Gather ‘Round and Stomp the Floor

On Saturday, February 27, 2016 I caught The Dirty River Boys playing at Hotel Cafe. Having been encouraged to attend by a friend, I knew nothing about this band going into the show, other than they hailed from Texas. They played a good mixture of songs in varying tempos that I would categorize under the Americana genre, with flavorings of cowpunk, country, and even Celtic rock. Guitar players Nino Cooper and Marco Gutierrez, and bass player Colton James, traded off singing lead for various songs. Often times the whole group was singing together, producing solid harmonies and sonorous vocals. The

We’re Sharing this Night That’ll Soon Be a Blur

What a privilege to spend Friday, September 18 at the Troubadour seeing one of my favorite bands, Old 97’s, perform. They’ve been around for “20 good years of about 25” as Rhett sings in their song “Longer than You’ve Been Alive,” but I only jumped on the bandwagon almost exactly one year ago. (I also borrowed the title for this post from that song.) I’ve made up for lost time since then, buying all of their albums and nearly all of lead singer Rhett Miller’s solo albums. In the past several months, I’ve managed to see Rhett perform solo five