Friday at 5pm. Arlo Parks is on at this time so that's my first choice. This is an indie pop band now in Austin. Most of the members are from Connecticut but one member is from Austin and he talked the rest into moving here.
The other tidbit: there is no one named Sarah in the band. It's all guys, too. (Update: Declan, the member from Austin, has a sister named Sarah. They used to practice on Sundays. Hence the name. Thanks Margie!)
Quirky indie pop like Dayglow.
Friday at 4pm on the Tito's stage. Hip-hop. He was born in Ghana and lives in Australia. His first album "Smiling with no Teeth" won all sorts of album of the year awards in Australia.
This song sounds familiar. Is it getting KUTX airplay?
Friday at 4pm. Playing opposite Zach Bryan. She's won multiple Grammys and is on Time Magazine's list of 2022's "100 Most Influential People". I'm embarrassed to say I don't know her. Thanks to ACL for exposing me to other artists.
The Statesman says: "Sullivan is an R&B artist’s R&B artist. Beyoncé, Chaka Khan and Mary J. Blige are all fans."
R&B. Here's a Tiny Desk Concert song with H.E.R.
"Bust Your Windows" was a big hit.
This song won the Grammy. It's on her album that also won a Grammy, "Heaux Tales"
Friday at 4pm. I'll look at the other artists but this is the #1 choice. It's a 26 year-old from Tulsa. His mother died in 2017 and he processed his grief by writing songs. He recorded them in an Airbnb in Jacksonville, FL and put up the album, titled DeAnn after his mother, online in 2019. Without a label, any representation, or even a website. Despite that, word-of-mouth from the die-hard country music fans made his album an instant hit. I'll let Savingcountrymusic describe his debut:
Anyone who tells you they knew about Zach Bryan beforehand is probably lying, present company included. All the effort expended at Saving Country Music headquarters running down leads on promising up-and-comers, and all the time spent out in the field sifting through the lineups of grassroots festivals and events throughout the year scouting for talent, and it would be a boldface lie to say I’d even heard his name until one of Zach Bryan’s songs called “Condemned” started swirling around YouTube a few weeks ago. Aside from the fact that he claims dual citizenship in Tulsa, OK and Seattle, WA on his Twitter account, nothing much else is known about the songwriter at this point, aside from what you can glean from his songs.
Here is "Condemned". Also check out "Heading South".
Turns out Zach Bryan was on active-duty in the Navy for 6 years when he released the album. Since then he released a second album, also without any representation, was honorably discharged from the Navy, signed with Warner Brothers, got Dave Cobb to produce his first major-label album, and finally started touring. Whew. Oh, his album went #1 on the country charts. This without any touring and hardly any mainstream media exposure. I still can't find any articles on him in the big publications. Here's a lot more about him.
Loved by fans of Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, and Tyler Childers. He's already considered the #1 songwriter based on the songs from his album, based on Billboard's Country Songwriters Chart. Based on reviews of his concerts the crowd is very young, very excited, and they know all the words to his songs.
Listen to this one, called "Sweet DeAnn" about his mom. I'm not crying...
This is another great song with a great video, too: "Something in the Orange" "To you I'm just a man, to me you're all I am." Damn.
He's playing Stubb's on Wednesday October 5th. I may want that as my birthday present.
More: "Darling". Reminds me of the Overenders campfire.
More: "Someday on My Mind".
Someday I will come to my senses
Stop sitting on fences in fear
And I will realize after all of this time
That someday was always just right here
Today I will hold my head up highKnowing some day has been here the whole damn timeThere's a sun set setting, I ain't forgettingThe blood that made my heart warmToday I found what I was searching for
More: "Mine Again". I don't think he can make a bad song.
Here's a Youtube playlist of my favorites so far. A good introduction.
I'll end with "From Austin"
Friday at 3:15pm. This is more like it. A long-in-the-making band that was just signed to Elektra. "Rolling Stone" said it best:
Gabriels have followed a more old-school path. At a time when artists shoot out songs like they’re about to be banned from studios for life, Gabriels have put out just five songs since 2018, a mix of haunting gospel, brittle electronics, and harmony-drenched doo-wop — the combination sometimes sounds like someone is playing Philadelphia soul records arranged by Thom Bell at the wrong speed. And instead of displaying viral growth on a platform like TikTok, Gabriels have built a profile by earning nods from old-school tastemakers like Gilles Peterson and the Los Angeles station KCRW. There’s a note of pride in Hope’s voice when he calls the group “the most social media unsavvy trio.”
It's a trio. One from the UK (Sunderland) and two from California (one from Compton). They are based in L.A.
"Professional" is compared to old school Billy Holiday.
I've heard this one. It must be on rotation on KUTX. Maybe we heard on KCRW as well. They're my choice. Maybe hear a little Charlotte Cardin as well.
It looks like they are opening for Harry Styles here in Austin. Great exposure.
