Photo courtesy of Alisha Hurt

Somebody’s Darling (Official / Myspace) has been on a roll as of late. Last year, they won the Shiner Rising Star competition and this year, they saw their excellent self-titled Shiner Records album released after recording it in Nashville with none other than Dan Baird, who has produced many greats including Chris Knight. They have been hitting the road with many top-notch acts recently and their brand of soul-flavored country rock has been winning new fans quickly. I recently chatted with 2 of the members, Amber Farris (lead vocals) and David Ponder (guitar) about what their lives are like at this juncture and where their music is heading…

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GK: What has been the most exciting thing that has happened to you since winning Shiner Rising Star?

David: That’s tough… loading up the van to go to Nashville and record your first album would rank pretty high up there. Also getting a chance to tour with Stoney LaRue was so awesome. We got to really see how a real show with a full crew operates. It gave us something to shoot for definitely.

GK: Now that you have had the experience of recording in a first-class studio with a pro like Dan Baird producing, how has the everyday experience of being in this band changed?

Amber: It hasn’t really changed the day to day stuff, it’s just really prepared us for the next time we go in studio. I feel like we learned a bunch from Dan, he’s awesome!

GK: You guys have been playing with a bunch of great acts from all over. You are even opening for James McMurtry soon at The Granada Theater in Dallas. Who are the artists that you have been excited or even intimidated by over the course of the last year or so?

Amber: Stoney Larue, Lucero, Sam Roberts, and Corb Lund come to mind but really everyone we play with is a new experience and a chance to learn something. It’s always an honor to play with acts we look up to ourselves

GK: Right now who are you listening to other than yourself?

David: Lot’s of Lucinda Williams, Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Townes Earle, and Ryan Bingham. Also I’ve been jamming the new Murry Hammond a ton, it’s SO good.

GK: Are you catching any “non-Somebody’s Darling” shows this season?

David: It’s soo hard to make it out to shows when you’re always playing, but I just saw that the Avett Brothers and Samantha Crain are coming to the Granada soon. We HAVE to go to that one. Amber and I were in a band before SD and we actually opened up for Samantha Crain years ago, we’re so proud to see her doing good.

GK: Describe Somebody’s Darling’s sound in 5 words.

David: Classic Rock with Soul-Country

GK: Being a band that has being playing together for a while – in and around Dallas – and is finally getting some exposure to larger audiences, what bands from the Dallas area do you think deserve some attention pointed in their direction?

Amber: We’ve really grown up with a band called John David Kent and The Dumb Angels. We’ve done a bunch of little mini-tours with them and stuff and they’ve really become family. Keep an eye out for them!

GK: Since its Thanksgiving weekend, what are you thankful for right now?

David: I’m thankful that we’re getting a chance to nationally release the album soon! Also very thankful for the fact that we don’t want to kill each other yet… haha. We’ve had some cold nights in the van that could break the spirit of lesser band.

GK: With the holiday season upon us, where do you think or hope Somebody’s Darling will “be” by the holiday’s in 2010?

Amber: Hopefully on the road! Everyday of 2010!

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LISTEN: Somebody’s Darling – “Horses”

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Sometimes, I see something in my inbox and I just know I need to get it out. I did that a while back with Allen Thompson. I had only heard one of the songs from Thompson’s stellar CD, 26 years, when I knew I wanted to tell all of you about him. Instead of waiting for what might be a week or two for me to listen to the disc a few times and then formulate my thoughts on the complete album, I felt the urge to say what little I knew at that point, hoping you would like what you see and hear and go check out more of it for yourself.

I am experiencing a very similar sensation, now that I see Matt Butcher (Official / Myspace) has released his record, Me and My Friends. I first stumbled upon Butcher’s music when he opened for the Avett Brothers in Dallas a couple of years back. As with many instances where I see an opening act that impresses me, I unfortunately never got around to following up on the artist as diligently as I had told myself that I would (that is one of my rather unattractive traits, I might add). Regardless, Butcher has kept on playing and creating and thankfully, I have been able to kick myself for not following more closely while giving the disc a spin.

While the album is stocked with singer/songwriter and acoustic gems, the song that grabs me hardest, just as it did when I saw him perform it a couple of years back, is “Grace on a Greyhound Bus”. I could be wrong - and as usual, I probably am – but I seem to recall Butcher saying that he had just wrote this track and finished it as they were pulling into Dallas. He played it during sound-check and then again during his set. While the track was performed solo-acoustic that night, the album version is augmented beautifully with organ and piano. The added instrumentation doesn’t detract from the vibe or the tale itself. Also, you can go to his website and pick the album up using the “pay what you want” system that has been gaining popularity among indie acts lately. I suggest that you do this immediately. Listen for yourself…

LISTEN: Matt Butcher – “Grace on a Greyhound Bus”

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I love it when I can curl up to a good music-related book and tear through it over the course of a weekend. Not because it’s overly simplistic or light, but because I just cant put it down. The new book, Rick Rubin – In The Studio, digs just deep enough to give serious fans of the man’s work some specifics and perspective that likely haven’t been put together in one place before.

Much of the book, whether it’s interviews and comments with artists that have benefited from Rubin’s magic, or the man himself, are culled from previously published articles over the past 20+ years. That said, Jake Brown does an excellent job of streamlining all of the information, crafting a story and constructing themes from the source material. The book does begin with Rubin’s introduction into the music business when he helped start Def Jam Records with Russell Simmons. Once we get past that initial phase, however, the book becomes the “Rubin, Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash Anthology”. Don’t take that as a bad thing, by any stretch. It’s Rubin’s work with the legendary rock/funk misfits and the giant who was the revered, elderly statesman of American Music that has been chiefly responsible for vaulting Rubin into modern-day legend status himself.

The book delves deep into the relationships that Rubin nurtured with many of his artists. Again it’s the examples of the RHCP and Cash bonds that provide the greatest peek inside the chemistry that created such amazing, groundbreaking albums. Between being basically an extra member of the Chili Peppers and taking communion with Cash on a near daily basis, we are shown what is perhaps Rubin’s greatest strength as a producer, the ability to relate. Sometimes that means Rubin is reaching out to the band and driving them to create something that achieves a higher standard than they had originally shot for, and sometimes he simply knows how to turn a rambling rhyme with no real focus into something that the fan will want to hear, thanks to an accessible song structure. We learn that Rubin produces based upon feel and not by jumping into the booth and spanking the bass or playing lead on his albums while being a knob-nazi on the board. It is relayed to us that Rubin possesses such a keen understanding for what makes genuinely good music and he knows how to get a band effectively craft an album that will force the listener to engage themselves fully into the final product. While much attention is given to the technical and instrumental aspects of the various works, those specifics serve to round out the picture, not jump in front of it.

Yes, the book discusses Rubin’s work with the many other artists in which he helped produce some really great albums. The Cult, System of a Down, Audioslave, Neil Diamond, Danzig, Beastie Boys, Slayer, and Metallica are all discussed here. Rubin’s guidance of the historic project where Run DMC and Aerosmith teamed up on what many consider to be the first rap/rock combination, “Walk This Way”, is detailed as well. What is striking to me, as with many other occurrences mentioned in the book that are fascinating to me, is that the seminal track that brought Hip-Hop to the mainstream and reminded the public that Aerosmith was still alive was merely an idea that Rubin had and thought would work. As one can see, especially after reading this book, most of Rubin’s ideas are pretty good.