Wayne Hancock
Wayne "The Train" Hancock (Born May 1, 1965) is a country musician.
Hancock began writing songs at the age of 12, and at 18 won a talent contest called the "Wrangler County Showdown." Immediately after the contest, he was shipped to recruit training and served four years with the United States Marine Corps. In 1994 he performed in the musicalChippy. Hancock released his debut album in 1995, and has continued to tour and record albums since then. He lives in Austin, Texas.
His music is comparable to that of Hank Williams and Hank Thompson.
Hank Williams III, who is often compared to Hancock, has recorded some of Hancock's material, including "Thunderstorms and Neon Signs" and "87 Southbound". The two have also recorded a live duet of Hancock's "Juke Joint Jumpin'".
Phil Pritchett
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Phil Pritchett (born 1971) is a rock and roll musician from Texas. Currently residing in Ft. Worth, Texas. Members of his band have varied over the years. The current incarnation of the Full Band includes J.W. "Blu" Marshall on bass and Stu Wiley on drums.
Phil's performance to his eighth grade class of The Beatles Love Me Do first inspired him to enter into music. Phil got his real musical start at age 13 starting a Van Halen-style cover band and started playing local parties. His original high school band the Suburbans was an acclaimed Texas rock trio before breaking up in 1990.
Phil graduated from Higland Park High School in 1990, and entered Southwestern University studying History. At Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Pritchett formed the eclectic acoustic duo Romantic Embargo with friend James Dewitt. They played regularly in Austin and surrounding cities and made two recordings, a live tape "Cut Me Some Slacks" and a CD "Central Chilling Station No.5." Pritchett went out on his own in 1996 and spent 5 years living in Austin, Texas and playing his original music to fans all over Texas and the South and building a large regional fan base. He started Spitune Records in 1995 and began recording and releasing his music independently. After a brief stint in Nashville, he moved back to Texas and has been touring consistently since 2002, often playing 150 shows a year or more.
Pritchett is known for his insightful songs, artistic albums and his live performances. His high-energy shows around Texas and the surrounding areas are known for the performances of songs such as "Song of the Doorman", "High Tide in the Heartland", "Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones", "Colorado On Trial," "Tougher Than the Rest" and the all-time fan-favorites: "Maria," "Snuff Machine" (written by ex-Suburbans' memberWes Cunningham), "Antarctica U.S.A." (written by Dewitt now of the Residudes), and "Drink When I Think" and "Rolling" (both co-written with Chip Evans).
In 2006, Pritchett opened Trinidad World Recording in the Fort Worth Stockyards to self-produce his album High Tide in the Heartland. After the release of High Tide, he was asked to produce records for other acts at Trinidad. His producing credits include projects by Texas High Life, Johns Guns, Ty Wick, Magee Payne, Kurt South, J.D. Clark, Kyle Redd, Clay Thrash, Kevin Smith, Slow Rollin' Lows, Zach Huckabee, Mike Mathis, Notorious Gringos, Change of Standard and several of his own albums.
Phil has played with many of the fan favorites in Texas including Jack Ingram, Roger Creager, Honeybrowne and others.
In 2007, Phil began selling his albums in MP3 format for $4 each at p2tunes.
In 2009, Pritchett launched the P2 Podcast from his website. The weekly, hourlong show delves into life as a musician, road stories, and discuss current challenges in the changing music business. He is frequently joined by guests, usually people he knows from his time in the industry including Pat Green, Pete Coatney (from Jack Ingram's band), Zach Huckabee, Buddy Huffman (Macon Greyson), Owen Temple, Wes Cunningham and many others.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tn5BI0IHEdbnWAIxj49CdnFuVAMO33V6TG8tQwu2nEwWyiO_2Q6c1O_s-1LuQkzpGvJ5N-0AroCX2mGS6wpbQUCkMLEHbWZuljx_MRtMZ1z2tfmGohoRAWyx08_2lhxZ1sEc23nABloUnXA5A6zRtG=s0-d)
Alejandro Escovedo
She Doesn' Live Here Anymore:
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Alejandro Escovedo (born January 10, 1951, in San Antonio, Texas) is a musician and singer-songwriter based in America.
His parents emigrated to Texas from Mexico. Escovedo is from a very musical family that has generated several professional musicians, including his brothers Coke Escovedo and Pete Escovedo, both percussionists, and longtime Prince collaborator Sheila E (who is Pete's daughter and Alejandro's niece). Another brother, Mario, fronted the hard rock band The Dragons. Escovedo began performing in the first-wavepunk rock group The Nuns, with Delphine Neid, Jennifer Miro, and Jeff Olener, in San Francisco, California. After Escovedo's departure, The Nuns recorded an album on Posh Boy Records, but had little commercial success.
In the 1980s Escovedo moved to Austin, Texas, where he adapted a roots rock/alternative country style in the bands Rank and File (with Chip and Tony Kinman) and the True Believers (with his brother Javier and Jon Dee Graham). However, it was with the release of his first solo albums, Gravity in 1992 and Thirteen Years in 1994, and on through his sixth album, A Man Under the Influence (produced in 2001), that he found his true voice. Although he has yet to crossover to any type of mainstream audience, he has a huge underground following, and many popular artists cite Escovedo as a strong influence.
In 1997, Alejandro collaborated with Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams during the recording sessions for their album Strangers Almanac. He sings on "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight", "Dancing with the Women at the Bar", and "Not Home Anymore". As a salute to Alejandro, a cover of a True Believers song written by Alejandro is covered by Whiskeytown on the Deluxe Edition re-release of Strangers Almanac.
In 1998 No Depression magazine named him Artist of the Decade. Alejandro was also involved in a side project that represents his hard rocking tastes. Buick MacKane released an album in 1997 The Pawn Shop Years, hearkening back to his musical roots from the 70's.
In 2003, after having lived with Hepatitis-C for many years, Alejandro fell critically ill, following a performance of By the Hand of the Father, and nearly died. In his long road to recovery, he faced increasing medical bills. Without medical insurance, Escovedo could not pay the substantial medical bills. Friends and admirers around the country organized benefit shows to help the songwriter. This effort grew into the album Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo, a two-disc set whose proceeds benefit the Alejandro Escovedo Medical and Living Expense Fund. Contributing musicians included Steve Earle, Jon Dee Graham, Lucinda Williams, John Cale, Jennifer Warnes, Ian Hunter, The Jayhawks, and Son Volt, as well as family members Pete Escovedo [with niece Sheila E.], Javier Escovedo, and The Dragons [featuring youngest brother, Mario Escovedo].
In 2005, Alejandro was declared to be free of the disease.
Boxing Mirror came out on May 2, 2006 and included many of the songs he had promoted with The Alejandro Escovedo String Quintet, including Jon Dee Graham. Escovedo went on a short tour with the Quintet, which included a date at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in early December 2006.
Escovedo's latest record, Real Animal, was released on June 24, 2008 and was produced by Tony Visconti. All of the songs were co-written with Chuck Prophet.
In April, 2008, it was announced that Escovedo will be managed by Jon Landau and Barbara Carr. Landau has long been Bruce Springsteen's manager.
Norah Jones came by her Texas connection, like so many of us, in a decidedly roundabout way.
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Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar in Brooklyn, New York on March 30, 1979 to Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and concert producer Sue Jones. She spent her childhood with her mother, who moved to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, Texas, when Jones was four. She attended Colleyville Middle School, followed by a short period at Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. Her only formal vocal training was her stint in the choir at Colleyville and Booker T. Washington. While at Colleyville, she also participated in band and played the alto saxophone. At the age of sixteen, with the blessings of her parents, she officially changed her name to "Norah Jones."
Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, among other 'oldies.' She once said, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set; I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again." She considers Willie Nelson her mentor. She began singing in church choirs and took piano lessons as a child. She still attends church. She considers herself spiritual and appreciates the ritual of church but does not consider herself the religious type. She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers. While at high school, she won the DownBeat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).
Jones went to the University of North Texas, where she majored in jazz piano. It was during this time she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris, which would later catapulted her to fame. She was to pick up a band playing at the university that also happened to be friends of Jesse Harris. Jesse Harris was making a stop on a cross-country road-trip with his friend, and future Little Willies member, Richard Julian, to see the same band play. After meeting, Harris was soon sending her lead sheets of his songs. In 1999, she left for New York City. Less than a year later she started a band with Harris.
That’s exactly what the Texas-bred troubadour does on his second Lost Highway album, Roadhouse Sun, a hardscrabble collection that’s at once unblinkingly personal and unapologetically political – the latter a new and bracingly vivid addition to Bingham’s palette. The expanded consciousness bursts to the surface of several cuts on Roadhouse Sun – nowhere more movingly than on “Dylan’s Hard Rain,” a stark look into the darker corners of an America in which the storm its namesake sang of has blown through.
“With all that’s happened politically and economically in the last couple of years, I felt like there was a lot to say,” explains the 28-year-old singer-songwriter. “As a young person, I felt like it was time to get involved, to write something that wasn’t just about Saturday nights in bars. And as far as Dylan? Things that were happening back then are still happening. Things keep repeating themselves.”
Roadhouse Sun showcases Bingham’s flair for cutting a listener to the quick with slashing, blues-inflected guitar leads that’d do Lone Star forebears like Lightnin’ Hopkins proud – his approach on the steely “Endless Ways” – and then offering a balm of bucolic melody, like that of the soaring “Bluebird.” He and his road-tested band stretch out most intriguingly, however, on the epic “Change Is,” seven minutes of meditative, hypnotic riffing that builds to a near-psychedelic crescendo as Bingham spins his tale of empowerment and responsibility.
“In some ways, I’d gotten burned out on the straight-ahead country scene,” he says. “Because I wear a cowboy hat, people assume we’re just this honky-tonk band, and we’re not. I want to be seen as a versatile artist who draws on a lot of different things and tells a lot of different stories.”
They’re tough stories, to be sure, but Bingham has come by them honestly. He’s lived on his own since his mid-teens, when circumstances and substance abuse tore apart his nuclear family. Rather than get sucked into the system that’s destroyed so many adolescents, he took a road far less traveled – riding bulls on the highly-competitive rodeo circuit around the Midwest and southwest. It was on these long hauls that Bingham was able to get in touch with his musical muse, taking things public one night at a bar in Stephenville, Texas. “A bunch of friends asked me to play a couple songs for them. I went out and got my guitar and the owner said ‘you oughta come on in and play now and then,’” he recalls. “So I did -- I started playing every Wednesday night and people started showing up to hear me play -- it was pretty much an accident, I guess.” Read more about Ryan Bingham
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