Rockin’ the red dirt country: Music as independent as Texas

Rockin’ the red dirt country: Music as independent as Texas

	Jon Clark/ Star photos
	DEDRINGER SINGER: Sean Faires, front man of The Dedringers, rocks out Saturday night at the Cheatham Street Warehouse.
	Jon Clark/ Star photos
	NEW MEETS OLD: Modern Texas country often fuses the sounds of classic instruments such as the mandolin (left) with the harder sounds of the electric guitar, putting a modern twist on an older genre

By Clara Cobb
The University Star

Skulls, studs and speaker jumping make some mosh-pit weary music fans back up and turn the volume down.

Unless those music fans are listening to alternative Texas country.

Country, a music genre mainly associated with all things agricultural and conservative, has evolved in the Texas music scene. While red dirt country refers to Oklahoma and Texas, musicians who were raised on rock ‘n’ roll are taking the genre to a new level — even if only in volume.

Mike McClure Band merchandise features a gun and the slogan “twice as loud, half as popular.” Jack Ingram recently covered “Lips of an Angel” — a song by the rock band Hinder. Both musicians are on www.lonestarmusic.com top five best-seller list.

Katie Taylor, office manager of Austin Universal Entertainment, said Pat Green blazed the trail for Texas country artists by breaking into the mainstream Nashville country music scene.

Taylor said Texas Country is unique because of how different each independent artist sounds. He said Aaron Watson has a more honky-tonk sound, while Bleu Edmonson sounds rocking and gritty.

“A lot of the guys in the industry have very distinctive sounds. They don’t like the idea of being called Texas country because they might not sound like Joe Bob or whoever,” she said. “Not to bash on Nashville, but they have more of a cookie-cutter sound, where everyone has the same sound. Texas country is more independent than that. It’s a little more rock and roots.”

Outlaw country musicians of the 1960s, including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash are influences many Texas country bands list.

Unlike their predecessors, Texas country artist today are finding more acceptance in Nashville. Artists such as Randy Rogers, who started on the red dirt circuit, are now featured on Country Music Television and have national radio play.

“I think the biggest thing, as far as evolving, is Texas country is becoming more main stream. Nashville is recognizing it as a marketable music genre. It’s not like everyone woke up one morning and said, ‘hey, let’s listen to this,’” Taylor said. “It’s been a hard row to hoe, but that’s just the music industry.”

Brennen Leigh is a country music artist in the Austin area. She has been honored by the www.mytexasmusic.com Texas Music Awards. Leigh’s traditional sound is far from rock ‘n’ roll.

“I feel like there are a lot of kids who listened to punk rock growing up and then saw Walk the Line and felt like it was their religious calling to immortalize Johnny Cash,” she said. “(They are like) Country music, that’s easy to play. Rock is hard, so they have these country punk bands.”

While a lot of people have listened to Cash for a long time, his more recent albums and the fame before his death helped contribute to the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll in country music, she said. Leigh said the same thing happened with bluegrass music following the success of O Brother Where Art Thou?

Leigh said she feels the infiltration of rock ‘n’ roll into red dirt country is different from traditional music. Bands like Sunny Sweeney and Kevin Fowler stay with a more traditional country sound.

“I don’t feel it (rock ‘n’ roll) really impacts country,” Leigh said. “I feel people who were raised on that have their own thing. If you want to call it traditional and alternative country, then I think that is more alternative.”

Larry Mofle is the vice president of business development and co-founder of www.ourtracks.com, an independent music download Web site, and a moderator on www.countrytabs.com, a forum for country fans and bands.

He said the evolution of Texas country sound depends on how far back you trace the genre historically.

“Jerry Jeff Walker and Guy Clark began with a more traditional sound,” Mofle said. “Now I am hearing more of a rock sound. There is more distortion in the guitar sound and more lead guitar solos.”

He said Texas country blends classic and southern, with artist influences such as Molly Hatchet and Led Zeppelin, while Nashville country radio follows the demographics of selling.

“(Rock ‘n’ roll in country music) is not a bad thing, because it is a blending of the blues inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan, folk from Woodie Guthrie and classic country — If you talk to these Texas country artists, they are all influenced by them.”

Mofle said he believes production and honesty are two major differences between Nashville and Texas. He said Nashville is more over the top and tends to follow trends in popular and rock ‘n’ roll music, as well as following sales numbers. Mofle prefers a more stripped-down sound.

“Keith Urban is a great example of this, he’s phenomenal, but when he became popular, every new artist that came out after him had the same sound,” he said. “It became more that one guy’s success changes the sound around him.

“Honesty is a very invasive term. It is just the way the business is done,” he said. “How can you look someone in the eye and know you’re screwing them when they sign their agreement?”

As a music industry professional, he said one of his greatest joys is being able to cut checks to independent musicians when they sell their songs through www.ourtracks.com.

Mofle said the best advice for musicians to maintain the independent sound of Texas country has less to do with jumping off speakers and more to do with believing in a sound.

“It is important to be true to yourself,” he said. “If you have a specific sound and it is different from everybody else, instead of changing yourself to sound like everybody else, stay true to that sound. Willie Nelson did not become popular on his voice. He did what he needed to do without compromising in his mind what he needed to do.”

Mofle is one to take his own advice. He loves to play guitar and write music — and as a self-described old-style country performer, he felt he stuck out.

“As I continued to do it, I realized, this is me,” he said. “This is my style. It’s for the song and if you do it for yourself and if you stay true to yourself, you don’t lose the value.”

Leigh said she appreciates the differences in country and Texas country music as the genre continues to expand and evolve.

“That’s the beauty of creativity,” Leigh said. “It’s not going to be bad for kids to start liking country music.”