 Bleu Edmondson straps it on in support of his first new studio album in five years, Lost Boy. Photo: Todd Purifoy |
2007 was a year that saw much change in Texas Music. Which is to say that it was just the same as any other year. There were lots of great new releases from established Texas artists (including a few that took almost half a decade between studio records) and some brand new artists that rose above the crowd in '07. If you attended a festival in the summer of 2007, you likely needed some waders. Unless you went to an event on the river, in which case you weren't allowed in. Almost every summer festival had to battle the rain that drenched the state last year. We'll take a month-by-month look at the artists we featured throughout the year, all of 2007's new CDs, and some of the other Texas Music happenings that went down along the way. At the end we'll take a look at the 20 most popular LoneStarMusic CDs of 2007. |
| January 2007 We sat down with our artist of the month Billy Joe Shaver for an exclusive interview about his Greatest Hits CD and the songwriting it represented. It would be the Other new CDs of note from January included a gospel record from Aaron Watson, Stephanie Briggs' (formerly of Rodger Wilko) solo debut, a live record from Jimmy Kaiser and a collection of demo recordings from Phil Pritchett. You can check out all of January's releases here. We at LoneStarMusic started off 2007 by freezing up in Colorado with the rest of the crazies at the 22nd annual MusicFest in Steamboat Springs. The biggest Texas Music festival outside of the state of Texas you'll ever find. Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, Joe Ely, and John Hiatt took to the road for a series of "in-the-round" shows which has become a first of the year tradition for Lyle, Guy, and Joe with a different artist usually filling the fourth slot. In other happenings, Sugar Hill Records closed their Durham, NC office and relocated some of the staff to their Nashville office in an effort to cut costs. Durham is where Barry Poss started the legendary roots label, which is now owned by Welk Music Group. February 2007 February also featured new releases from both Patty Griffin and Lucinda Williams. The releases would prove to be polar opposites with Lucina releasing her most subdued album to date while Griffin threw down with her most aggressive record since 1998's Flaming Red. You can check out other releases from February on LoneStarMusic. The Dixie Chicks had a career night at the Grammys, winning all five of the awards they were nominated for including the Grammy Triple Crown of Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. In other news, Matthew Knowles of Music World Entertainment purchased Houston-based Compadre Records. The purchase made for some strange bed-fellows, making James McMurtry, Beyonce Knowles, and Billy Joe Shaver label mates. Compadre Records founder Brad Turcotte stayed on board as President of Compadre and assumed a new role as Executive Vice-President of Music World. March 2007
March saw a slew of Texas legends release new music including a partnership of Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price that produced the double disc Last Of The Breed. Asleep at the Wheel and Johnny Bush also checked in with new discs. New artists got in on the action also as the original LoneStarMusic intern, Sunny Sweeney, made her major label debut with the national release of Heartbreakers Hall Of Fame. Visit our March page for more of what hit the shelves in 03 of 07. Tragedy struck the Texas Music community in March as Buck Jones was struck down from behind by a drunk driver during the middle of the night on March 17th while walking to find help after blowing a tire on the way home from a gig. The driver fled the scene after striking Jones. The trial for the driver starts in early 2008 in Greenville, TX with jury selection currently scheduled for January 7th. | |
first of three CDs Shaver would release during a very up and down year for the legendary Texas songwriter. We also spotlighted indy artist 
2007 would prove to be a prolific year for 
April 2007
Not to be outdone by Billy Joe Shaver or Joe Ely, our April artist of the month, Dale Watson, would release three new CDs and two DVD's in 2007 while also landing the coveted cover of the 2008 edition of Austin's Still Naked calendar. When we spoke with Dale, he explained to us why he was now calling his brand of music Ameripolitan. We also put Texas Renegade in the spotlight as our indy artist of the month with their sophmore release, After Everything.
April was a big month for new releases with new discs arriving from Beaver Nelson, Cory Morrow, Gurf Morlix, John Prine, Larry Joe Taylor, Scott Miller, Todd Snider, and many, many more.
April also finally saw the release of the full-length CD of Stoney LaRue's Live At Billy Bobs. Many Texas Music fans were disheartened after "Long Black Veil" and three other crowd favorites were left off of the Limited Edition (which is still oddly available). To make matters worse, the full length CD's release date was pushed back a number of times before finally hitting the shelves.
April saw the continued expansion of one of the flagpoles of the Texas Music festivals, the 19th annual Larry Joe Taylor Music Festival and Chili Cookoff. That means that the 20th is just around the corner so make your plans now as tickets go on sale at the end of January.
While Larry Joe was working on two decades of festival goodness another Texas artist took a shot at Year Number One. Hayes Carll kicked off the First Annual Stingaree Music Festival on April 18th on Crystal Beach. The lineup for Year Two already has us making plans.
Somewhere in the night as March 31st was becoming April Fools Day, Billy Joe Shaver shot a Waco man in the face during a dispute in the parking lot of Papa Joe's Saloon in Lorena. Shaver claimed the man was drunk and came at him with a knife and he fired in self-defense. Shaver has not yet been indicted in the incident but the case remains pending in the district attorney’s office.
May 2007
It's highly unprofessional to play favorites, but with Max Stalling we just can't help ourselves. Of course, when we featured him as our artist of the month for May it didn't hurt that he released the finest CD he's ever put out and one of the best CDs of 2007. Max spent some time with LoneStarMusic discussing what he had been doing in the long gap between studio records. May also saw us featuring Adam Hood as the indy artist. Adam is one of the hottest new artists to hit the state in some time and with Hood attracting talent like veteran producer Pete Anderson we think Adam will just keep getting better.
May saw another veteran Texas artist release a new studio record after a long layoff as Rodney Hayden took us Down The Road. There was also new music from Bruce Robison, Jimmy LaFave, Miranda Lambert and the triumphant return of the Red Dirt Rangers. Those are just a few of the new CDs that arrived in May.
The 11th Annual KNBT Jam was a big hit once again, raising over $50,000 for charities in Comal County. May also featured a brand new festival to Texas that didn't fair quite as well. Country Thunder had a stellar track record in other states before descending on Waxahachie in late May. Torrential downpours turned the festival grounds into a knee-high mudpit, and not in a good way. Eye-witness accounts had the crowd for Reba McEntire at approximately 200. Undaunted by the 2007 results, Country Thunder is slated to return to Texas for round two on May 31st and June 1st of 2008. Here's your chance now Fancy, don't let us down.
In other news, May of 2007 produced this headline from the Grand Rapids Press, which speaks for itself.
June 2007
It was another long layoff between records for our featured artist in June, Kelly Willis. The mother of four was kind enough to take some time off from her hectic schedule to talk with LoneStarMusic about the new record and why her old record Easy was so hard. Our Indy artist for June was Zack Walther, a former member of Rodger Wilko, Zack is on the kind of career track that reminds us of Randy Rogers circa 2002. Keep an eye on this one!
As far as new releases go, June was a month that was small but mighty, with a new record from Ryan Adams and a collection of REK "Best Of's" hand-picked by the man himself.
We threw our hat into the festival ring along with RadioFreeTexas and Southern Thread to bring the Rowdy Float Trip to the Guadalupe River shores in early June. And though there was more than enough "Rowdy", there wasn't much "Float" going on as heavy downpours in the weeks leading up to the event left the river too swift to float.
In other June happenings, Palo Duro Records and Jerry Jeff Walker finally reached an agreement which allowed the release of Luckenbach Compadres!, a live tribute CD to the original recording of Viva Terlingua. The disc features a knockout version of Walt Wilkins performing "Little Bird".
July 2007
July marked the introduction of one of the best live bands in Texas as Walt Wilkins has assembled a group of talented singers, songwriters and players known as the Mystiqueros. Walt and fellow Mystiquero Bill Small talked about their debut record and the sacred order of the Mystiqueros. Not content to be just a great songwriter, singer, and band leader, Walt is also a talented producer and you need look no further than our July indy artist Sam Baker for proof. Sam continues to impress with his ability to tell a complex, layered story with his lyrics in as few a words as possible.
July was another big month for new releases with the Derailers putting out the record they were born to make, a collection of hits from Reckless Kelly that managed to take even the band by surprise, a solo CD from a former Drive-By Trucker, and the Gourds released a CD that's among the best of 2007.
Willie took not only his annual Picnic to the Northwest, but also his BioWillie. Willie dropped by his expanding biodiesel plant in Salem, Oregon on the Friday after the picnic to stump for biodiesel growth in Oregon. Texas Music fans have a shorter drive than Oregon to get some high octane BioWillie though as the refurbished Carl's Corner, the BioWillie flagship, should now be open. The location featues not only biodiesel, but also a new convenience store, gift shop, saloon, restaurants and a 850 seat theater.
August 2007
When it's been five years since your last studio record, what's another month or two? A big deal at the time, actually. Bleu Edmonson's new studio disc, Lost Boy, was scheduled to land in late August, but due to two separate manufacturing screw-ups, the CDs didn't arrive until October 30th, leading Bleu and retailers to scramble for creative solutions at the last minute. LoneStarMusic spoke with Bleu about the record just a week or two before it hit the fan. Even with the delays, it seems almost all Bleu fans feel the wait was worth it as the raves for the new record keep coming in and the end of the year finds Bleu sitting at the top of the 2007 chart.
Finding his way into the indy spotlight in August was Josh Grider, who's second release featured a renewed focus on straight-to-the-point arrangements as well as a guest appearance from Mrs. Josh Grider.
Another full slate of August releases kept the shipping department of LoneStarMusic deep in the bubble wrap with new discs from Jason Eady, Keith Davis, Tom Russell, Brandon Rhyder, Lyle Lovett and many more.
August saw the festival circuit kick into high gear as the summer began to draw to a close. The Margarita & Salsa Festival, the Schulenburg Festival, the Red & Black Picnic, and the North Texas Fair all got their shows in before the big Labor Day weekend. Also, the Brothers Braun held their family reunion (which everyone is invited to) up in Idaho in early August.
Three new names were added to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame when Red Steagall, Bob Luman, and Johnny Rodriguez were welcomed during the Hall's tenth annual ceremony held during late August in Carthage, TX.
September 2007
We've often said that there's no one better at doing what he does well than Kevin Fowler. Teaming up again with Clint Black's Equity Music Group, Fowler put out his fifth studio album in September and it's chock full of, wait for it.... Kevin Fowler. And if that doesn't mean anything to you we're wondering how you made it to this site in the first place. LoneStarMusic discussed all of this with Kevin, as well as how all artists (no matter how big) are really regional artists, just before the disc landed. For our indy artist spotlight in September we turned to the prolific Jackson Taylor and his new CD, Dark Days. Jackson probably already has two more records finished since then.
September was another month chock full of new music with a live CD from No Justice, the return to Texas of Mary Cutrufello, the spiritual side of Billy Joe Shaver, and more protest songs from Steve Earle, just to name a few.
As always, Labor Day Weekend was jam packed with great live music all over the state, notably at Ziegfest in Lake Bryan and the Red Dirt Roundup in Fort Worth. Though they were on the same day, the Randy Rogers Band managed to play them both!
Willie announced in mid-September that he would be helping Jessica Simpson release a country record, including writing a substantial portion of the album. Simpson and Nelson met on the set of Dukes of Hazzard. We would learn later in the year that Willie's next record would be produced by Kenny Chesney and would feature the pec-implanted singer on at least one tune. We would have liked to have re-arranged all of those pieces into a more conceivable collection, but unfortunately we were not consulted.
October 2007
Here we go again, playing favorites. We were so excited about Ryan Bingham's new music that we helped him put out the CD, Dead Horses (now out of print). We were even more excited when we heard that the folks at Lost Highway also thought that Ryan was pretty good. When the CD came out nationally, we had to make him our October featured artist. We got a chance to hang out with him a bit at the Hoity Toit (where he thumped us completely in pool) and talk about the new CD and the whirlwind that has been his last year and a half.
After a long hiatus in the nether regions of the U.S. (Wisconsin? really?), Owen Temple returned to Texas in 2007, reunited with Lloyd Maines and promptly released his fourth studio record. Sounded good to us so we featured him in our indy spotlight in October.
October would prove to be the last big month for new releases in 2007 with new records arriving from Cross Canadian Ragweed, Shooter Jennings, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Griffin (DVD), Tommy Alverson, Ryan Adams (again), Dale Watson (again) and an all-star lineup of others.
In 2006, Kinky Friedman managed to get himself on the ballot for governor as an independent, the first person in over a century to accomplish that task. In October of 2007 he released his chronicle of the governorship in his book, You Can Lead a Politician to Water, But You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics. As Kinky himself says - long title, short book. Kinky also appears prominently in both calendars (naked Kinky and clothed Kinky) of Texas musicians for 2008.
November 2007
A new tradition began on November 6th of 2007 for us at LoneStarMusic when we declared it shall be known from now on as Doug Sahm Day. As such we honored Doug as our artist of the month in November and took a look back at his long and influential career. Be sure to drop by the site again on Nov. 6th of 2008 when the celebration of this still under-appreciated giant of Texas music will once again be in full swing.
Longtime honorary Texan Tom Gillam can now remove the "honorary" tag as he and his band relocated to Texas in late 2007. Tom was featured in our November indy spotlight with the release of his great new disc Never Look Back. Expect to hear plenty more from Tom Gillam and Tractor Pull now that they're close to home.
The new releases slowed down substantially in November as most Texas artists got out of the way of the typical "blockbuster releases" that tend to come out this time of the year. We still got in some good music though including some collections from SRV and George Strait along with new artists on the Texas Music scene.
In late November, Cheatham Street Warehouse hosted the kind of class reunion you actually look forward to attending. Calling it the class of '87, Cheatham Street owner Kent Finlay welcomed back many of the songwriters who got their start at the legendary San Marcos venue. Appearing were Todd Snider, Hal Ketchum, James McMurtry, Bruce Robison, Terri Hendrix, John Arthur Martinez, Al Barlow and Finlay himself. We're already making plans for 2017.
December 2007
December always gives us a unique opportunity at LoneStarMusic to feature an artist outside of those we normally feature. Going back a few years we've highlighted Alejandro Escovedo, Ray Benson, and J.T. Van Zandt in December. For 2007, we picked a man who has long been on the stage, but out of the spotlight, and is just now stepping to the front. With his new disc, Matt Powell shows that he's more than capable of being a top of the bill artist. We spoke with Matt about the transition as well as a planned (but still not yet definite) transition away from Texas.
For our indy spotlight we featured a group that over the last year or so has doubled their membership and cut their name in half. The Gougers (they dropped "Sidehill" the way that Hammer dropped the "MC") teamed up with producer Keith Gattis on their new disc and along the way found a new sound that should net them a whole new group of fans.
The slow trickle of November releases was reduced to a drip in December, but that doesn't mean there weren't still some gems to be found including a solo release from a Mystiquero and a DVD from Fred.
Pat Green was forced to cancel his New Years Eve show in Waco after emergency surgery on Decemeber 28th to remove his appendix. The show would have been Green's first NYE show in his former hometown in more than a decade. There are still plans to make the Waco NYE show an annual event. Pat also cancelled several days of recording sessions he had scheduled for the first of January.
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