitfire Tumbleweeds: Cindy over at the Fine Line recently pumped these Denton, TX boys up. This band represents all that is great about the increasingly influential, burgeoning music mecca that is the home to the Mean Green of North Texas. Each member comes from a different band (Current Leaves, Record Hop) that carved their own niche before activating wonder-twin forces to present this brand of Back Porch Funk (my term, the band hasn’t endorsed that term, sorry). Give their Myspace a listen and check out the tunes that would be at home on an indie-hipster college radio play-list or any number of large market stations that claim to play “Texas Music.”
The fact is, I would never want to limit either of these bands to a genre as closed off and narrow as “Texas Country.” I’ll leave that to the wannabe’s that can’t stop singing about I-35 and Shiner Bock. Bands that present us with such a wide range of style and substance deserve better than that.
3 Responses
Hence, the genre Texas Music in my iTunes. Stevie Ray isn’t country, ZZ Top isn’t country, Eric Scorcia isn’t country, but they’re damn sure Texas.
Your darn right! Doug Sahm would hate the fact that many frat boys think that texas music extends only back to REK’s Live Diner #2.
Throw in Roky Erickson also…true texas music, anything but country and hard to define, regardless of the many folks that try and lock him in a “psychadellic” box.