During the January 2009 Dickson Productions "The Music Fest" at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 4 singers came together to sing as part of a living tribute to songwriter Kevin Welch. They sang "Satan's Paradise" and "Too Old to Die Young" that were both penned by Welch. Those of us not present at this event can only imagine the reaction the crowd must have had to this group of ladies harmonizing together like they had been singing as a group their entire lives.
Jamie Wilson grew up in Sealy, TX with no substantial musical background or training. She decided she needed to learn guitar after seeing Natalie Maines play guitar during a Dixie Chicks show around late 1999 or early 2000. After a few months of practicing heavily she began to dabble in songwriting and joined a band The Sidehill Gougers. Within a year of LOTS of practice and playing gigs The Gougers released their first album. They continued touring, writing and released an EP and another full length album before splitting in 2009 shortly after the infamous performance by the 4 girls at The Music Fest. During the time since The Trishas was formed Wilson released her own solo album "Dirty Blonde Hair" in 2010 and shortly after that her and her husband Roy had the first baby for the band.
Kelley Mickwee came from Memphis, TN. She took dance and vocal lessons at an early age and joined a band Drasco in her early 20s. She was interested in learning the banjo, but after taking some advice to learn the mandolin from Lloyd Maines she gladly headed down that road. She played as a duo with Jed Zimmerman as Jed and Kelley for a few years. They recorded and released 2 full length albums of mostly original songs by Zimmerman. Kelley and her husband Tim now live in Austin along with their beloved dog Josey.
Savannah Welch is the daughter of Kevin and one of two children that have found themselves enjoying careers in music having been raised in a musical family. Savannah however didn't take exactly the same road as her brother Dustin. She moved to Austin from her childhood home in Nashville at the age of 18 to attend film school at the University of Texas. After her first year she abandoned film school and began acting in both Austin and Los Angeles. She has had numerous roles in short and feature length films even throughout the time since the Trishas formed in 2009. However, after jumping up on stage and singing with brother Dustin during gigs at his Momo's Monday night residency and even performing some of her own songs she wrote, she began to focus more on music as well. Savannah and her husband Roy live in the Austin area and added the latest baby to The Trishas in 2012.
Liz Foster was born in Seagoville, TX and moved quite a bit as a child. She was raised in a musical family, although none of them pursued a career in music. At the age of 15 Liz was a touring musician on the Texas Opry Circuit and later toured for a few years as a member of a motown revue while beginning to write songs. Liz later teamed up with Lincoln Durham as the duo Liz and Lincoln. They toured and sang together as a husband and wife team for part of 2008 and 2009 and even planned on performing together at The Music Fest in 2009 together.
Through varied circumstances and meshing plans for the girls to sing at the Kevin Welch tribute; the girls got together at the Wimberley home of Kevin Welch in late 2008 to practice. Judy Hubbard was present to witness history in the making, and offered on the spot to manage this new band. The girls practiced the 2 songs they performed at The Music Fest as well as Welch's "That's What I Like About You" that had been recorded by Trisha Yearwood. The song ended up getting cut for the tribute, but the girls had jokingly called each other "Trisha" numerous times during rehearsal and in a pinch for a band name they ended up choosing The Trishas as an easy out.
Very soon after performing at The Music Fest, the girls were recruited to work the merchandise table at the inaugural "Grit 'n' Groove" Festival in April of 2009 in Luckenbach. Although not on the official bill for the show, they joined Ray Wylie Hubbard on stage and sang "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" with him, then performed "Satan's Paradise" as well. Since then they have been the only act to be a part of every Grit 'n' Groove Fest.
The girls have co-written and collaborated with numerous Austin area musicians such as Jason Eady. I've personally seen Jamie do Gruene Hall front-room song swaps with Jason, and Kelly and Jamie joined Cody Braun as additonal members of Jason's Band at the 2012 KNBT Americana Music Jam. Courtney Patton holds the high honor of being the only songwriter other than Trishas members to have a song included on the 2012 album "High Wide and Handsome". Jamie has provided background vocals on at least 2 of Chris King's songs "Parade" from his 2010 EP Bexar County, and "Man Enough" on his January 2013 full length album 1983. Mike Ethan Messick had vocal support from Jamie on "Fools of Us All" and The Trishas and Mark Jungers on "Must Be Time" both from his 2011 album The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday. The girls also released a short documusical called "Live Girls" on their YouTube channel in December 2011; and the soundtrack was a recording of The Trishas doing Ethan's "Must Be Time". I made a personal request to the band to perform this song at the 4th Grit 'n' Groove Fest. Join us on April 6th at Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels and see if it makes the set list!
This is the "Live Girls" video with Mike Ethan Messick's "Must Be Time" sung by The Trishas.
Links:
The Trishas website
The Trishas Facebook page
The Trishas Twitter feed
