N•I•T•E

Myles have been lighting up the stages of Texas and beyond since January 2014. NITE completed two full tours within North America in 2016 with Seabound (Germany) and The Foreign Resort (Denmark), and also a U.S. tour with The New Division (Los Angeles) in 2018. They have been humbled to share the stage on a number of occasions with artists such as Midge Ure (of Ultravox), Paul Young, Chad Valley, Howard Jones, Clean Bandit, The Griswolds, A Flock of Seagulls, Small Black, The Alarm, Zola Jesus, Blackbird Blackbird, Men Without Hats, Julien-K, Woody Woodmansey’s Holy Holy, A Silent Film, ChameleonsVOX, Modern English, De/Vision, ACTORS, and many more. In July 2017, NITE released a new album, Reborn, on Cleopatra Records, which features the songs “Dreamer”, “Godless City”, and “I Long 4

N•I•T•E Perform at White U”, as a follow-up to their 2014 self-release, I Am Not Afraid.

Oak Music Hall Feb. 11 SLEEPLESS the second album through Cleopatra Records is out now on all NITE are Canadian-born twin two began experimenting, creating their streaming platforms. brothers, Kyle and Myles Mendes, based own vibrant sound. in Dallas, TX. The duo create a unique hybrid of electronic-tinged rock with a Beginning at nod to 80’s-influenced dream-pop. Kyle fifteen years of age, and Myles’ powerful dueling vocals Kyle and Myles might remind oneself of Tears for Fears’ fronted a three-piece Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, with a band, RadioFire. delivery of tasteful guitar hooks amidst After a few years, bright synthesizers and throbbing drum they felt their music machines. starting to take a bit of a different From an early age, music was a direction, so a new huge part of Kyle and Myles’ upbring- project was born. ing. Mesmerized by KISS, the first Originally named concert the twins attended, their interest Nighttime Eyes and in performance hit an all-time high. later shortened to Together with the memory of their first NITE, the pair concert and the sounds of their favorite finally found the bands (New Order, The Cure, Depeche rhythm that worked Mode) buzzing about in their heads, the for them. Kyle and

Jack Ingram Performs At Main Street Crossing February 22, 23, & 24

Jack Ingram will be performing this month at Main Street Crossing. His appearance there will span 3 days, February 22, 23, & 24.

Throughout a recording career that has spanned more than 20 years, Jack Ingram has maintained a reputation for uncompromising, personally charged song craft and energetic, charismatic performances, earning him prominent stature in a prestigious tradition of iconoclastic singersongwriters. Ingram’s prior work has won him a fiercely devoted fan base as well as reams of critical acclaim, and now Midnight Motel marks a creative milestone for the veteran artist, his sound ever evolving while showcasing some of his most expressive, emotionally raw songwriting to date.

Ingram made Midnight Motel independently to avoid outside influences and have creative freedom to write and record. “It was really important to me at this point in my life to avoid thinking about any commercial decisions about the music,” explains Ingram. “Every night after my kids went to bed, I’d go into my music room and stay in there until about three or four, just working out the songs like I did at the beginning of my career. Or while on the road, sit up late at night writing in motel rooms. I wanted to bring people into that space with me.”

And so Midnight Motel turned into an album that is as real and honest as it could be. “Signing with Rounder Records to release this album was a perfect fit because of their expertise and love for good music, no matter the genre,” Ingram says.

His eighth studio album, and his first since his 2009 smash Big Dreams & High Hopes, Midnight Motel features spare, stripped-down instrumental arrangements that highlight the intimacy and urgency of such new originals as “I’m Drinking Through It,” “Nothing to Fix,” “Can’t Get Any Better Than This,” and “All Over Again.” The album’s organic late-night vibe is perfectly suited to the material, and brings out the emotional edge in Ingram’s deeply felt vocals. and the musicians recording live in the same room, with minimum overdubbing or sonic trickery. With understated audioverite production by fellow Texas singersongwriter Jon Randall and a stellar studio band including guitarist Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan, Arc Angels) and drummer Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Dire Straits), along with bassist Robert Kearns and keyboardist Bukka Allen from Ingram’s longstanding Beat Up Ford Band, the 11song set demonstrates how Ingram’s artistry has widened and deepened over time.

“I couldn’t have made this record when I was 25, because I just didn’t have the experience then,” he asserts, adding, “It’s kind of a concept record, but it’s a loose concept. There’s the late-night thing, and the travel, and then there’s the concept about not letting go of the important relationships, even if they’re not working. These songs are all about loving, troubled longterm relationships, whether it’s with the music business or my wife or my family.”

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The road to Midnight Motel has been a long and sometimes rocky one for Ingram, who was named Best New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 2008, despite the fact that he’d already been rocking honky tonks, theaters, and stadiums for a decade and a half by then. He began writing songs and playing gigs while studying psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and quickly earned a rabidly devoted audience while performing high-energy live shows in bars and roadhouses throughout his home state.

Ingram’s remarkably loyal fans enthusiastically embraced his early, independently released albums Jack Ingram, Lonesome Questions, and Live At Adair’s. His indie success helped to win him acceptance within the Nashville majorlabel mainstream, and he expanded his constituency with such acclaimed national releases as Livin’ or Dyin’, Hey You, Electric, Young Man as well as the live albums Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, Live at Gruene Hall: Happy Happy, and Acoustic Motel.

Ingram moved to the Big Machine label with 2006’s Wherever You Are, which spawned a pair of major country hits in the title track, which became his first Number One single, and its Top 20 followup, “Love You.” His next studio effort, 2007’s This Is It, hit the Top Five on the U.S. country charts and produced a trio of hits in “Lips of An Angel,” “Measure of A Man,” and “Maybe She’ll Get Lonely.” Big Dreams & High Hopes followed two years later, spawning five chart singles, including the Top 10 “Barefoot and Crazy” and the Top 20 “That’s A Man.”

For Midnight Motel, Ingram was looking to create something different.

Junior Brown

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with, and they showed me how to support myself by writing and publishing.” With his writing coming together by the midEighties, Brown upgraded his gear in a way that no artist had ever done. Struggling through each show, going back and forth plugging and unplugging guitar to steel guitar while singing, he had a dream one night about the two instruments mysteriously melding into one. The result was Brown’s unique invention, the “GuitSteel”, a double necked instrument combining standard guitar with steel guitar. Built by Michael Stevens of Stevens Electric Instruments, the Guit-Steel allows Junior to switch instruments quickly in mid song while singing. According to Brown, his guitar and steel guitar playing became more his own around this time, with less imitation of others and more his own original ideas and licks. This maturation coincided with the development of a completely “Junior Brown” style of songwriting which employs subtle dry wit to some songs – others can be more overtly humorous, or just plain dead serious; like his playing, there is a wide range of styles that when combined can only spell Junior Brown. In the early nineties Brown and his band (including wife Tanya Rae) relocated to Texas to the active Austin music scene and landed a weekly gig at the Continental club. Having worked as a sideman for many of the Austin-based acts over the years, Junior was already well familiar with the town. His unique and entertaining combination of singing, songwriting, instrumental and production skills led to a seven record deal with Curb Records that began with “Twelve Shades of Brown” in 1993. He later released two albums on the TelArc label. There were several Grammy nods, a CMA (Country Music Association) award for “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead”, movie and repeated TV appearances like Letterman, Conan, Saturday Night Live, Austin City Limits, SpongeBob, X Files, Dukes of Hazzard, Me Myself and Irene, Tresspass, Still Breathing, Blue Collar Comedy Tour 1 and 2, and more recently, Better Call Saul. And there were the Ad Campaigns; The Gap, Lee Jeans and Lipton Tea. As Junior became more well known, he began to collaborate on projects with some of his heroes. These include a duet with Ralph Stanley for which Junior received a Bluegrass Music Association Award (IBMA), a duet and video with “Something inside me was itching to do this,” he recalls. “The pressure in my chest was just so heavy that the only way I could get it off was to write these songs. Frank Liddell, who produced my record Electric in 2001, gave me some great advice: he said, ‘Go away and do something great while no one’s looking.’ That became my motto for this project. I just decided that I was just gonna do the best work I could do, and have it take as long as it takes. I didn’t care about trying to be technically perfect; I just wanted to be emotionally available. I can honestly say it was the best recording experience I’ve ever had. The waters got rough, but I really had a ball and enjoyed navigating that course.”

Rather than shooting conventional music videos to promote Midnight Motel, Ingram and noted filmmaker Michael Tully (Ping Pong Summer, Septien) have created a short companion-piece film incorporating the album’s songs and featuring Ingram as a troubled troubadour. The short film was screened at both the Dallas International Film Festival and the Nashville Film Festival.

Hank Thompson, as well as duets with video and record collaborations with the Beach Boys, George Jones, Leon McAuliffe, Ray Price, Leona Williams, Lynn Morris, Lloyd Green and Doc Watson. He even played guitar for Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys in a radio commercial.

Junior’s performance on the promotional song, “Better Call Saul” was recorded and released both as a video on AMC as well as a flexible 33 1/3rd vinyl record included in the show’s box set from Season One. On May 24th, 2018, Junior released his 11th and most current album, “Deep in the Heart Of Me”. Rolling Stone Magazine’s listing of 50 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Own, honored Brown’s US released album, “12 Shades of Brown”, (Curb Records, 1993) on May 27, 2020. Also inn May of 2020, Brown and his wife began hosting a series of live Facebook concerts under the name, “The Junior & Tanya Rae Brown Show”.

Junior, Tanya Rae and the band continue to tear up the highways and will be performing at The Heights Theatre on May 26th for two concerts. There will be an early show and a late show. Seeing Junior live is a definite must, so GUIT WITH IT ’cause he’s AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL!