Nick Gibson' says
Ok guys! I just got into Oklahoma! Here's the shows for this week:
Wed June 29th - Crow Creek Tavern - Tulsa, OK - 9:30pm
Thursday June 30th - Cherokee Casino - West Siloam Springs, OK - 8pm
Friday July 1st - Cherokee Casino - Ramona, OK - 7pm
Saturday July 2nd - Will Rogers Downs - Claremore, OK - 9pm
Sunday July 3rd - Downtown Lounge - Tulsa, OK - 10pm

Okie "red dirt" music focus of Departed's Wormy Dog gig by Andrew W Griffin, Red Dirt Reporter, Editor.

Okie "red dirt" music focus of Departed's Wormy Dog gig

Andrew W. Griffin

Cody Canada performs some acoustic songs during his gig Thursday night at the Wormy Dog Saloon.

By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: June 24, 2011

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

http://www.reddirtreport.com/Story.aspx/18868

OKLAHOMA CITY – Just as Cody Canada finished singing Gregory Jacobs’s hard luck Dust Bowl ballad “A Little Rain Will Do,” the skies over Oklahoma City lit up with lightning and the rain fell in buckets. If that isn’t an Oklahoma sort of scene, I don’t know what is. Kind of reminds me of the time Canada’s previous band, Cross Canadian Ragweed, was playing out in dust-blown Foss, Okla. and the wind was blowing around that grit and dirt. Just as Canada and the boys took the stage, Canada said: “You taste that grit in your mouth? That’s red dirt. Well, here’s what it sounds like …” It was very cool and strangely serendipitous, like a lot of shows involving Yukon’s Cody Canada.

But that was a few years back. Ragweed has broken up – amicably, of course – and Canada, along with affable bassist Jeremy Plato, are charting new waters and having new adventures with their band The Departed.

And on this night, at the good ol’ Wormy Dog, Cody Canada and The Departed were in town, holding an album release party for their brand new disc – This Is Indian Land – a tribute to the Sooner State and their talented songwriters.

I know a lot of people were bummed to hear Ragweed was calling it quits. But then again I think a lot of people sensed it was coming. Reviewing Ragweed’s 2009 album Happiness and All the Other Things here at Red Dirt Report, we were somewhat underwhelmed by the album, particularly in light of the far superior Mission California, which came out two years before.

The magic wasn’t gone but something was missing. I suspect the band saw an opportunity to gracefully call it a day. Canada, of course, has that singer-songwriter itch and would press on. With the trustworthy Plato on board, a singer in his own right, and some new guys, including Texas roots-rocker Seth James. It was last summer, while reviewing James’s ’09 release, That Kind of Man, that we noted that Canada and James were doing some acoustic gigs that summer. I suspect that led to the formation of what ultimately became The Departed.

And with Seth James, a Wichita Falls, Texas native, we were thoroughly impressed with his sounds that embraces a combination of blues, rock, country and folk. It’s definitely a Texas/Red Dirt-friendly sound and at last night’s Wormy Dog show, James’s stage presence and bluesy guitar licks really sweetened things up. His vocal and guitar stylings on the Littleton original “Any Other Way,” was dynamic. The same could be said of his soulful rendition of a song called “Better Get Right.”

And we shouldn’t forget the “new” guys – talented keyboard player Steve Littleton, formerly of Austin’s Live Oak Decline, and solid drummer Dave Bowen, a big fella inspired at a young age by “Animal” of The Muppets’ “Electric Mayhem” and a pair of drumsticks left at his house by Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge. That’s a majorly cool early-life influence for a drummer-to-be.

Both musicians round out The Departed in a seriously professional way. Watching Tulsa native Littleton in his “I *heart* Tulsa” T-shirt and a smile on his face, it was clear that he was having a ball.

And Canada, looking like Al Pacino in Serpico, was sporting a “This Machine Kills Fascists” Woody Guthrie T-shirt. He bragged about the previous night’s gig at Cain’s and how they “drank everything wet and smoked everything dry.”

And while the crowd was relatively small this Thursday night, the numbers grew over the course of the evening. A Wormy Dog staffer said while the turnout was smaller than say for a Cross Canadian Ragweed show, “there’s a lot of other things going on” in Bricktown, apparently.

Their loss. The Departed were really on this particular night. And we would get a heapin’ helpin’ of Red Dirt classics – Oklahoma-centric songs from This Is Indian Land, a record that proves to be one of the best albums of 2011.

Launching into the funky “True Love Never Dies,” with the 70’s keyboard sounds was a treat while Plato ably handled the vocals on Mike Shannon’s “Long Way to Nowhere,” a song that embraces more of a “country” sound when compared with the rockier or folkier material presented.

Not to be confused with Better Than Ezra’s “Rosealia,” “The Ballad of Rosalie” is actually a cover of Red Dirt artist Randy Pease’s song from his 1998 debut Call Me Ishmael. Tonight, the crowd responded positively to what Canada called “an old song.”

Canada and The Departed boys have a soft spot for the work of Bristow native Tom Skinner, recording and performing the pop-edged “Skyline Radio” (which a guy next to me said he didn’t like) and Leon Russell’s “Home Sweet Oklahoma.” A lot of the songs here appeared on Skinner’s Farmboy album. And regarding the crowd, just as “Skyline Radio” was beginning to smoke, Canada looked out and asked “Y’all alive?” Not surprising. The crowd was, well, polite, when the new songs were played. But when ol’ Randy Ragsdale, Canada and Plato’s former partner in “time” took over Bowen’s drum stool and kicked off the 2005 CCR track “Dimebag,” the crowd got excited and loud.

The Bob Childers song “Starin’ Down the Sun” featured dueling electric guitars between Canada and James and the results were inspiring to this guitar junkie.

Interestingly, the best and most fascinating song of the set was “Face on Mars,” a song with a decidedly spooky vibe and a Randy Crouch original. Littleton’s prog-rock synth textures certainly added to the song’s otherworldly atmosphere, as did the voice-distorting mic Canada sang into.

Hearing these songs reminds you that Oklahoma has some incredibly talented folks. The songwriters whose songs were featured tonight in the Departed’s set certainly showcased that fact.

Copyright 2011 West Marie Media

Andrew W. Griffin

Seth James performs with The Departed at the Wormy Dog Saloon in Oklahoma City.

Stan Moffat shared a clip with you on Vimeo

Stan Moffat shared this with you:
http://vimeo.com/13314133

Rex Robards - Whiskey Wrote This Song http://vimeo.com/13314133 About this video: "Artist : Rex Robards Song : Whiskey Wrote This Song Album: Right Ain't Always Right Director: Raymond J. Schlogel Production Company : Underground Planet Jun 14th, 2011: So frikkin happy to finally be able to make this one public! This was such an incredible video to make and be a part of and I'm not sure I can even express all the reasons why in a short description. Rex first contacted me some months back, he said had been on my site the night before and watched my entire feature "For Love & Stacie" and checked out some of my music vids but that mainly because of FL&S really wanted me to do one for "Whiskey Wrote This Song". For some reason that I'm not quite sure of I was really kinda tickled that a musician was referring to "For Love & Stacie" as to why they wanted me to do their music video. He sent over the song and from first listen I loved the track. Based on the title I alone I initially thought it was going to be some sort of happy country sing-a-long drinkin song, not that there's anything wrong with those but I was more than pleasantly surprised to find something much deeper, much darker, and so much more passionate than what I had expected. The storyline and visual aspects of this one became pretty clear pretty fast. I knew the kind of environment I wanted for both the band and the home but not a particular location. I also knew that I wanted the entire storyline filmed in slow motion. I became intrigued with the idea of telling an entire story with what amounts to be not a whole lot of time. Initially I had hoped to use a Phantom or Weisscam for the storyline but when I couldn't dig one up for the dates we wanted I opted for a RED with its ability to shoot 120 fps, not as extreme as I had wanted but workable. All told the storyline takes up about 130 seconds of the video, filmed at 120 fp that means that the storyline in real-time only amounts to about 32 seconds. Stacy Zeiler Kenyon immediately came to mind for the lead female, in part but obviously not completely due to a handful of pictures she had posted wearing the same dress I later had her wear during the first half of the vid. Something about her in that dress was just a perfect match and though she hadn't acted before based on her modeling I knew she could visually convey the emotions needed for the part and I wasn't disappointed, she was amazing, incredible to work with and nailed it on every take. Not to mention that even after getting slammed against a kitchen counter ten or more times to the point of physical bruising she never once complained! (Sorry bout that Stacy!) By the way some of you who know my work may recognize her from the "Threads Of Hope Charity Fashion Show" video I did for her swimwear line. http://www.vimeo.com/11394371 The male lead was not so easy. I had a look that I wanted and no one that had submitted a headshot or came over for casting was really fitting the bill, we had some that were pretty close but none that were dead on. Three days before the shoot I still wasn't 100% sold on the guy that we had cast and decided to meet with just one more, I had seen his headshot and he had some great credits so I figured may as well. Around 9pm three days before the shoot in walked Craig Nigh, dressed the part and a little on the scruffy side, he was it. Looking at the video now I know we couldn't have gotten anyone better and thrilled that he came along. For locations one afternoon Ruben (my producer on this) and I were out and about scouting for a location for the house and randomly drove by an old dilapidated greenhouse. The fans in the walls were perfect as the backdrop and after seeing it couldn't even think of shooting anywhere else. It took Ruben some doing but somehow through those magical producer skills of his he finally managed to track down the owner of the property. We went to meet with him and give it a better look a couple weeks later and it was everything I wanted. Funny side note, as you can see in the time-lapse (http://www.vimeo.com/10808793) we all got there while the sun was still out and the place looks, well, funky at best. Even though the first time I saw it I knew what we were going to do with light shooting through the fans, the smoke, the, dare I say "ambiance"? Rex and the band didn't. Rex later confessed that when they first pulled up and first saw the place his band was like "What the hell did you get us into?". Apparently once the sun went down, the lights came on and they saw some playback they were more than cool with it. Another side note is that as it was unused and pretty run down there was no electricity, the fans were inoperable and we had to have a PA ducked down outside behind each of them manually spinning the fans while we filmed. With the RED we were lucky to bring DP Michael Morlan on board. Now I'm one of those that likes to do everything himself, I generally hate being behind a monitor directing while someone else is wielding the camera and, if I'm to be honest, originally we hired Michael more for his gear than anything else. Now that wasn't based on his work, just on how I usually liked to do things and I had every intention of DP'ing and shooting 99% of it with his RED. We shot the band before shooting the story and after the first take I loved what I was seeing and let him do the second, and third, and fourth etc etc etc. At one point I even said to him "Man, not trying to insult ya but your shots almost look like I'm shooting them" and he said one of the most cool things I've ever had a camera person say to me, he said "I watched a bunch of your stuff to try and match your style." I'll go ahead and say that it doesn't mean he liked my style of shooting! But I was totally impressed that he said that. Needless to say I only shot one or two takes myself and left the rest to him. Michael, you're awesome. The one other obvious challenge in this was the CGI. It was the first concept for me that required it and though I knew the shot that I wanted I had no clue how to get it. Thankfully we had Technical Director Christopher Louis on location to help coordinate the shot and later to do the modeling of the bottle as well as roughing out the scene with the final animation being done by an incredible artist Jarno Cordia of AirRebels. With this the most important thing from day one was that the CGI had to blend seamlessly with the scene, not an easy task. In a lot of films/videos there is a certain CGI look that we've come to accept if not appreciate. There's that suspension of disbelief that even though something may have a somewhat computer generated look we don't mind because we're used to it. For this it had to be absolutely photorealistic. Because the narrative was reality based anything that looked phony would have snapped the viewer out of the emotion of the scene and made them focus on the effect and blown the tension of the moment and relief at the subsequent reveal. I can't thank Christopher and Jarno enough for the tremendous talent and dedication they had in helping me keep people in that moment. Wow, wrote so much more than I meant to, hoping that you Dear Reader will forgive me for the self indulgent rant. =) If ya like the song PLEASE "like" Rex's Facebook page, it don't cost ya anything and would mean so much! http://www.facebook.com/rexrobardsmusic"

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LOVE,

Monty Harper News: See You at the Library!

MontyNews Howdy Stan, It's been way too long since I wrote to you! I'm gonna try to communicate more often with shorter bursts of info. No promises.   Summer Reading Tour Today I just want to say that I'm having a great summer library tour, and it's not too late to catch me at your library in June or July. I have upcoming shows in Watonga (today!), Tahlequah, Tulsa, Hollis, Altus, Bixby, Stillwater, OKC, Norman, Checotah, Ft. Gibson, Medford, Caldwell KS, and Wichita KS. My full schedule is here: http://www.montyharper.com/Schedule.html You can see photos from recent shows here: http://montyharper.blogspot.com/ I hope to see you soon! Thanks!

Stan Moffat shared an album with you.

You are invited to view Phillip Moffat's photo album: JMB - Tidal School Vinyards JMB - Tidal School Vinyards Jun 5, 2011 by Phillip Moffat June 2011 View Album Play slideshow Message from Stan Moffat: From Phillip Moffat Photography, some awesome photos of JMB in action this past weekend. Don't fret, they will be back at same place in July as well... might need to bring you along??? If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=phillipmoffat&target=ALBUM&id=5614799248838360385&authkey=Gv1sRgCPK67OaY77CE2AE&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

No Justice

 

Win Tickets to our Corpus Christi/Brewster Street Icehouse Show!

If you live in the Corpus Christi, TX area, you can win tickets to our upcoming show on June 23rd.  We have partnered up with Brewster Street Icehouse to give away a pair of tickets a week from our Facebook page.  All you have to do to get entered is click "I'm Attending" on the event linkedhere and you'll automatically be entered.

 

Gone Ain't Far Enough Breaks Top Ten

We have officially entered the Top Ten on the Texas Music Chart with "Gone Ain't Far Enough" - sitting tight at number 9.  We would really appreciate any requests you could send our way to help it climb that much further.  Thanks to all of you for your continuous support for the record and single.  And don't forget to download the new single here.

 

Join our Street Team

If you are interested in helping promote shows and the band, email Abby at abby@nojustice.comfor more information on joining our growing street team.

 

Upcoming Shows

June 8 - Fort Worth, TX  Fat Daddy's

June 9 - Jenks, OK  Midnight Rodeo

June 10 - Stephenville, TX  Bostocks

June 18 - Gainesville, TX  The Texas Bull Country Club

June 22 - San Antonio, TX  The County Line BBQ

June 23 - Corpus Christi, TX  Brewster Street Icehouse (With Reckless Kelly)

June 24 - El Campo, TX  Muldoon's Saloon

June 25 - Waxahachie, TX  Fat Daddy's

June 30 - Denton, TX  Rockin Rodeo

 

Links - Find Us Online

www.facebook.com/band.nojustice

www.twitter.com/nojusticeband

www.youtube.com/nojusticeofficial

www.nojustice.com

Slick Willie and the Right Cats

Hey everybody!  Just a quick note tonight. Slick Willie and the Right Cats are gonna play Saturday Nite. We're gonna have a good time and have lots of fun. You only live once.... And when you're dead...you're done.   So let the Good Times Roll.   Saturday, June 4th, 8pm until 10pm!  Joseppi's Italian Restaurant. 223 East Hall Of Fame Ave.  Stillwater.   Slick Willie does not have any other engagements scheduled in the Stillwater area for the next several weeks...so you need to get your groove batteries recharged.   SEE YOU THERE!   (There is NO truth to the rumor that Fat Tony is Sarah Palin's bus driver.  He applied, but she turned him down.  Something about load limits.)