The video below is a live performance of the song '40 Dogs' from a Bob Schneider show at Gruene Hall on April 1, 2011. This was during a time when Bob had already played a Monday Residency at Saxon Pub in Austin for 8 years. This redidency has continued to this day which means he is in his 22nd year of performing weekly at Saxon Pub as Lonelyland.
'40 Dogs' as well as some other Bob Schneider songs were featured on the soundtrack for the 2023 movie 'Happiness for Beginners' starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes. I'm honestly surprised it hasn't been licensed several times.
Schneider has the honor of having won the highest number of Austin Music Awards for various categories, having won 58 to date based on Austin Chronicle’s archives. Eric Johnson is second place for musicians with 33 AMA’s.
Paul Cauthen is currently touring his forthcoming 7-song EP "Have Mercy" due out on June 22nd. You can already pick up a copy of this GREAT new music produced by Beau Bedford of The Texas Gentlemen. Speaking of, The Texas Gentlemen were there opening and in support of Paul's Gruene Hall show! Dan Dyer got up and sang quite a few songs with The Texas Gentlemen, and Austin Gilliam joined Paul.
If you're not able to pick up Paul's new EP at a show before it releases, you can pre-order it on iTunes and you'll get 2 tracks when you do. Or, you can check out 2 song on Lightning Rod Records' YouTube channel.
Paul will also be playing The Grand Ole Opry on June 22nd!
For this show, I brought along Jake Dapper, a great photographer from Waco to document things better than my usual iPhone garbage. Check them out below!
This is Blue Water Highway Band's NEW single "Speaking of the Devil", as performed live on 92.1 KNBT FM's morning show with Tom and Rachel. This single is available THIS Friday, and you can get a copy from them at Gruene Hall this Saturday night when they open for Bob Schneider, or Sunday evening back at Gruene Hall from 5 to 9!
I SADLY wasn't able to make it to this show, but I got this great photo courtesy of Mary Kate Dement! CONGRATULATIONS to Stewart, his band (The Statesboro Revue) Garrett Mann, Justin Lusk, Kris Schoen & Travis Bishop as well as former Statesboro Revue guitarist Will Knaak on a well deserved FIRST headlining show at Gruene Hall!
I interviewed Sean McConnell about his new self-titled album, his new relationship with Rounder Records and his upcoming show at Gruene Hall!
Sean McConnell may have been a household name to many of us in Texas for the past 6 or so years, but believe it or not there is a whole world out there that hasn't been properly introduced to the man! That terrible mistake will very likely be corrected soon, as Sean is about to release his 8th full length album which happens to be his first with a record label, and as his introduction to the rest of the world it is self-titled "Sean McConnell".
Sean recorded this new project on his own steam and out of his own pocket, but then signed with Nashville-based Rounder records back in February. Rounder also currently works with such artists as Steve Martin & Edie Brickell, Rush, Greg Allman, Sierra Hull and many more, and over their 46 years in business they have been involed with some stellar artists such as Allison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, The Steeldrivers, Steep Canyon Rangers, Honeyhoney, Jimmy Sturr, Edie Brickell & Robert Plant just to name a FEW!
Sean's new album is due out on Friday, July 8th, and is tagged with the genre singer/songwriter. Sean is one of the best performing songwriters of present day, but he fits comfortably into genres such as Americana, Roots, Folk, Country, Pop, Rock, Blues or even Christian & Gospel at times. Some of those would be pretty loose affiliations, but fans of any of these are likely future Sean McConnell fans.
I've heard the two singles that have been released from this new album so far; "Queen of Saint Mary's Choir" and "Holy Days". Both show Sean's strong storyteller roots and he calls this his most personal album so far. "Queen of Saint Mary's Choir" is straight up an upbeat telling of Sean's life story. His parents were both musical, and played coffee shops and other small venues in the folk music scene in Massachussetts. His father played guitar and wrote songs while his mom sang both her husband's originals and folk covers of artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and more.
Sean has been performing for nearly the last 20 of his 31 years, and has performed at Gruene Hall and other venues in our area regularly since he began working with local artists such as Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers around 2009, and he will be at Gruene Hall on Friday, July 15th on his "Ghost Town Tour" with his new self-titled album in tow. Make sure to make it to this show and pick up a copy so you could say you were at his first show after the release of this game changing album that is likely to propel him into a new level of mainstream success!
Here's a lyric video for Sean's single "Holy Days":
I love living in a town that's so cool that it has the best historic dance hall in the world hanging just outside the loop on the beautiful Guadalupe River. We can see living legends like The Charlie Daniels Band! It was a great show, everything you could hope for, and Kimberly Dunn was a fantastic and high energy opener!
In the 60's and early 70's Charlie Daniels was a hard working songwriter and multi-instrumentalist session musician who had a song he co-wrote recorded by Elvis Presley in 1964 and he played on recordings for Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, The Marshall Tucker Band and many more! In the meantime he wrote and released numerous albums of his own, and began to get some traction on the charts with his third album "Honey In The Rock". He won a Grammy for Best Performance by a Group or Duo in 1979 for "Devil Went Down To Georgia", and has won awards from just about every organization that hands them out for country, southern rock or gospel music.
Daniels turns 80 later this year, and will celebrate at his 41st Annual Volunteer Jam with guests Kid Rock, Larry the Cable Guy, and more acts to be announced at a later date. He will also be inducted into the CMA Hall of Fame later this year along with Randy Travis and Fred Foster.
