BettySoo writes profound pop/folk with just enough country to makes things comfortable. At once powerful and vulnerable, she calms us like a big sister with everything under control.
BettySoo
Shinyribs
It’s like you accidentally started listening to your old drunk uncle from Shreveport and realized he was channeling an enlightened hillbilly cocktail of Tom Waits, Ernest Hemingway and Lenny Bruce. Kevin Russell, aka “Shinyribs”, begins as an assault and becomes a journey that cannot be described but must be experienced.
Enter this psyche. You’re tough enough.
Mary Gauthier
Mary Gauthier writes dark pictures of lost love, wasted chances and life gone awry, singing them murky and deep like the brackish waters of a way back bayou. She paints loving pictures of strangers struggling for acceptance, or simple existence.
Billy Joe Shaver
Stories abound about Billy Joe Shaver, the tragedies endured, the stands taken, the righteous paths chosen. Suffice to say that there is not an insincere bone in the body of this man. He simply cannot abide anything but the absolute truth.
Amanda Shires
Raised in the storied Texas towns of Lubbock and Mineral Wells, Amanda Shires was playing fiddle for The Texas Playboys at fifteen, and blossomed from virtuoso instrumentalist into performing songwriter by 2005. She delivers enchanting original songs with violin or ukulele and a husky voice that can erupt into a bird-like trill. Shires work is both grounded and ethereal, and her off-kilter creativity promises interesting times ahead.
Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez
While their significant individual accomplishments are also profiled here, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez collaborated for several magical albums in the 2000’s. Their respective performing talents meshed strangely but perfectly, Taylor’s weary wisdom brightened by Rodriguez’ piercing desire and punctuated by her flawless fiddle. An essential New Yorker, Taylor became a Texas songwriter for a while, and Rodriguez’ songwriting skills seemed to blossom through their collaboration.
Austin Songwriter 