Tag: Austin

BGS 5+5: The Deer’s Grace Rowland

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Deer (answers by Grace Rowland)
Hometown: San Marcos/Austin, Texas
Latest Album: The Beautiful Undead
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): We used to be called Grace Park and The Deer, when I was using that stage name and it was more my folk songwriting project. We have many silly names for Noah, our fiddle/mandolinist, including Nugiel and Space Nug. Our guitar player Michael goes by Deenyo.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

They don’t always come easy, and the muse is ephemeral, like a Whac-A-Mole. We strike when the iron is hot and write independently as much as we can, but we also have to force ourselves to get together and record every now and then whatever comes to mind, even when in a drought. These “drought” sessions are some of the toughest because they are so open-ended. But a lot of good can come from them — the song “Six-Pointed Star” comes to mind right now. It started as a simple song we made in the woods, but when we took it to the studio we had the worst time trying to make it sound right. We must have made four different versions until we finally hit it, but now it is one of our favorites to play.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Gillian Welch’s rustic realism
John Hartford’s wordsmithing
Depeche Mode’s moody chord progressions and deep bass
Pink Floyd’s subtle layering and studio techniques
Tori Amos’ outspoken poignancy and fearless lyricism

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

For me, it’s often the other way around. I will write from a first-person perspective to make it sound like it’s me, but the person is actually someone else in another body, and the events are imaginary, or real but in another time. In this way I feel like I can transcend time and space lyrically, perhaps to sound a call for mystical encounters that would be otherwise impossible, or to set the stage for events that have yet to happen. One example is the lyricism in “Like Through the Eye,” a billowing romp of a dream that never actually took place, but an experience that I have always envisioned and desired to happen to me. Songs are a way of bringing these things to me. Jesse, however, does this all the time. For instance in our new single “Bellwether,” the original lyrics were “I am falling farther into Me.” As a narcissistic ode to ourselves it served a purpose, but for our greater audience we decided to soften it into a palatable love song.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Bodies of water would be our main way of connecting with nature as a group. We make it a point to visit rivers, oceans, hot springs, and lakes wherever we can, and take in Earth’s most valuable essence, and all the plants and animals they gather around them. In lyrics we often reference the sea and the river, flora and fauna, and interspecies relationships, because they reflect the cosmological order that governs our bodies and our feelings. Our complex emotions can be understood better when we zoom out and realize that we are not only driven by this order, but a vital part of it.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I was really into musicals as a kid, watching VHS tapes for hours on end and learning every song. My first concert was Lilith Fair in 1997. I was 12, and it was life-changing. However, my decision to actually pursue music as a career didn’t come until my early 20s, when I met a large swath of working musicians at Kerrville Folk Festival in 2006. Seeing so many people my age who were writing their own songs and touring independently, traveling with freedom and spreading their art, was enough to set my intent upon making that dream real.

Whether we got started later or earlier in life, as a group the media we consumed as kids was probably 100% responsible for illustrating an applied use for the gifts we knew we possessed. MTV (back when they played music videos), the Grammys, Saturday Night Live, the Super Bowl halftime show, and yes, even church — these mainstream outlets showed us at an early age what it looked like when someone was giving it their all to entertain their community, and the world. It was enough to inspire each of us to hone our skills, and bring our talent to people on our own scale.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1N6SuTPadcfEYWC8l5gRqw?si=zp3dc_rGQKOkpL6k3vlhmA&nd=1

Photo credit: Barbara FG

BGS 5+5: Jonathan Terrell

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jonathan Terrell
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest EP: A Couple 2, 3 (out September 9 on Range Music)
Personal Nicknames: “Feral Terrell”

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I was driving back from busking in San Diego for a couple of months. I was out of money and a good friend of mine’s parents wired me $200 to get home to East Texas. I was very discouraged. I had a handful of songs that I thought were good and turned out playing for tips on the boardwalk wasn’t going to make me enough to eat and rent a couch, so on that long drive home I was somewhere in the Arizona desert on Interstate 10 and I pulled over and had a good cry. I knew at that moment I was going to be a songwriter, an artist and somebody that was going to leave an impression on this world. Before I made it to my parents’ house, I stopped at a junior college and enrolled in the music program. I got a free ride if I sang in the men’s choir because they were short of a dusty tenor. I dropped out a year and a half later to go on tour. I’ve pretty much been on tour since.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

My uncle was a big Nashville cat. He sang in Reba’s band and has sung high tenor harmonies on over 25,000 albums. I was obsessed with country music growing up and he was my only link from East Texas to the mecca of songwriting. I played him some terrible songs at 18 and he was very patient while listening. His advice was simple. “Don’t tell me about it. Paint it for me.”

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I think Kris Kristofferson has got to be right there at the top. When I moved to Austin in 2005 from Longview, Texas, I thought for sure I was destined to be the next Kris. It’s pretty hilariously naive looking back, but a kid’s gotta have heroes and he was and is still mine. I’ve probably studied his songs more than anyone’s. There’s a raw and exciting poetry to his work but also an approachable simplicity. It’s a master class in songwriting and composition every time I sit down with an album like Border Lord or The Silver Tongued Devil and I. I think about these albums when I paint a picture in a song. An easy close second would be Willie.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

A good friend once told me that there’s a huge difference between having no traction at all and a little bit of traction. I first saw a little bit of that traction while playing the White Horse in Austin, Texas, week after week. When the band is crushing it and the dancefloor is packed with amazing two steppers (which I do believe Austin has the best two-step culture in the country) it’s like being in the eye of a hurricane. It’s about 105 degrees and it’s all cowboy hats, naked knees, flipping skirts and sweaty bodies churning and churning to your song. There ain’t nothing like it.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I was doing a show up in Oklahoma with a songwriter named Butch Hancock and Turnpike Troubadours. I got to talking with Butch over a few beers in the parking lot of an old motor lodge where the venue put us up and he asked me what my hobbies were. I shrugged and said it was just writing songs. He kinda snapped at me like I was crazy and told me if I didn’t find another hobby I was going to shoot my songs in the foot. “One day your well is gonna dry up and if you don’t have another place to fill it, who knows if you’ll ever get it back.” Really terrifying words for a young songwriter. I bought a camera soon after and started studying portraits as well as documenting my tour life. Certain films and books have of course inspired many of my songs. I’m a huge Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry fan. Photography has become a serious passion for me and sometimes a camera can be a great way to meet people. I have my first gallery show October 28 in Lockhart, Texas, at the Commerce Gallery. I’m pretty excited about it and am definitely inviting Butch!

Photo Credit: Greg Giannukos

WATCH: The Western Express, “Honky Tonk Saints”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Western Express
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Honky Tonk Saints”
Album: Lunatics, Lovers & Poets
Release Date: August 5, 2022

In Their Words: “‘Honky Tonk Saints’ was one of the first country songs I wrote after playing church music for many years before. One night while I was riding home in an Uber, I thought, ‘What if the honky-tonk were our church? How would we take communion at the honky-tonk? What would the praise songs be? Who would be the saints of the honky-tonk?’ I originally wrote it for people like Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and Kitty Wells. But in 2020 and 2021, James Hand and James White died — two Austin honky-tonk heroes who were larger than life to me. James White owned the Broken Spoke, and gave us our start by booking us in the very beginning. We recorded a great music video at that venue, and it’s dedicated to our two local heroes, Hand and White.” — Stephen Castillo, The Western Express

Photo Credit: Eryn Brooke

LISTEN: Nick Pagliari, “Down in a Rainstorm”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Nick Pagliari
Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Song: Down in a Rainstorm
Album: Hard Lessons
Release Date: July 22, 2022
Label: Ride the River Records

In Their Words: “The song was written during a jog one spring afternoon in my neighborhood of North Austin. I got caught in a torrential rain that came out of nowhere and at some point started humming what would become the chorus. I remember a feeling of excitement and liberation as I ran through the storm. This was pre-pandemic so it wasn’t until later that I realized that the whole thing was somewhat metaphorical.” — Nick Pagliari

Photo Credit: Barbara FG

The Show On The Road – Buffalo Nichols

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week on the show, we talk to a startling new talent placing a gut-punch into the folk and blues scene, the Milwaukee-raised and now Austin-based singer-songwriter Buffalo Nichols.

 

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Growing up learning on his sister’s dreadnought guitar and then traveling widely through West Africa after high school drinking up the sounds of the kora and percussion players in Senegal, Carl Nichols began finding his voice and playing style in the haunting open and minor tunings first heard from bluesmen like Skip James, who he covers in his remarkable self-titled debut collection. Buffalo Nichols, which came in 2021, is a stark departure from what Carl would call the cheery “opinionless beer commercial blues” that has come to dominate the genre. Nichols’ work is often sparse and direct – just a man with his guitar and a microphone. The stories told in standout songs like “Another Man” and “Living Hell” don’t flinch from comparing how the experience of his elders a hundred years ago in the South may not look much different from men like George Floyd dying on that Minneapolis pavement. Is there catharsis or hope in the songs? Are they a call to action? Maybe that’s up to us to decide.

Carl will admit that it can be tricky trying play his songs like the searing album opener “Lost And Lonesome” in loud bars where people may just want to have a good time and not dive into the backroad history of racial injustice and institutionalized police violence. Thankfully his writing doesn’t hide behind niceties and the recordings aren’t veiled by sonic artifice – Nichols speaks directly to the isolation and danger of being a young Black man in America, and trying to navigate the unease of bringing his stories to an often mostly white Americana-adjacent audience. Even more upbeat numbers like “Back On Top” call to mind the ominous juke-joint growl of John Lee Hooker, bringing us into dimly lit scenes where even late-night pleasure may have its next-morning consequences.

If there’s one thing we learned during this taping, it’s that Carl doesn’t want to just “write songs to make people feel good” – but he does want to tell stories that make the isolated and lost feel less so. Maybe that is the most important function of music truly steeped in the blues tradition: the ability to transform pain into progress. The messages may not be what people always want to hear, but the groundswell rising behind Carl’s stark timeless tales is indeed growing. With recent appearances on Late Night With Stephen Colbert, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and big time dates like Lollapalooza on the books for the summer, folks will be hearing a lot more from Buffalo Nichols.

Photo Credit: Merrick Ales

WATCH: Abigail Lapell, “All Dressed Up”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Abigail Lapell
Hometown: Toronto
Song: “All Dressed Up”
Album: Stolen Time
Release Date: April 22, 2022
Label: Outside Music

In Their Words: “‘All Dressed Up’ is a fever dream of isolation and claustrophobia, circumscribed by all these obsolete media machines — but with a semi-hopeful note, too, about making the best of an absurd situation, or at least, ‘this too shall pass.’ And spring will come again. The video was shot in Austin, Texas during SXSW, with local filmmaker Max Conru. It was my first time at South-by, and first time out on the road in quite a while, so it was super fun getting to capture the early days of spring and visit some iconic Austin sightseeing spots.” — Abigail Lapell

Photo Credit: Jen Squires

LISTEN: Tody Castillo, “What It Means to Be a Man”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Tody Castillo
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “What It Means to Be a Man”
Album: Old Rodriguez
Release Date: April 8, 2022
Label: Strolling Bones Records

In Their Words: “This is a song about a person dealing with depression and anxiety without a playbook. It touches on the second-guessing nature of someone who is emotionally damaged. It deals with overcoming fear and uncertainty through bravery. It’s a story about a person hanging onto their dreams with what feels like the weight of the world on their back. ‘What It Means To Be a Man’ is the third tune on the album and I believe it sets the tone for the remaining songs. I love the dreamy soundscape that engineer/mixing engineer Steve Christensen (Steve Earle, Khruangbin, Paul McCartney) creates during the bridge. I was also able to use a 12 string Rickenbacker throughout the tune which ties it all together. Who doesn’t love a 12 string?!” — Tody Castillo

Photo Credit: Justin Cook

BGS Top 50 Moments: SXSW Brooklyn Country Cantina

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

It was a collaboration that quickly became one of our favorite events of the year (and definitely the best part of every marathon SXSW week): The Brooklyn Country Cantina was held for five years at Licha’s Cantina in East Austin in partnership with BGS. Featuring an ever-evolving rotation of talent, it was a launch pad for so many artists in the BGS fam, and a special laid-back underplay for those buzzworthy artists wrapping up a crazy week.

Instead of being another schmoozy networking event at SXSW, the BCC was always a reprieve away from the chaotic cacophony of downtown Austin or Congress Street — an all-ages affair where artists and fans alike got to see their friends, take a breather, and eat some really good tacos.

Below, rediscover some of our favorite moments from the Brooklyn Country Cantina, as captured by BGS photographers:

 

LISTEN: Darden Smith, “Western Skies”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Darden Smith
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Song: “Western Skies”
Album: Western Skies
Release Date: March 25, 2022

In Their Words: “Sometime in the spring of 2020, I found a set of lyrics in my piano bench. They’d been hiding there for over 10 years and were originally for an album and theater show I was working on called Marathon. The title ‘Western Skies’ had been hanging around for even longer. There was something like 12 verses, which might explain why I never recorded it back then. I scrubbed those down to two verses and a chorus, with a new melody that came out of nowhere. I’d spent years trying to work out the other version. This one came together in about 30 minutes.

“Like the rest of the songs on the album, they were just songs. There wasn’t a unifying theme at first. It was only after the second day of recording out at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, that it all fell together and the songs made sense. I was watching the sun go down in the desert and it hit me — the songs went together with the photos I’d been taking and essays I’d been working on. It was a book and an album. And the whole thing was Western Skies.” — Darden Smith

Photo Credit: Jeff Fasano