Music News aka Houston Music News - September 2023

Also In This Issue

3 Doors Down Switchfoot

Paulina Rubio

Sin Bandera

Escape The Fate

The Fall Of Troy

Sugar Lime Blue and More!

Friday, Sept. 1 - Apex Fallen

Saturday, Sept. 2 - Bad Trip

Blanket Of M, Sanchez-E-Project

Thursdy, Sept. 7 - Sister Rayban

Friday, Sept 8 - The Stones (Tribute To The Rolling Stones)

Dyer Infernum, Bad Trip, SaviorSkin

Saturday, Sept. 9 - Luke Lafleur, Drifters & Grifters, Blacktooth, Raccoon Brothers

Friday, Sept. 15 - Storage 24, Safer Alternative, Bullethead

Saturday, Sept. 16 - Private Party

Friday, Sept. 22 - Band TBA

Saturday, Sept. 23 - Killing Daylight

Friday, Sept. 29 - The Creeps, Uppercut, Wick, Downgrade

Saturday, Sept. 30 - The Guillotines, Pretty Vacant, 500 Megatons of Boogie

September 2023

Hi Folks, Hello Music News readers. I hope you had a great August. Our cover story for this month is Shinedown. They have recently released their new album, Planet Zero. This fine band will be coming to Houston for one performance at The Cynthia Woods Pavilion On October 8th. This issue features an exclusive interview with Barry Kerch, the drummer for Shinedown who talks about the new album, the tour, and a bit about the personal battles that he has had to go through over the last few years. It’s really a great and intimate look into the band and the man who sits behind the drums and keeps the band on course, so be sure to read it thoroughly. Also be sure to check this concert out. It’s going to be epic!

We also feature a fine interview with Chris Henderson, guitarist for 3 Doors Down. Chris gives us the lowdown on the Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour and gives us a little insight into the making of this landmark album from the band.

Now, on to the new issue. In this issue, as usual, we have some great stories and information to pass on to you. Check out stories in this month’s issue on Switchfoot, Escape The Fate, The Fall Of Troy, Sugar Lime Blue, Tash Sultana, Bruno Major, Houston’s David Dela Garza, Dance Gavin Dance, Pablo Cruise and more, as well as another installment of the original story, THE BIKER! Also in this issue are a ton of great pictures of bands performing around the Houston area. I’m sure you’re going to be familiar with a lot of these bands. Those bands include Big Fan, Bluebonnet Basterds, Chernobyl The Secret, Christopher Seymour & friends, Clutch Cargo, DGMA, Hard Luck Revival, Jacob Ward Band, Kissing Judas, Little Terry, Minutes To Midnight HTX, Mud Creek Revival, Sparky Parker, Steve Krase, Van Wilks, and Zephyr Island. If you have pictures of local bands performing, please email them to us. I would really appreciate it and I know the bands do as well. Keep it up... We would like to see more pictures from you.

We’d also like to invite you to check out our Spanish music section. This month we feature stories on Paulina Rubio and Sin Bandera Check these stories out in English and Spanish.

I sincerely hope that everybody reading this new publication finds something here that they like and I would like to encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know about us. Just look for us every month at http://www.houstonmusicnews.net. I would also like to encourage you to email us for a free subscription to Rock And Blues International as well. Just email us at musicnew@airmail.net and in the subject line simply put “Sign Me Up” and we’ll email you a copy each month when it is published. Remember, for your convenience, Music News is also now downloadable. You can download the issue into your computer or storage device and save it and read it at your convenience without having to get logged on to the internet every time. Try it now and save every issue. It will make things a lot easier for you.

Kevin Wildman

Kevin Wildman Editor and Publisher

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Pablo Cruise

Pablo Cruise Performs At Dosey Doe Big Barn On September 29th Escape The Fate Bring Their “Out Of The Shadows Tour” To Warehouse Live The Fall Of Troy Bring Their North American Leg Of Self-Titled LP Celebration Tour To Warehouse Live September 17

Page 52

David Dela Garza

Conversations With The Professionals by John in Houston Lunch With David DeLaGarza (La Mafia)

Page 62

Paulina Rubio

Paulina Rubio Will Be Bringing Her Camino Golden Hits Tour To Texas This Month

Page 46 Escape The Fate

Page 56

The Biker

The Continuing Saga Of A Lone Biker On The Road To Explore The Freedoms Of America.

Page 65

Sin Bandera

Sin Bandera Brings Their Frecuencia US Tour 2023 To Smart

Finacial Centre

September 8

Page 60

Ingrid Contreras

Page 70

Paulina Rubio (En Espanol)

Page 60

Ingrid Contreras

Ingrid Contreras

Performs At The Arena

Theatre

September 30

Page 74

Sin Bandera (En Espanol)

Page 76 and On

Random Shots

Shinedown Drummer Barry Kerch

Talks About The New Shinedown Album

Planet Zero And Their Upcoming Tour

The Revolutions Live Tour

Shinedown Perform At The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 8th

By Kevin Wildman

Platinum award-winning band Shinedown are out on the road right now touring in support of their new Atlantic Records album, Planet Zero. They will be performing in Houston on October 8th at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. This is the seventh album for the band and their first at topping the all-genre Billboard Top Album Sales chart. This is also the second album recorded and produced by their bassist, Eric Bass at his own studio, Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Bass had also produced the bands previous album, Attention Attention. The album was recorded in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and is filled with 20 great songs that are bound to be thought of as a little controversial as it touches on subjects that the band has never ventured into before, such as societal forces that seem to keep us divided. It also shares messages of hope, perseverance, and compassion. The album was released in July of last year and the first single from the album, “Planet Zero,” was released ahead of the album’s release on January 26th, 2022. The single went on to reach number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The second song from the album, “The Saints of Violence and Innuendo” was released in March of last year, and the song “Daylight” was released on the 1st of June. Their newest release from the album is “A Symptom of Being Human” and has become a To 20 hit at

Hot AC Radio. The band tells us that the song is “about how we are all a work in progress and celebrates the beauty of our individual differences and embraces the ups and downs and the messiness and awkwardness in life, while showcasing Shinedown’s gift for making us feel connected through our common humanity.”

Shinedown has certainly made a name for themselves in this business, the band has amassed a stagger 19 #1 hits, 15 platinum and gold singles, platinum or gold certifications for every album released so far, and they have sold over 10 million albums worldwide.

The members of Shinedown are Brent Smith [vocals], Zach Myers [guitar], Eric Bass [bass, production], and Barry Kerch [drums]. The band has been proclaimed #1 on Billboard’s Greatest Of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists. Wow! Just some of their #1 songs include: “Planet Zero”, “Devour”, “Save Me”, “Bully”, “Attention Attention”, “Monsters”, “Second Chance”, “How Did You Love”, and “State Of My Head”. Don’t be surprised to see more #1 hits come from their new album, Planet Zero. The band’s studio album releases are: Leave A Whisper, Us And Them, the Sound Of Madness, Amaryllis, Threat To Survival, Attention Attention and the recently released Planet Zero.

We had a chance to sit down with

longtime drummer and founding member of Shinedown, Barry Kerch who was able to give us a little insight into the new album as well as talk candidly about his role in the band and some of the obstacles that he has encountered recently and it really made for an interesting and eye opening conversation, so without any further ado, here is Barry Kerch.

Barry Kerch: Hey, Kevin.

Music News: Hi there. How you doing today?

Barry Kerch: I’m doing great, yourself....

Music News: Doing fine. So where are you calling from?

Barry Kerch: Home. Jacksonville, Florida.

Music News: Jackson, Florida. How’s the weather there today.

Barry Kerch: To be honest, it’s a little rainy and not that pretty today, but it’s been a very rainy summer overly so for us.

Music News: Okay. Well, I have been listening to the album. I actually just got it a few days ago, so I think I’m on my sixth listen right now and I find it very extraordi

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Barry Kerch: Well, thank you.

Music News: It’s a total departure from the other albums. It’s still rock ‘n’ roll. But to me, it’s a total departure. Would that be fair to say?

Barry Kerch: Yeah, I would say so. It’s definitely sets itself apart. Yeah, absolutely.

Music News: And it appears to be a concept album of some sort.

Barry Kerch: Unintentionally, so. Yes.

Music News: What was the intention?

Barry Kerch: We didn’t set it out to be that way, but it just kind of came together that way. There was no pre thought of like, ‘hey, we want to do a concept record.’ It was just once the songs were done, there was a link together and that’s what we ended up doing, the speaking in between, the CYREN voices in between that kind of linked everything together. That was done after all the songs were recorded. So it wasn’t necessarily on the tip of our brain at the time, but it became that.

Music News: Well, the press release states, that the album is somewhere along the lines.... that it’s a talk about humanity today, or the future that we’re on... something along those lines. Is that about right?

Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, when this record was being written, it was during COVID and it was just after, you know, the ‘Summer of Love’ with all the riots. You know, everybody just at each other’s throats and all the just horrible stuff we were seeing and Shinedown has kind of always been a band that sings and writes about not only

personal experiences, but overcoming and coming to terms with things, whether it’s addictions, mental health, all those types of things. That’s just what has always been the underlying theme of Shinedown and our albums, because we write from real places, things we’ve experienced. And at that time, all we were experiencing was the divisiveness of everything and we’re not a political band, so we wanted to stay out of that lane because we have fans on both sides of the spectrum. So we’re like, we’re not going to pick a side, that’s not who this band is. This band’s about bringing people together. So in the album, it kind of takes you on the journey of all of that. And it’s a warning to say, look, we need to find our humanity with each other and start getting along and dealing with these things without the just avid hatred that we see right now.

Music News: Okay. One thing I find very extraordinary in the music is your drumming. There’s so many different types of songs or moods to this album, yet your drums seem to flow seamlessly through every song and that’s got to be rough for a drummer. Although you’re a very experienced drummer, and obviously a little more experienced than some drummers out there, because not everybody could pull off that type of a beat from song to song to song to song.

Barry Kerch: Sure, sure. It’s always daunting when you go in the studio, especially as a drummer. Typically, you’re the first one in. The songs are roughed out, and you have maybe demo forms of the song and things like that, but I’m the first one in recording for the record, so there’s a lot of pressure there. Luckily enough since it was during COVID, our bass player who produced and recorded the record, had built a home studio during COVID or not even a home studio, it’s a professional studio that he

built on site at his home. We were able to take a little more time with things because in a studio, say we’re out in Los Angeles recording at Capitol studios. You walk in, get the job done, because those hours are costing you money. This made it a little bit easier and he and I had a great working relationship. I do have a lot of experience and I was in many different.... I’ve played in many different aspects of music from marching band, to symphonic bands to funk and all these things throughout my history. We were able to explore and tap into those things and really spend some time getting tones. Okay, let’s record this drum set outside, okay let’s record half this song in this room and then go out here into the big room and that’s the fun of recording. When you have those opportunities to really explore and be creative. People like yourself get to hear that and enjoy it and I find pride in doing that because once you record it and it’s there, it’s there forever.

Music News: But it also opens up room for you to do different takes of songs, whereas when you go into a big studio somewhere, like in California, whatever with the money constraints in recording, you don’t have the luxury of trying to do a song a dozen different ways.

Barry Kerch: Correct. Absolutely. And it also depends on who is producing your records. Every producer, there are artists as well, they have their way of recording and some of them just want to get the drums done, because that’s not their emphasis. They’re worried about the vocal takes, and the guitars and things of that nature, which is just their their work methods and you have to learn how to work with those people as well. It’s different with this because we’re a band of brothers, and we were able to do it on our own, and Eric’s very good. He knows how to read me, how to get things out of me and vice versa, so it makes it a lot easier in the long run.

Music News: Well, he’s also the bassist in the band, so he’s one half of the rhythm section, which puts you a little closer together than say you and the guitars. Without a good rhythm section, you’ve got nothing.

Barry Kerch: I 100% agree with that, you’re the heartbeat.

Music News: What songs in particular are you the most proud of your drumming in? I’m sure it’s all of them, but are there certain ones that were really kind of a challenge?

Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah, I would say they are. “No sleep tonight”, just for the sheer tempo of that song. I’m not a big, I was never a big like speed metal or punk rock super fast player, that wasn’t my thing. So to get handed a demo of basically a punk rock song that’s super fast. That was a lot of fun to work up to and get out. So something like that was fun. The bass drum patterns on a song like, what is it, “America Burning”, that it was originally kind of like a drum loop and it was something that as a drummer, I

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wouldn’t have thought of, because it changed a lot, it was different. Typically when you, when drummers think of patterns and we think in patterns, and get your verse patterns and have your chorus patterns, then you have your pre chorus, you get your bridge and it kind of you see it in blocks, mentally. This was all over the place, but it had a feel. It was like, I’ve got to emulate that, I’ve got to take that electronic part, make my own, but follow that so I ended up sitting with a piece of paper and charting out things on quite a few different songs. But that one in particular just charting out going okay, that’s how that pattern goes. I’m gonna change in the next chorus. Okay, that’s what we’re gonna do, charted out on piece paper, go and record it. So I like those challenges. That’s what makes creating music fun.

Music News: Okay, what about like “Daylight”, I found that to be a very good song as well. The drums on there are really good.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, that’s a whole different way of playing. That’s digging into a more orchestral kind of thing and I think the majority of that song was recorded kind of in an orchestral way where it wasn’t played on a drum set, it was played on the bass drum here, let’s do a snare here, let’s add this on top and recorded in pieces, and put together like an orchestra. Same with “A Symptom Of Being Human”, very similar in that way because that’s what the song required. It didn’t require a drum set as much.

Music News: Okay, so what would you say the evolution of this album is compared to the last two albums.

Barry Kerch: You know, I think we always, every album we grow as musicians. Anytime you do something for a long period of time, you hope to grow and you try to grow and and you try to put that out there. I think with this record, we were a lot more direct in the way we, you know, there’s always metaphors and lyrics and things of that nature, but this was a lot more direct in your face, which I like. I think sonically, when you listen back to something like “Attention, Attention” or even “Sound Of Madness,” and a list those records, they were very spacious, very orchestral. They’re very wide when you listen to them. It’s all way out there in the headphones, very spread left to right, a lot of stereo. This record, because we wanted that intensity of what the songs represented, because we wanted that intensity. Really, if you listened to it in the headphones or a set of good speakers, it’s hitting you directly in the face. The vocals are right there in your face and then the drums come in. It’s all really tight, almost like a classic punk rock record in a modern fashion and that’s what we’re really shooting for. We never want to do the same thing twice and I

think that’s what keeps us around. We look to bands like U2. We look to bands like The Stones or Aerosmith, band’s that can grow with time. They still sound like themselves, but they’re able to change and grow and stay relevant and still create wonderful music. And that’s, we want to be as well and so far so good. We’re still here after 20 years.

Music News: Right? Well, with your singer the way he is, with Brent singing, you’re going to definitely have a certain sound. His voice is something a little bit different from anything else you hear out there. But with the style of music, you go from album to album to album on, it really shows an evolution and growth in the band.

Barry Kerch: Well, thanks. Thank you, I appreciate that. I’m glad you can recognize that in us. And that’s what makes enjoying your craft so special. You know, we all have.... you’re a writer, you do articles. That’s your thing and the word craft. You get better with it over time, the more you do anything.

Music News: Well, you try to at least.

Barry Kerch: Yes, you try to. There’s still things I can’t do and it frustrates the hell out of me.

Music News: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, what about the pressure from going from one album to another album when you have something like 19 number one hits. When you get ready to do the next album, is

it something like, ‘oh, hell, what are we going to do?’

Barry Kerch: Yes and no. So we’re very lucky to have that many number ones. Awesome. We also have this weird thing that we never really looked back. I’ve never looked back at my career and gone ‘look at what all I’ve accomplished’. I go, ‘that was awesome, what’s next’, and we all kind of have that. So when we go into the studio, it’s not, we have to write that radio single, it’s let’s write a group of songs. Of those songs, we can write it this time and then out of these 20 songs, maybe 25, maybe 30, let’s pick the best 12 to 15 that go together and that’s our record, then listen to them and listen to and then listen to it, then we might get rid of one. Maybe switch one out, listen to them some more and go, that’s the single. But it’s never really a conscious thing when you go in because if you do that, and I’ve seen a lot of bands do that. They start writing the same song over and over again and you listen to it and you go that’s just like it’s on the last record. Not to say we haven’t been guilty of that, it happens sometimes because you have a style. But you try to avoid that because you want to again, show growth and just create the best record you can that is a representation of you.

Music News: Well, we were talking about picking out the songs. Well, this one’s got 20 songs on it. Although four or five of

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those are like short intros into another song.

Barry Kerch: Yeah. Yeah, you know, it’s, it’s tough to pick them, especially when you write... I mean, there’s a few that we wrote for this record that I would have been just as happy to have on this record, but something about him just didn’t fit and that’s always been the way with Shinedown. We always write more songs than we need for the record. We have a back catalogue of a ton of songs. I don’t know if we’ll ever release them or not. It’s kind of weird. I think once you start releasing, like, Hey, here’s our b-sides or here’s our greatest hits, then you’re kind of... I don’t know, it feels like it almost stops the momentum of what we’re really trying to do, which is always to outdo ourselves. Maybe someday those will see the light of day. I have no idea.

Music News: That’ll happen when the record label takes over everything and you do the expanded version that you’re not really happy with.

Barry Kerch: So far we’ve been able to keep Atlantic at bay with that, but you never know.

Music News: You know what I mean though, these things come out years later, and it’s all of a sudden, well, here’s four outtakes and the band’s sitting there going, ‘Why the hell didn’t we burn those tapes?’

Barry Kerch: Right? Oh, here’s a new Beatles song we found. No, we didn’t want that out there because it wasn’t good enough.

Music News: Right, right. And they’ve just put another one out that sounds like one they really didn’t want out there.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, absolutely. That

was me with a Linkin Park song that just came out. Though it did very well at radio and people wanted to hear it., I was like, oh, that’s that’s an okay song, but it’s not what it was. I feel bad. The guy’s dead. Yeah.

Music News: Oh, yeah. Yeah. What would you say the biggest difference is between this one in the very last album.

Barry Kerch: This one’s much more aggressive. I’d say that’s the biggest difference, this is much more in your face because of the subject matter and because of the sign of the times that we were in during writing this record. It’s definitely a lot more in your face and aggressive.

Music News: It’s amazing how when COVID hit and everybody was confined how much new music came out, and really good, extraordinary music. It was like everybody had more time to write than they ever had before.

Barry Kerch: Absolutely.

Music News: So you didn’t feel rushed on this project because of all the time, you just were able to spend more time than you ever did on an album.

Barry Kerch: Between this one and the last one. The last one we spent quite a bit of time on as well, but definitely there was no pressure because, what else you’re gonna do. My bass player lives in Charleston, South Carolina, so it’s about a four hour drive for me. So I just drive up there, stay in my camper, hang out. record. It didn’t matter. And that was nice. Maybe there’s less pressure on... Less gotta get it done, gotta get back on the road and more of let’s just see what happens and have a good time.

Music News: Well, was there a little

more added pressure since you’d had a health scare.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny that that happens. You know, I had gone to a typical checkup, you know. Dermatologist said that we need to take a sample the spot and look, I’m a Florida guy who has Nordic skin and I didn’t wear sunscreen as a kid, so it’s on me. But they take the sample and then I go up to record the record. Well, I’m going in... we had done some stuff, getting the studio ready, found our sounds. Okay, tomorrow, we’re coming in, we’re starting on the first track. And that morning, I wake up and get the phone call. You’ve got cancer, you got melanoma, and I went, Oh shit, okay. That’s scary. I’m by myself, don’t have my family round and you hear that you got cancer. She was like... my doctor... and she said, we caught it early. You gotta get this removed. So well, how much time do I have? And she said, Well, I’d like to get it done in less than a month. You don’t want it to sit there. I said, Okay, well, I got a job to do. And it kind of gave me the impetus to really get in there and focus because that was always hanging in the back of my head. I was like, you go to dark places, sometimes. What if this gets worse? What if we don’t get it all? What am I gonna leave is my legacy for my family and my brothers that I play with? And I think some of that transferred to the record.

Music News: So there was more of a sense of urgency for you as well.

Barry Kerch: Sure, sure.

Music News: And before that you had elbow problem.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah. Luckily, that was healed up by the time I got in. Again, I had time off with COVID. We had come off of touring “Attention, Attention”, and it’s always the simplest thing that you end up hurting yourself with. We’ve been gone for a long time, got home, it’s around Christmas time. I’m playing with my daughter. We’re dancing around the living room. I keep twirling her and lifting her up, throw her and lifting up and then I wake up the next morning, I can’t move my arm. I had given myself a basically golfer and tennis elbow at the same time, pretty severely. I ended up spending six months in rehab and physical therapy and shots and everything else but back on the mend. So that’s just part of it. It’s repetitive strain. It’s repetitive injuries. My style of drumming is very intensive and very athletic, so it deteriorates on your joints as we age.

Music News: Well, fortunately, you were able to overcome that as well. You sure certainly have gone through quite a bit in the last couple of years.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, I tend to, I tend to beat myself up. I’m always a positive guy. It’s like boxing. I let it out on the drums, so I’m pretty happy most of the time.

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Music News: Well, that’s great. How did the rest of the members of the band take the news when you had to tell him a little bit about this?

Barry Kerch: They’re all supportive. I mean, they truly are. They truly are brothers. Blood or not, we’re brothers and they care for each other. We still eat dinner together. We still ride on the same bus. We still love each other. So, they took it. Each one took a different way. Eric’s a very stoic person, so he’s looks at me because, I’ve got tears in my eyes and he’s like, gonna be fine. Let’s get to work. Zack’s totally different. He’s blubbering in tears. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Brent goes, ‘how can I help you? How can I fix it, I want to fix this and he starts researching doctors and all this kind of stuff. And you know, if you take these supplements it’s going to help you, because that’s Brent’s way of showing love. So everybody showed it in a different way. But it was nothing but my guys caring, which is what we do for each other.

Music News: That sounds wonderful. I mean, it truly sounds like a band of brothers.

Barry Kerch: We are, we are. Even when we get in our fights, as anybody does, much like in a marriage, we put it, we put it to bed before we go to bed. Alright, let’s talk about, let’s get it done. Let’s not hold grudges because we’ve had those times after 20 years and many iterations of who we are as people. You’re gonna get in fights, but we, we’ve always been able to squelch those. And if it’s real bad, we all sit, the four of us in a room and hash it out until it’s done.

Music News: How do you think you’ve grown within the band?

Barry Kerch: Um It’s funny, I think I’ve grown in the band where I don’t have to worry about them as much anymore. So I’ve always been the... the nickname, they always call me the grandpa, the worrier. I always took care of everybody. When Brent was going through his horrible addiction issues, I was the one trying to take care of them, take care of the band, keep it together. And so now, as the band’s grown, and everybody’s gotten healthy and those issues are no longer, thank God. I feel like I could take a breath of fresh air and just be me, which is nice. That worry and that burden, those weights that I had to carry on my back to help alleviate my brother’s pain, I don’t have to do anymore. So in that, I think in that I’ve grown. And I’ve also grown not to worry as much. I get that from my mother. My mother’s a worrywart. Sometimes you gotta let people fall on their sword. That’s hard to do when you’re an empathetic person and an empath like me and everybody dumps everything on you. But you just gotta let them fall on their sword. So I think you grow emotionally. I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but somehow

that’s my other long life, I think.

Music News: Well, I’ve always seen the drummer in a band as being like, actually the most, the most important person in the band. I don’t know if I’m looking at that right, but from my viewpoint, I believe the drummer is the most important person. If you’re out there performing and you stop in the middle of a performance, everything falls to pieces. So you’re almost like the leader of the band in some regards. How do you... what do you think?

Barry Kerch: I agree with you, it’s a lot of pressure. And you know, we’re all humans, we make mistakes, but I don’t get the opportunity to make big mistakes very often. Otherwise, you’re out of a job as a drummer. You can’t drop the beat, the song stops. So it is a lot of pressure and it’s an unsung thing. I mean, people like yourself, who are a fan of music, they notice it. But you know, the Mom test when they’re just excited about the band, they wouldn’t think that way. They just be like, Oh, I heard the lyrics. I love the song. They don’t realize the pressure that it takes to put on those shows and to keep a consistent show night after night. And the drummers, that’s our responsibility. But at the same time,

that’s what I signed up for. I could never be a frontman or singer. I don’t want that. I like being behind my drums and commanding from that seat. That’s my throne. That’s who I want to be. I want this wall. Let them be the superstars. Let them be out in front. And I want to be your support. I’m proud to be the support member.

Music News: Right. You’re the drummer. There’s always a singer or guitarist standing in front of you anyway.

Barry Kerch: Yeah. Oh, all I do is see their butts all night.

Music News: That’s right. You can never see the drummer for some reason. It is hard at times, especially in small clubs.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, I’m okay with it. That’s it. That’s our lot in life. And I think you hit the nail on the head, but I think there’s two different kinds of drummers out there. There’s the very laid back ones, I would consider myself one of those. Or there’s the over the top in your face, Tommy Lee, Chad Smith, those kinds of guys. And they’re just completely different. You got the

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ADHD spike, look at me type of drummer, or you got to the other side that more laid back drummer, the Charlie Watts of the world.

Music News: Right, you’ve got the lead drummers like Keith Moon, who thinks he is more important than the rest of the band.

Barry Kerch: That’s what happens and then you don’t live long, unfortunately.

Music News: Yeah, well, I take it that everybody in this band has pretty much been able to avoid anything that that would find themselves, you know, that was kind of hazardous to their future at this point.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, yeah. It’s a different, It’s a different animal now in a great way. The addictions are gone. All that has been put away, the focus is on the band and putting on the best shows that we can and it makes it a lot more enjoyable experience.

Music News: Well, this lineup, the band has been together since... Well, the majority of it. Well, all of it since 2008. And I think the biggest change before that was 2005. So you’ve gotten to know each other a lot better. What would you consider this lineup compared to the 2001 version?

Barry Kerch: This is the band. I look back on it and if it wasn’t for Brad and Jasin, who were the original bass player and guitar player, this band wouldn’t exist, and I give them nothing but props for that. I was the last member to come in and they were already together with Brent. and we wrote the first two records together. They wrote

the first record. I came in at the tail end of the songs being written, but before the band was named. However, that was that and we wouldn’t be here without that thing. But at the same time, it was very toxic. So I don’t know that we’d still be here if it was that. So it’s never easy to go to those changes. It was, I liken it to a divorce. It was hard. And I wish nothing but great things for them and a wonderful life. But it had to be what it is now.

Music News: Well, I think this lineup is fantastic. I’ve loved every album, every single one. This this one just blew me away. The subject matter was totally different from others. The flow from song to song just.... Whoever arranged the lineup of the songs on here here did an excellent job. I don’t think it could be arranged any other way.

Barry Kerch: That is all Eric, our bass player. This was his baby. It put him through the wringer. But I give Eric credit for 98% of this record just in vision and putting together sonically This is Eric’s record.

Music News: Well, it’s gotta be wonderful to have a studio engineer and producer that is actually a member of the band and can do what the band really wants, as opposed to using an outside producer and engineer that want to do it their way.

Barry Kerch: It’s great. I don’t know that he wants to do it again, but he will.

Music News: Well, this is his second one doing this, isn’t it?

Barry Kerch: Yeah. Yeah. He’s got all the great ears to show for it. He puts it that he’s a perfectionist and he puts a lot on his own shoulders and sometimes it’s hard for him to let it go. ‘You have to let it go, Eric. That song is done. You’re gonna have to let it go.’ ‘Yeah, but it’s just not sounding.’ ‘Eric, we’ve got to turn it in. That song is done.’ ‘Okay,’ and then he’s frustrated. So it’s, he will never tell you that he’s happy with any of it, because that’s his personality, because he’s not. But us being on the outside of his brain see the talent that he, that he has and how special he is. so it’s really nice to have that but he’s, uh, he’s definitely a tortured soul when it comes to that side of things.

Music News: Okay. And let’s talk a little bit about the tour. You’re out on tour, you’re going to be supporting this album. How many songs from this album will creep into the song list?

Barry Kerch: Woo... As many as we can fit. Having 19 number ones that makes it really hard to fit.

Music News: Well, it is a four hour set, isn’t it?

Barry Kerch: I wish. Not for amphitheaters, they have curfews.

Music News: I know you’re playing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston. They shut down everything by 11 at night. Can you believe that? 11!

Barry Kerch: Oh, I do because if you go over, they charge you!

Music News: Yeah, it’s like $1,000 a minute or $2000 a minute, something ridiculous.

Barry Kerch: All the amphitheaters are that way. And when you get to the northeast, like in New York with all the union’s it’s even worse, 10,000. $15,000 if you go over, so you better not go over so you can only play so many songs. We’ll try... We’re still kind of creating the setlist for this run, but I would hope at least three, maybe four off this record because this is what we’re doing right now and that’s what we’re excited to play. But the fans that come to see us, they want to hear the old stuff too. They want to hear the singles, they want to hear “Second Chance”, they want to hear “45”, They want to hear “Simple Man” and I can go the rest of my life without ever hearing that again, but it’s not about me. It’s about the fans and we try to give them as much of what they want as we can within the time allowed.

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Music News: Well I know you’ve had to have picked out one song off of this already saying ‘well, whatever we do we have to do this one song,’ so what song is that?

Barry Kerch: I think at this moment just because it’s so popular right now it’s got to be “A Symptom Of Being Human”. That’s the song that we have to play right now. And then probably either “Planet Zero,” “Dead Don’t Die”, but I think “Dead Don’t Die” goes over more with the crowds than “Planet Zero”. Sometimes “Planet Zero” comes out and I don’t know, it’s different. We’ve done both, we’ve done all three, So “Symptom” for sure.

Music News: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. And tell me about your support acts. You’ve got Papa Roach on the bill and Spiritbox. How do you think that they blend in with what you’re doing.

Barry Kerch: Having Papa Roach is like a family reunion. We’ve done so many tours together over the years. I love those men, they’re a fun camp. And they make us work really hard. Having them supporting us or you know, the slot before us. They make you work really hard because they put on a fantastic high energy show as well. So it makes you want to go out there and even do better because it’s a friendly competition. I’m going to be your friend, but my job on stage is to destroy everybody that comes before me or after. Because that’s what you want to do. But they give you a run for your money. Papa Roach is a fantastic band. When it comes to Spiritbox, I’m very excited because I’m a fan of the music. I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. And my daughter’s a big fan. So I want to get my daughter out to see them and possibly to meet them because she’s a big fan. My daughter’s a competitive swimmer and that’s kind of her warm up music, it gets her pumped. So yeah, I’m excited for both bands. I’m excited to see Spiritbox because I’ve never seen them live. And we always try to treat it on our tours as a family. You know, we’re all working hard. We all do the same job, whether you’re doing the 30 minute set, or the two hour set. We’re all here working really hard to play music and to tour and we want to make it as comfortable and happy and drama free as we possibly can.

Music News: So what do you think? Is this a two hour set?

Barry Kerch: Yeah, probably. 90 minutes to two hours, roughly, depending on, what are you know, again, it’s arenas you have the luxury of going over a little bit, amphitheaters you don’t so that window’s that window, we got to be done by certain time.

Music News: Well, we’ve talked about Eric and we’ve talked about you, but we haven’t said much about Brent or Zack. Let’s say something good about them. What would you like to say about them?

Barry Kerch: When it comes to Brent, he and I have known each other for over 20 years. He is the most genuine. He’s the guy that would give you the shirt off his back. He’s an odd person. He still lives out of a suitcase. He has no home. He lives in hotel rooms. But he’s also the most driven person you’ll ever meet. Nobody can tell that guy ‘No’. And if you tell him ‘no,’ he’s not only going to prove you wrong, he’s going to go around you. I’ve never seen anybody with the drive that he has in whatever he does, no matter what. It’s all or nothing and I think I look up to him in that and try to follow him in that behavior of just, I’m gonna give 110% at all times, because I know he is and he’s got my back. So that’s Brent. When it comes to Zach, he’s Zack, he’s our little aloof. He’s like our little brother because he’s, he’s almost 10 years younger than me. He’s my little guy that I like to pick on and such an important part of this band. He’s the one that really, if anybody gets mad at the setlist, you get mad at him because he’s the one that helps come up with them for the most part and he’s very good at it. He’s, uh, he and I tend to be the food people. We get to get out and we enjoy foods We cook together on the road. We’ll do some barbecue for the bands and crews. Southern Style stuff.

So that’s who Zach is. He’s my little brother.

Music News: Great, great. Well, what have we missed in this interview so far? You do a lot of interviews? What have you not been asked that you’ve always wondered ‘why the hell haven’t these people ever asked me this question?’

Barry Kerch: Ha I’ve never. I’ve never thought of it that way to be honest. How about that question. I’ve never been asked that. I don’t know. Is there something you’ve always wanted to ask a band, but also like, I don’t know, I don’t want to offend somebody or get them upset or anything. I’m an open book. I’ll tell you just about anything. For me, I enjoy and I appreciate this interview. I enjoy actually talking about relevant things instead of somebody that’s maybe read the Wikipedia and goes, ‘so I hear you have a degree from this school’. ‘Yeah, I do’. You can. It’s all out there. You can read about it. It’s nice to just talk about music and things and internal things and whatnot. So I guess in a weird way, that’s my answer.

Music News: Well, some people when they do interviews, and I’m not trying to talk bad about other other reporters or interviewers, but they more concentrate on what the overall song as opposed to recognizing the individual talents that go into the song and like I talked about you being the drummer of the band. I really do find that to be one of the most important, if not the most important part of the band. If if you start playing playing a fast song and in the middle of it decide you want to do a waltz, everybody’s screwed.

Barry Kerch: Yeah, yes they are. Maybe I’ll do that the next time they get get mad at me. I might have to get some revenge on my guys.

Music News: Really just suddenly drop it down 40 beats.

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Barry Kerch: Yeah, I mean, I would never do that live because that’s not fair to the fans, but in rehearsal, Don’t threaten me, if it’s a good time, I might mess with them.

Music News: Well, that’s a thought there. Well, anything else that we haven’t discussed about the tour or the band or the album that we really should mention?

Barry Kerch: I don’t think so, aside from I wish I had your last name because that’s a cool last name.

Music News: You like that?

Barry Kerch: I do. I’m jealous. You know, I’ve got a very non discriminate name and Barry Kerch doesn’t really, you know, it’s nothing much to it. But Wildman, that’s good. I’m jealous.

Music News: Oh, well, the problem with that is when you get a name like that, you have to try to live up to it.

Barry Kerch: As long as you do it above board, I’m okay with it.

Music News: It’s had its own adventures along the way over the last.... so long. I’m considerably older than you. I’ve seen a lot. I saw that you might have been born on an Air Force Base.

Barry Kerch: Yes, I was. I was born in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy. My dad was, he’s retired Air Force now, but he was at the Air Force Academy at the time and that’s where I was born, so I don’t remember it. We moved or he got sent out shortly thereafter, so I pretty much been in Florida since I was five years old. Grew up in the Panhandle in Panama City at Tyndall Air Force Base. Yeah, it was. I tell everybody, I had a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ childhood. I had a wonderful childhood. I had a stay at home mom that cooked meals. We sat around a table, played in the water, was kicked outside every single day, a military father who taught me value and humility.

Music News: I come from a military family too. My dad was an Air Force Major. His motto was....

Barry Kerch: Retired Major. Hmm. Same as my father, he was a retired Major.

Music News: There you go. Well, then you understand what it’s like being raised military.

Barry Kerch: Yeah. Oh, yeah, very much so.

Music News: My dad’s favorite saying was when I tell you jump, you ask how high on the way up!

Barry Kerch: Yes, yes, it was very. There was no getting by!

Music News: Not at all. Not at all. Anyway, we won’t get into my childhood. It was a little strange as it is, but...

Barry Kerch: Any military childhood can be a little strange.

Music News: Well, you spend an average of one to three years in a location and you move and you move and you move. And by the time you’ve met, or you have a friend, you no longer have that friend anymore.

Barry Kerch: Yeah. A 100 percent.

Music News: All right. Well, I do appreciate our time together here. Thank you very much. I wish you much, much success for the album and tour. And again, I’ve listened to the album about six times. I really think it’s extraordinary and I really love the diversity from song to song.

Barry Kerch: Thank you. That means a lot to have somebody who’s interviewing me that’s actually spent the time listening. You’d be surprised or maybe not how rare that is these days.

Music News: Let’s hope that in any future interviews you have, the people have taken the time to listen and and understand what they’re listening to

Barry Kerch: You would think. You would hope.

Music News: All right. Well, again, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. And if you think of anything else you want to say to me, or tell me later on, you’ve got my number, just give me a call. All right. Well, thanks again for your time. Have a great day. Have a great week and we’ll talk on the next album.

Barry Kerch: Sounds great. Thank you Kevin.

Music News: Okay, bye bye.

Barry Kerch: Bye, bye.

Be sure to catch Shinedown in concert October 8th at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Their concerts have become quite legendary and they feature an unbelievable amount of their greatest hits and #1 releases. As you can tell from this interview, Barry just can’t wait to get on stage and perform some of the new songs as well. We’d like to thank Barry for talking to us about this new album and tour and would like to wish him a very successful album and tour. Thanks again Barry!

3 Doors Down Present Their Salute To Away From The Sun With The Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour

September

23 At Smart Financial

Centre With Special Guest Candlebox

3 Doors Down Lead Guitarist Chris Henderson

Discusses The Making Of Away From The Sun And Their Current Tour

By Kevin D. Wildman

3 Doors Down has announced that they will be hitting the road on tour with special guests Candlebox for their Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour. This is going to be a very special tour for the band as they will be performing their sophomore release, Away From The Sun in it’s entirety. Produced by Live Nation, 3 Doors Down will be appearing

in some of the biggest venues and amphitheaters around the United States. In addition to Away From The Sun, 3 Doors Down will also be performing quite a lot of their greatest hits and let me tell you, they have a lot of them. Do you remember “Kryptonite”. That was a massive hit for the band, among many others.

For Candlebox, this will be the final hurrah as the band plans on calling it quits

after this tour. They will also be releasing their final studio album later this year.

The recording sessions for Away From The Sun took place during the summer of 2002 with producer and engineer Rick Parashar at London Bridge Studio, in Seattle, Washington. Away From The Sun produced quite a few hits for the band including the

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title song, “Away From The Sun” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Another single from the album, “When I’m Gone” peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2003, not to mention seventeen weeks atop the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Charts. It also peaked at number two on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks, not to mention charting on even more rock charts. “The Road I’m On” was their second single off the album and reached number eight on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 24 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Last, but not least, “Here Without You”, the third single from the album reached No. 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified double platinum in the U.S. for shipping over 2,000,000 units. It was also quite successful around the globe peaking at No.2 in Australia and reaching the top 10 in Denmark, The Netherlands, and New Zealand. Without a doubt, Away From The Sun was a monster success and has sold over 8 million albums worldwide and topped the U.S. Billboard 200 Chart.

One of the highlights of being out on the road for 3 Doors Down this year is their 18th Annual “The Better Life Foundation Concert” that will take place at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC, on October 21st. So far, the band has raised over $3 million that went out to veterans, children, women, and humanitarian relief efforts domestically and around the world.

“Away From The Sun has always been a personal favorite of mine because of how much it resonated with out country’s service members,” says 3 Doors Down’s Brad Arnold. “We are so blessed to be able to celebrate these significant milestones because we were very young making these albums, and we still have so much more life to give our fans. The show we are planing will be next level this year. It’s going to be incredible to have Candlebox on tour with us. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I was a teenager...”

3 Doors Down has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, received a Grammy nomination, two American Music Awards, and five BMI Pop Awards for songwriting, which includes “Songwriter of the Year.” Immediately when they burst our on the scene with their first album, The Better Life, 3 Doors Down quickly made a name for themselves. The Better Life went on to be certified platinum seven times, and their hit song “Kryptonite” catapulted them into the stratosphere.

We sat down recently with lead guitarist Chris Henderson who is just ecstatic about this new tour and being able to perform

Away From The Sun in it’s entirety to discuss the album, the tour, and the future of 3 Doors Down. It’s certainly a high point in his life right now and he was more than happy to share his thoughts with us here at Rock And Blues International. So, here’s our conversation with Chris Henderson.

Chris Henderson: What’s up Kevin...

Music News: Hey, how you doing today?

Chris Henderson: I’m doing alright. How about yourself?

Music News: I’m doing just fine. Thank you. I’m doing great. Well, so it’s about a week before before the tour kicks off.

Chris Henderson: Just about a week.

Music News: Well, what’s the anticipation like with this one?

Chris Henderson: Well, I think having done the Better Than Life Tour already and got through that, and then doing the other tour with Collective Soul, that’s kind of cool and we’ve done a few of them. But we really enjoy doing these Live Nation tours and they’re a lot of fun. And you know, a lot of people get to come and see us play a little bigger venue with a little bit more, a few more lights, a little bit more sound and stuff like that. It’s cooler, to kind of, you know, to

have that behind you and go out and play like that. I mean, it’s not always like that. Not every band plays arenas and stadiums every night. You know what I mean? Because it’s like, America, and it was the world really so you go to all kinds of places and it’s nice to get those Live Nation venues like that.

Music News: Well, it looks like this tour is gonna put you in arenas all over the United States. I don’t know where else you’re touring, but all over the U.S. at least.

Chris Henderson: All over the states for sure, but you know what, it’s just nice. This is gonna be a real tour for sure. Absolutely.

Music News: So what is the anticipation like seeing that you’re going to be doing Away From The Sun in its entirety?

Chris Henderson: Well, the anticipation for me is like there’s a lot of cool songs on that record and we’re doing some cool stuff around it as well. It’s going to be nice. I don’t want to let the cat out the bag or anything, but there’s some really cool songs on that record and we’ve been doing this as long as we have and when you’ve done the amount of albums that we have, you forget about these kind of like, deep cuts until you you go back and listen to them. They’re good songs man. For instance, my son was five and

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I got him an Ipad and he walks around and he listens to “Kryptonite”, and he listens to “Pop Song”. He’s got a good taste of music and he gravitates towards the songs that people don’t necessarily know and I like that about him. He’s not afraid to listen to stuff like that and there’s some good stuff like that on this record that we’re gonna play. And I’m looking forward to that. So that’s my anticipation.

Music News: All right, well, you’ve got like four singles off the album alone itself, “When I’m Gone,” “Away From The Sun,” “The Road I’m On,” and “Here Without You,” and I imagine that you’ve probably been playing those in concert, or at least some of those in concert all along the way for all your tours, but now you’ve also got a lot of songs that you haven’t touched on in a long time. So what was it like going back and relearning the entire album?

Chris Henderson: Um, it wasn’t that hard. It was like, we play a lot of songs on that record already. So maybe four or five that we’ve, that we only had to learn and go back and start revisiting because you don’t really play them if you don’t play them, so they kind of get lost to you a little bit, but they come right back. It’s, it’s neat to feel them, kind of make sense again, you know.

Music News: What were the songs that you had to relearn?

Chris Henderson: Oh, man, quite a few. “Pop Song” is one of them. It’s not on the record, but it’s like... it’s just one of the things that we’re doing. So we go back and learn a song like that. And we had some stuff that we did with Alex Lifeson between records that he produced and we’re going to be messing around with some of that stuff. And I get all them mixed up to be honest with you. There’s so dang many of them, I can’t

even really hardly to tell you which ones. I got the setlist if I can find it real quick. I’ll just tell you by looking at it.

Music News: Okay, well, Alex Lifeson performed live with the band during your premiere party in Biloxi for “Away From The Sun”.

Chris Henderson: Yeah, sure did. Yeah. That was a good time, man. He didn’t rehearse with us or nothing. The man just came in there and just like, looked at the guitar I was playing, looked at what position I was in, what key I was in and started soloing. It was really cool to see somebody do that.

Music News: Well, what was it like when you went into the studio with producer and engineer Rick Parashar at London Bridge Studio when you went into record this? Was there a little bit of anticipation because you had just come off a mega hit with “Kryptonite”?

Chris Henderson: Yeah, I mean, so when you do that, as hard as they want you to do it again, you never know if you can do it again. And so there’s a lot of that back and forth. And, you know, a lot of negotiations with the record company and stuff like that. It kind of set us up to fail big or win big. Does that make sense? And so we went up there. The first thing when you walk in that studio, you see the amount of records have been made in there and the amount of records that Rick made before he passed away. 10 Years was made there. Alice In Chains’ “Jar Of Flies” was made there. I want to say a bunch of other ones. Sublime, that first sublime record was made there. There’s a lot of good records. I think the Candlebox record, the first Candlebox record was made there as well. You see those gold records and you see that place and see how big it is, and how good it sounds, you realize that you stepped

into another world. It’s not a baby band studio, it’s a big studio and a nice one, the first kind of like major studio. I think you know that you can call it that. It’s really kind of like a hole in the wall, but still a major studio. It’s just really nice and sounded really amazing and to walk in there with Rick. They just did that Nickelback record right before that and that was one of the reasons we wanted to talk to him. That record sounded so good. I think it’s called “Silver Side Up” and he made that record there and it sounded really good. So we were like, ‘Let’s talk Rick,’ so we talked to him on the phone with a bunch of producers and they just had it... he had it worked out in his mind what he wanted to do already and you know, we all agreed after that phone call that he was the guy.

Music News: Great, great. Well, evidently everything went great for you because “When I’m Gone” just took off after the album was released, the first single from the album.

Chris Henderson: Yes sir, it did.

Music News: So what made the band want to get together and relive that album?

Chris Henderson: It’s just like... a couple of years ago at the Better Life Foundation, we played Away From The Sun in its entirety and had such good time doing it, it gave us the idea to do the 20th anniversary tour of The Better Life. We tried to do it before COVID, but couldn’t get it done, because you know, COVID shut everything down. I think we knew, even before we did that tour that we were gonna do this one as well, because we did it that one night at one show. It was a lot of fun and the crowd loved it and the fans after the show tell us like, how neat that was and they’d seen us seven or eight times and never seen us do anything like that. They really liked it. They really appreciated it. And so did we, so that was the motivation behind it. And I’m sure we’ll probably do Three Doors Down after that, hopefully. That would be nice. We’ll see.

Music News: Well, when you do that, when you do the songs, are you just going to start at the beginning of the album and go all the way through or is it just going to be kind of split up between the hits.

Chris Henderson: It’s going to be split up. We did that at that at that show. We played it from front to back and we did The Better Life that way, so we’ve kind of done that. I think we’re gonna just kind of mix it up this time, but we are gonna play all the songs on the record for sure.

Music News: It looks like it’s gonna be a tough one to get all your hits in on that. I’m looking at a list of songs that you all have done that have charted and it’s just an unbelievable catalogue of work here. How long is this set going to be?

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Chris Henderson: Man, I’m going to have to look at my notes to tell you. It’s gonna be a long one. We’ll say it’s 20 songs, I mean that we whittled it down to, but it’s gonna be long... it’s probably more than a lot of sets we’ve ever played, but you know, that’s what that’s what you got to do.

Music News: Yeah 20 songs... so that’s still doesn’t even cover the hits.

Chris Henderson: Well, I mean, I think we probably we’ll get most of them in there. Every time we want to, but we never play all of them. We’ve got so many. We do our best to get the ones everyone wants to hear in there and try it without mixing it up a little bit. I think we’re gonna start playing and we’re gonna adjust it as we go.

Music News: Okay, well tell us a little bit more about the recording process when you did Away From The Sun. Put us inside that studio there. What was it like to be inside the studio when you started the recording on that project.

Chris Henderson: It was really cool. So it was in Seattle, but not Seattle, itself. It’s in Shoreline which is north of town, up I-5. We eventually moved into a hotel and right beside the hotel was a gym and a nice grocery store and right across the street was the studio. None of us rented cars or anything like that. We just lived in the hotel and walked to the studio every day and they had a basketball and we’d go outside. And there were all kinds of old instruments laying around inside, pool table, full kitchen and a bathroom and the live room is incredible. It had this old analog board in there and you know, the room was acoustically like almost perfect, one of the better sounding live rooms that I’ve ever been in. And of course, the vocal booth was was crazy cool. And that was the first time we saw Pro Tools in the recording process. We use it to mix. We knew what it could do mixing wise, but that was the first time we’ve seen it in production. And there was an engineer there named Geoff, Geoff Ott. I think he owns the place now. As a matter of fact, I know he does and he could run Pro Tools as fast as he can think. I’ve never seen anyone do that before, but I pretty much stayed on his shoulder the whole time just to learn as much as I could about that program. And sitting in there, you can see all the gear, you realize all the music have been through all that stuff, all the really cool, like life changing music that’s been recorded there. And that vibe’s still in there and Rick was incredible. Rick was a great producer and with that engineer and producer team, it was

it was smooth sailing. Josh Freese did drums, and he came in did all the drums in one day. It’s just what he does. That was pretty cool to watch him do that. He did one day of rehearsal with us in Mobile, Alabama, flew in and played the drums and that was it. Done. Good stuff.

Music News: How many days did you wind up spending in the studio all together?

Chris Henderson: Oh, man, I couldn’t tell you the number. I would say about six, eight weeks really? There was two months for all of it.

Music News: Okay. When you look back at this album, are there any songs on there that just particularly grab you?

Chris Henderson: Yeah, the song “Away From The Sun” grabs me. I’ve always loved that song, little guitar riff in the front. One of the ones that I kind of like. I had a little bit of trouble with it when I was writing it and you know, wanted it to kind of feel like it dropped a beat if I could and so do a little bit of some kind of skip back stuff. I don’t know how to explain it but I wanted to do a certain thing and couldn’t really make it do it. I finally got it. It took me a minute, but that one really grabbed me and I think the lyrics of that song are really, like just spot on. Brad nailed that song and of course the vocals he did as well. But that one really grabbed me and and also “Here Without You” man. But

those two in particular.

Music News: What was it about “Here Without You”?

Chris Henderson: Yeah, that one definitely grabbed me, it’s been good too, I’m not going to lie. It’s the gift that keeps on giving?

Music News: Well, it was the power ballad off the album.

Chris Henderson: Yes sir, it was.

Music News: Oh, right.

Chris Henderson: So that’s another thing we had trouble writing. The bridge was really hard to come up with and not that it was hard to come over, it was just hard to connect the dots, if you will. It’s one of those things where we kept putting it on the back burner and putting it on the back burner? And Brad and I were like, you know, we’re gonna stick with it, stick with it, stick with it, and see if we can get the song written. And there was times I didn’t think we were gonna get it written. And it did. I want to say I woke up one Saturday morning and just had the bridge in my head and grabbed the guitar and put it together real quick, showed it to Brad next day of rehearsal and the song’s done.

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Music News: Oh, great. You had kind of a special song on here for your fans as well. The hidden track at the end of the album, “This time”. What was the point of having a hidden song?

Chris Henderson: I think it was just to kind of like, as everyone had done back in the day. Everybody did that and they had the hidden track, the last track. Sometimes it wouldn’t be in the list. And it was just they were fun. And so we were just gonna have some fun and give our fans something special and give ourselves something special too.

Music News: Okay, well, the album was a monster as well. Six times platinum certification in the U.S., a top five, scoring top five on the Billboard Hot 100 list. What was it like with the band when you started achieving success like that with this album?

Chris Henderson: Well it’s kind of surreal, because we didn’t expect it. We didn’t expect the record to do what the first record did, because it’s just so hard to do that and we didn’t understand that. Now, after the success of The Better Life, we thought, hey, we’re gonna write some songs and it’s gonna be awesome. It’s gonna be you know, we’re gonna go in there and jam it like we did the last time. That’s what we do. We’re were filled with confidence and bravado and cocky

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and just, you know, telling people what to do and all this stuff and it wasn’t really working out that way songwriting wise. The songs didn’t lay down like the other one did, you had to force a couple of them. You had to work really hard to get some of them out. And while we’re recording, even during when the recording started, we still didn’t know about... a couple of them weren’t even finished yet. You know, we didn’t know if they’re gonna like them if if they heard them. And Monte Lipman and Avery came out. And and our manager at the time came out to the London Bridge and sat and listened to those new songs. And that’s what I knew that we were going to be okay. When I saw look on those guys face, I saw what they, you know, felt on their face, what they already knew and they knew it was gonna be big, and they were happy. And I was happy because, you know, for a while... I even heard one producer say that we were talking to... He said, if you wrote the songs and this was your first record, you wouldn’t get a record deal. That was one of the things I heard, which is like... that’s the scary stuff, man because you don’t want to go home. You know, you like just change. You want to go back to where it was. So we we’re a little scared about that, but it all worked out.

Music News: They actually told you that if you’d done that album first, you

wouldn’t have gotten a record deal?

Chris Henderson: I heard that a couple of times. Yeah. If we submitted those songs to get signed, we wouldn’t got signed. That’s what they’d say.

Music News: Oh, really? What was the look on their faces when it went five times platinum?

Chris Henderson: Well, I mean, they’ve changed their tune right there in the studio even before we went out, you know. I mean, before we even went out there, they heard them and they were like, ‘alright, that’s pretty good.’

Music News: Well, when you look back at the recording, what was like the hardest song that you did on there? What was the one that just was really bugger to do?

Chris Henderson: I think probably “Here Without You” was really tough and I wanted it to be so clean and wanted everything to be perfect on that and you know with Pro Tools I can edit it, I can make it perfect, but I wanted to play it so that was a thing and I practiced really hard to get everything down and get it nice and clean and I wanted it to be

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a tape not an edit so that would have been the hardest one for me and there were some parts that needed to be written that hadn’t been written yet from other songs, not main body parts, just ear candy stuff and sometimes that’s tricky too.

Music News: Okay, what was the easiest song. What song just flowed the minute you started playing it?

Chris Henderson: “When I’m Gone” for sure. that’s the easiest song. That practically wrote itself almost.

Music News: Really, tell me about that.

Chris Henderson: Sometimes if you listen to that opening riff, that a-minor riff that... it’s a 3 Doors Down thing. It’s throughout our music. It’s also I mean.... I’ve picked up parts from Skynyrd and stuff like that, but it’s a signature thing that I do, that I always have done, and so I had to get it in a song. So when I started writing, that’s that lick on that song, just kind of like start laying down and it went into the intro, into the verse, into the chorus, into the bridge and everything. It really just went quick. We wrote that at soundcheck in Puerto Rico in two takes. We played it once and made a couple mistakes and played it again. That’s the way we’ve been playing it ever since.

Music News: Oh, fantastic.

Chris Henderson” Yeah, it’s cool. It’s cool.

Music News: All right. Well, one thing that the band has done that’s a little different from other bands is you’ve started the Better Life Foundation and I know that’s a big thing. I know, we couldn’t write this story without a little information about the Better Life Foundation, so tell me how important that is to the band.

Chris Henderson: It’s very important man, we’ve put a lot of work into it and our friends that work for the foundation have put a lot of work into it. We take it very seriously. It’s like a dollar in, dollar out, organization. Well, we have a cell phone bill and we cover some expenses, but really every dime we make, we give away, and Brad and I and the guys in the band can choose where they want the money to go. So pretty good. So I’m excited about it every year, I love going to the event. A lot of people get together to see each other once a year at the event. It’s become like a meeting place and all the events they do over the weekend are crazy and cool and

they have a really good time. And it’s a lot of fun and a lot of work for a lot of people. But for us, the band, you know, we get to play a show and then give all the money away and it’s pretty cool, man. Really, it is and we’ve helped some organizations that probably didn’t expect that. I think after Katrina I rode my Harley into an encampment of people that were just rebuilding it, down in the Gulf Coast and they needed some money and I gave them a check for 70 grand a week later just because I saw them on the side of the road and they were all working real hard. You know these guys are giving back, let’s give some money to them so what we did was pretty cool. It’s good to be able to do that. It makes you feel good.

Music News: Well at the show you put on for the concert for the Better Life Foundation, you’ve had a lot of luminaries there performing... Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown, Alter Bridge, Staind, Hinder, Switchfoot, Tracy Lawrence, Sara Evans, and a host of others. How do you think it affected your guests.

Chris Henderson: I think they enjoyed that you know, because like sometimes it’s a show that they’re not going to get anywhere else. I mean, Tracy Lawrence and 3 Doors Down. You don’t see that too often, although we have played shows with him over the years, but it’s, you know, Lynyrd Skynyrd we have as well. Of course Shinedown, Stained and all that good stuff. We usually take a band in there that’s been on the road with us and then take the bands because they love this stuff. It’s all about who’s there. You don’t... I mean it’s not like who’s playing first, who’s playing next and that kind of show. It’s not like an opener. They get to play a little bit longer. it’s kind of cool and they get to spend the weekend there if they want to and do the whole nine yards and have the experience of the event and it’s pretty cool man hanging out with friends like that, that you don’t really hang out with them like that on tour.

Music News: Well when this tour is

over, what what lies in store for 3 Doors Down? What do you have planned?

Chris Henderson: Oh, I don’t know. I think we’re going to try something new and write some new music and start thinking about new 3 Doors Down material instead of just doing tours. On this tour, our team has worked real hard to like make this and make what we’re bringing out with it, you know, the media that we’re releasing with it a big deal. They’ve done a really good job. They’ve done a lot of hard work. It’s exciting, so I think it’s time now that they’ve done, that it’s time for us to go about writing music.

Music News: Have you started writing any yourself?

Chris Henderson: Myself, I’ve been noodling around and put some ideas on tape and just keeping things to myself at the moment because if I give it all to Brad, or we sit down, it kind of overwhelms him a bit. He’s gotta get... he’s got to get some lyrics out of his head, I think. And that’s normally what he needs to do and he writes a song or two before we start writing just to get to clear his head. That’s, you know, I would never do that, but he and Greg wrote a song. It’s pretty cool. We’ll play it I think, and probably record that one after we live with it.

Music News: Okay, well, what comes first, the words or the music.

Chris Henderson: You never know, sometimes they happen at the same time. It depends on who’s doing what and who’s fired up. Brad writes all the lyrics. Sometimes he has a set, he’ll bring the story to you and it’s really, I mean, for me, it’s a little bit harder to do that than it is to write the music first, and just have him kind of build it.

Music News: I would imagine you already have some ideas in your head where you’d like to go with the next album.

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Chris Henderson: I was experimenting with some different tunings and things like that just to make things different, so we get some different phrasing and different chords on different things that we’ve never done before. It’s important, I think, to kind of try to grow and it’s also really difficult because nobody has the same idea. So it’s like, you just got to kind of let it develop and see what happens and seeing what gets picked up or just dropped on the floor, you know?

Music News: Right, drop it in the pot and stir it and see what you come up with.

Chris Henderson: That’s it.

Music News: Okay, anything you’d like to add to this? Anything you’d like to your fans know about this show in particular?

Chris Henderson: Yeah, I think I’m really excited to put this out there. And to get this going and put the production out there, start rehearsing, and looking forward to seeing everybody. It’s been a minute since we’ve been out and toured like this. So, you know, I’m really looking forward to it. I was texting yesterday about how excited we were about it, so I want everybody to know that

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we’re excited to come and see them and excited to play again and can’t wait to see all of them on the road, and sign some autographs and meet new friends, and see our old friends again.

Music News:: All right. Well, then, if that’s all we got, I think I’ve got what I need right here.

Chris Henderson: Certainly, I appreciate it.

Music News: Wonderful. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our talk today. And where are you calling from. What state?

Chris Henderson: I’m in Tennessee, Cottontown, Tennessee.

Music News: Thanks again. I appreciate you taking this time to talk with us and I hope your day is fantastic. I’m looking forward to seeing the tour when you come to Houston, which is like the day before the last show.

Chris Henderson: Yes, at the end. Yeah. All right, I’m looking forward to that show, too.

Music News: All right. Well, thank you again, and I guess we’ll talk to you later. We’ll talk to you when you do the new album.

Chris Henderson: Yes Sir.

Music News: All right.

Chris Henderson: Thanks, guys.

Music News: Okay, bye bye.

Chris Henderson: See ya. Bye.

So, as you can tell by now, Chris is totally jazzed about getting back out on the road with his bandmates on tour and performing Away From The Sun in its entirety. He certainly has a lot of fond memories about recording the album and was more than happy to share them with us. I’d like to thank Chris Henderson on behalf of Rock And Blues International and wish him and 3 Doors Down a fantastic and profitable tour. For you readers out there, I hope you get a chance to see the Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour. No doubt, it’s going to be a blast!

Switchfoot Bring Their “The Beautiful Letdown 20th Anniversary Tour To The Heights Theater September 22

The Beautiful Letdown 20th Anniversary Tour ...

2023 marks the 20th anniversary of Switchfoot’s seminal album, The Beautiful Letdown. The triple-platinum record included the chart topping hits, Meant To Live & Dare You To Move and changed the lives of the band members and a generation the world over. The underdog success story of The Beautiful Letdown exemplifies Switchfoot’s iconoclast, grassroots approach- defying the odds of major labels and mainstream media. In fact, just before the album was released, Switchfoot was dropped from the major label they were signed to. It was only after millions of albums had been sold that the label was forced to support the band that had proved them wrong. Drummer Chad Butler recalls, “Looking back, I realize the album was aptly titled - The Beautiful Letdown embraced a human story equally full of highs and lows.” Celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Beautiful Letdown, the band realizes just how important that rollercoaster was. “The journey of the beautiful letdown reminded us why we started playing music in the first place. It

united us and gave us a deep appreciation for each other and the people that showed up to sing with us. We’re so excited to celebrate the release of The Beautiful Letdown (Our Version) and the worldwide journey that we’ve been on ever since. We can’t wait to take these songs on the road and play the album front to back for the first time ever!” _______ Switchfoot has sold over 10 million copies worldwide of their thirteen studio albums (including their 2003 triple-platinum breakthrough The Beautiful Letdown and 2009’s Grammy Award-winning Hello Hurricane), racked up a string of Alternative radio hit singles, and performed sold-out tours with over 5 million concert tickets sold in over 40 countries around the world. Through their unique blend of emotionally intelligent and uplifting brand of alternative rock, Switchfoot has earned a devoted and loyal global fan base. Switchfoot has raised over $2 million dollars to aid kids in their community through their Bro-Am Foundation. SWITCHFOOT consists of Jon Foreman (vocals, guitar), Tim Foreman (bass), Jerome Fontamillas (keys, guitar) and Chad Butler (drums).

After gaining a foothold in the contemporary Christian music scene, alternative rockers Switchfoot went mainstream with 2003’s The Beautiful Letdown, a double-platinum album that straddled the line between sacred and secular rock music. Emerging in the late ’90s with a pair of indie LPs marketed to CCM radio, the band began adding elements of synth rock, post-grunge, and power pop to its oeuvre in the 2000s, resulting in chart-topping major-label successes like Nothing Is Sound (2005) and Hello Hurricane (2009), the latter of which brought home a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. Describing themselves as “Christian by faith, not by genre,” Switchfoot continued to beat the modern rock drum into the 2010s and beyond, releasing a string of wellreceived efforts like Where the Light Shines Through, Native Tongue, and Interrobang.

Years before Switchfoot’s commercial breakthrough, though, the group struggled to make a dent in the San

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Diego area, where singer/guitarist Jonathan Foreman, bassist Tim Foreman, and drummer Chad Butler began playing together in 1996. The line-up logged several shows under its original name, Chin Up, before adopting the Switchfoot moniker and attracting the attention of singer/songwriter Charlie Peacock. Although Peacock signed the band to his own label, Re:Think, Switchfoot moved over to the roster of Sparrow Records following Sparrow’s acquisition of the smaller label.

Now signed to one of the largest Christian labels in the country, Switchfoot temporarily tabled their plans to reach out to a broader audience. Their first two albums, The Legend of Chin and New Way to Be Human, were marketed almost exclusively to Christian listeners, who took an immediate shine to the band’s music. Keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas joined the band for 2000’s Learning to Breathe, which found Switchfoot taking more steps toward a mainstream alt-rock sound. Breathe became a transitional record for the group, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album and selling over 500,000 copies, thus achieving gold status. Its success, coupled with the band’s presence on the hit soundtrack to the 2002 film A Walk to Remember, set Switchfoot up for a healthy major-label run.

The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot’s debut album for Columbia Records, was issued during the spring of 2003. It represented the quartet’s full evolution from a Christian group to a mainstream rock act, eventually earning double-platinum sales and producing two Top 20 hits: “Dare You to Move” and “Meant to Live.” Switchfoot returned in September 2005 with their fifth album, Nothing Is Sound, which debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. Nothing Is Sound went gold, sparked another radio hit in “Stars,” and was the first Switchfoot recording to include the work of additional guitarist Andrew Shirley (formerly a member of the contemporary Christian group All Together Separate), who’d been a touring member of Switchfoot since 2003.

Wasting little time, the band returned to the studio with veteran U.K. producer Tim Palmer to begin work on its sixth album, one that found the guys broadening their musical scope. The resulting Oh! Gravity. appeared at the end of 2006.

A year later, Jon Foreman announced the band’s decision to leave Columbia and form its own label, lowercase people records. At the same time, Foreman began releasing a string of solo EPs, each of them named after a specific season. He also formed Fiction Family, a folk-pop side project, with Nickel Creek guitarist Sean Watkins. Fiction Family’s self-titled debut was released in January 2009. Also in 2009, Switchfoot released the studio album Hello Hurricane. Produced by the band along with Mike Elizondo, it won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album.

Several months after the band’s Grammy win, Switchfoot returned with Vice Verses, an album that highlighted the band’s rhythm section. The album performed well, hitting number eight on the Billboard 200 and reaching number one on Billboard’s Christian Albums chart. It also earned the band a 2013 GMA Dove Award nomination in the category of Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year.

While on tour in 2013, Switchfoot made a film called Fading West, documenting the band’s life-long love of surfing. Their next album, also entitled

Fading West, landed in January 2014. It saw the band freed from the typical constraints of the three-minute pop song, experimenting with unusual instruments and musical textures. Later that September, the group issued a short EP of supplemental material from the project, Fading West: The Edge of the EarthUnreleased Songs.

In 2016, Switchfoot delivered the studio album Where the Light Shines Through, which featured production from John Fields (The Beautiful Letdown, Nothing Is Sound, Oh! Gravity.) and included the singles “Live It Well” and “Float.” The album debuted at number three on the Christian Albums chart and hit the Top Ten on the Billboard 200. A year later, they released a re-recording of the album track “I Won’t Let You Go,” featuring vocals by Lauren Daigle. In 2018, the band hopped onto the soundtrack for Unbroken: Path to Redemption with the track “You Found Me.” The band’s 11th long-player, Native Tongue, arrived in January 2019 and took home a Dove Award for Rock/ Contemporary Album of the Year. 2020’s aptly named Covers EP saw the band put their own spin on songs by the likes of Frank Ocean, Vampire Weekend, and Harry Styles, and in 2021 they released the single “I Need You (To Be Wrong)” and “If I Were You” ahead of the arrival of their 12th full-length effort, Interrobang, which appeared later that August. The following year saw the band issue their first holiday effort, the cheekily titled This Is Our Christmas Album.

Tash Sultana Tash Sultana Tash Sultana Tash Sultana Tash Sultana

Since they broke through into the Australian music scene more than a decade ago, Tash Sultana has been nothing less than a musical force.

The gender-fluid multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer-songwriter, engineer and entrepreneur has carved out every step in their musical journey over the last 15 years, which has taken them from performing open night mics all over the country, busking the streets of Melbourne to releasing platinum records, accumulating billions of streams, nominations across the globe, to winning awards and selling hundreds of thousands of concert tickets worldwide.

Tash creates, composes, writes, engineers and produces everything that is heard live, and on record. Tash is the band. Their now-famous busking sessions on Melbourne’s Bourke Street catapulted them into the eyes and ears of music fans everywhere, and a viral video of their early song ‘Jungle’ brought them international attention. Since then, it’s been nothing but a meteoric rise.

Their debut album Flow State landed in 2018 and quickly became Gold certified, and spawned Platinum and Gold records with singles ‘Mystik’ and ‘Murder to the Mind’.

In 2019 alone, Tash sold more than 500,000 concert tickets globally, and over the years they’ve notched up major international appearances at festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, and Montreal Jazz Festival.

Acclaimed second record Terra Firma landed in 2021, and garnered widespread praise for Tash’s raw and reflective songwriting and ambitious musical arrangements. Like everything before it, the entirety of the record was carved by Tash – every instrument that was played, every bit of musical arrangement, every bit of production. But for the first time, Terra Firma saw Tash bring in a couple of close friends and collaborations to co-write – including Matt Corby, Dann Hume, Jerome Farah, and Josh Cashman.

Their extensive catalog has nearly broken the internet, having raked in billions of streams and counting.

Tash Sultana is a genre-shifting Australian indie musician known for their passionate vocals and command of multiple instruments and looping pedals.

Tash Sultana Performs At 713 Music Hall September 29

Sultana first found the spotlight in 2016 with live videos of one-person-band performances, playing multi-layered compositions informed by vintage hard rock and alternative rock. Their viral success led to international recognition and the release of their first album, Flow State, in 2018, which found them adding a strong R&B influence to their melodies. 2021’s chart-topping Terra Firma was a more mature and thoughtful sophomore effort, with a relatively laidback mood and a soulful feel, a sound they gave a vintage soft rock flavor on 2023’s “James Dean.”

Sultana first got a guitar as a preschooler and went on to learn brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments, among others, always eager to learn more. They were busking on the streets of Melbourne by their mid-teens. Open about personal battles with addiction at that time, Sultana suffered a druginduced psychosis at the age of 17. After recovering with the aid of professional help, the musician started a Bandcamp page and began making videos of performances and uploading them to social media.

In the spring of 2016, when Sultana was 20, a live recording of their original song “Jungle” went viral on social media, accumulating over a million plays in less than a week. They released the six-track Notion EP that December, which included the guitarbased reggae tune. In the meantime, they

accepted invitations to play at music festivals, and in early 2017 signed with New York’s Mom + Pop Music, which gave their debut EP a multi-format release. That year also brought a busy touring schedule, with shows booked across Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the U.S., and Canada. Sultana rounded out the year with four Aria Award nominations, including Breakthrough Artist and Best Blues and Roots Album.

Sultana’s first full-length, Flow State, appeared in September 2018 and shot to number two on Australia’s album chart. After a quick turnaround, the single “Can’t Buy Happiness” appeared in early 2019. Following several more rounds of international touring, Sultana headed home for some much-needed rest, devoting their time to reconnecting with family, surfing, and gardening. Rested and refreshed, Sultana began work on their second album, and 2021’s Terra Firma reflected a more mature and grounded outlook, with a calmer feel and a more organic approach to composing and performing. Listeners approved of the shift and took Terra Firma to the top of the ARIA albums chart. Recorded in Melbourne in May of 2021, their MTV Unplugged performance was released in June 2022. Sultana played guitar on the Pierce Brothers single “High & Unsteady,” released in the early weeks of 2023, before returning with new solo material in the form of “James Dean” that March.

Friday, September 1, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

The Abbey Pub 2002 N Fry Rd - Houston, TX 77084

Saturday, September 2, 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Papa’s On The Lake 14632 Hwy 105 W - Montgomery, TX 77356

Friday, September 8, 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

3 Doors Down Bar 102 20th St - Galveston, TX 77550

Friday, September 15, 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Pasadena Cookoff

Saturday, September 16, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Aspens Bar & Grill 817 Clear Lake Rd - Kemah, TX 77565

Saturday, September 23, 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Beach Front Deck Bar & Grill 750 Bluewater Hwy - Surfside Beach, TX 77541

Saturday, October 21, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Aspens Bar & Grill 817 Clear Lake Rd - Kemah, TX 77565

Sunday, October 22, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Drifter’s Icehouse 29293 FM 149 - Richards, TX 77873

Saturday, October 28, 8:00 pm – 12:00 pm

Happy Halloween!!!

Backwoods Saloon

230 Lexington Ct - Conroe, TX 77385

Friday, November 3, 8:00 pm – 12:00 pm

Scotty’s Saloon 114 Agnes Rd - Richmond, TX 77469

Friday, November 17, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Mac’s Sports Bar 12650 Telge Rd - Cypress, TX 77429

Saturday, November 11, 8:00 pm – 12:00 pm

3 Doors Down Bar 102 20th St - Galveston, TX 77550

Friday, November 17, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

The Abbey Pub 2002 N Fry Rd - Houston, TX 77084

Bruno Major Performs At White Oak Music Hall

After a three year wait from the release of To Let a Good Thing Die in 2020, British singer-songwriter Bruno Major has returned with the “We Were Never Really Friends” and a tour that will bring him to White Oak Music Hall On September 20th.

‘We Were Never Really Friends’ paints a picture of the blurry line between friends and lovers,” Bruno explains. “Ostensibly lamenting the loss of a good friend, until the ultimate realization arrives that it was always something more.”

The word “authenticity” has become ubiquitous when describing artists and musicians today, but when you encounter Bruno Major, you understand just how misused that term has become. Bruno has ascended the ranks to become, by many definitions, a globally influential artist, but has done so entirely on his own terms. The antihero of music stardom, Bruno has been completely uncompromising in his craft, creating unrivaled lyrical landscapes that don’t conform to the musical status quo of today, but still deeply resonate with fans, as evidenced by his billion stream career, propelled by viral hits “Nothing” and “Easily.”

Bruno splices classic singer-songwriter confessionals with sleek modern electronic

production, girding the entire enterprise with hints of soul. His dedication to sincerity and immediacy in his craft was solidified via his 2017 debut record A Song For Every Moon. Recorded and released independently, the record gained powerful word-of-mouth momentum internationally with key single “Easily” RIAA-certified Platinum in North America. Its 2020 follow-up, To Let a Good Thing Die was similarly far reaching, a beautifully crafted tapestry of stories of human relationships, love and heartbreak, and existential musings; one single, “The Most Beautiful Thing,” emerged from a special cowriting session with producer and pop luminary FINNEAS, and another standout track “Nothing” is RIAA-certified Gold in North America. Across the two albums, Bruno has amassed over 1.5 billion collective streams to date.

Bruno is trained as a classical guitarist and has earned support from the likes of Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, Shawn Mendes, Charlie Puth, Lianne La Havas, Hailey Bieber, and Kourtney Kardashian, to name a few. Prior to the pandemic, he toured extensively, selling over 50,000 headline tickets, made his TV debut on the Late Late Show with James Corden, his festival debut at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, and opened for Sam Smith’s European arena tour. Now in 2023, as he divides his time between London and Los

Angeles, he prepares for his first release in three years—his most ambitious album yet.

After building an audience in the mid2010s with a song-a-month series, he earned international attention with his debut album and its 2020 follow-up, To Let a Good Thing Die. A new single, “We Were Never Really Friends,” appeared in 2023.

Based in Camden, London, Major was trained as a classical guitarist and released a live EP — appropriately called Live EP — in 2014, but he first received attention in 2016 when he set out to release a new song every month for a full year, a project that would extend into 2017 and culminate in the arrival of the full-length A Song for Every Moon. He accompanied this steady stream of digital singles with regular live appearances in London, sometimes opening for Lianne La Havas. By 2018, Major had widened his touring circle to include U.S. appearances (including the Bonnaroo Festival) and a tour of Asia. Throughout 2019 and early 2020, he issued several singles in advance of his second album, To Let a Good Thing Die, which arrived in June of that year. A threeyear hiatus preceded the arrival of 2023’s lush and cinematic single “We Were Never Really Friends,” which he followed with a slew of international tour dates.

Credit: Burak Cingi/Redferns

Nashville Roots-Rockers Sugar Lime Blue On Summer 2023 Tour

Performing in Houston at Last Concert Cafe - Wednesday Sept. 20th Watch Sugar Lime Blue - “The Letter” @

https://youtu.be/ZOLlNlyr8Co

http://www.sugarlimeblue.com

http://www.instagram.com/sugarlimeblue

http://www.facebook.com/sugarlimeblue

For over a decade Sugar Lime Blue has been committed to recording music that draws from several genres and their latest effort is no different. Recorded at the Historic Blackbird Studio in Nashville,TN, The Blackbird Sessions is a crossroads album in many ways for the Lebanon, TNbased quintet, signaling the end of an era while simultaneously ushering in a new one. Started prior to the Covid pandemic with basic tracking completed shortly

after the release of their third album, Narcoluptuous (which was added on 120 FM stations), production came to a standstill Following the loss of SLB founding member and bassist Russ Dean in 2020.

Despite the loss, Ashley and Dave Beth remained committed to seeing the album through to completion, enlisting the services of bassist Joe Bass (Brian Howe) and keyboardist Scott Guberman

(Phil Lesh) to complete the studio tracking. During this time the band also re-established a live presence — embarking on several multi-state tours while adding members Luis “Slice” Echeverria on keyboards and Ikaika Pekelo on drums, both of whom also contributed to The Blackbird Sessions.

Sugar Lime Blue remains a strong presence in the Americana/ Jam band scene, having played national festivals alongside mainstays Umphreys McGee, Moe, Ween, The Wood Brothers, and Buddy Guy, among others. With four albums released and over a decade of experience, SLB has performed nearly one-thousand concerts and has been featured in both national and international press.

If you like music to be more than just the background noise in your life, check out Sugar Lime Blue next time they come to your town. The band feeds off the energy of their fans and puts their hearts into every show. We only have a short time on this planet and making the moment inclusive to all that hear and enjoy the sound is what it’s all about for them. Playing music is the ultimate group expression in creativity and Sugar Lime Blue is a family bound by love and music — with the ultimate goal to be able to spread that music love around.

Rising Nashville Americana roots-rock group Sugar Lime Blue are on tour all summer, crisscrossing the US, with a local performance in Houston at Last Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance St., Wednesday, September 20. Show: 8pm. 18 and over. Info: (713) 226-8563 or visit www.lastconcert.com.

DANCE GAVIN DANCE Announce

Find Dance Gavin Dance Online

http://www.dancegavindanceband.com

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/dgdtheband

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/dancegavindance/ Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/DanceGavinDance/

Chart topping post-hardcore outfit, Dance Gavin Dance, have today announced “The Jackpot Juicer US Tour” which will be hitting 27 cities across the US to accompany their upcoming album of the same name. The tour will feature support from SiM, Rain City Drive, and

Within Destruction.

Jackpot Juicer was released in April of 2021 and scored Dance Gavin Dance their highest charting postion on the Billboard Top 200 to date. The album saw the band hit their first ever Top Ten debut,

entering the Top 200 at #8 with over 33,500 album equivalent sales. The album also hit the #1 spot across the Top Alternative and Top Rock charts, #2 on the Top Vinyl chart, #3 on Top Album Chart and #5 on Top Album Sales Chart.

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Speaking on today’s announcement, Dance Gavin Dance drummer, Matt Mingus shares:

“It brings us great pleasure to announce The Jackpot Juicer US Tour 2023. This monster of a tour will be coming to a city near you this Summer and Fall.

We are really excited about the bands from all over the world that will be joining us on the road. Those artist will include SIM from Japan. Then we have Rain City Drive from here at home in the US. And last but not least, Within Destruction from Europe/Taiwan.

The setlist we are planning will consist of a hefty amount of songs from Jackpot Juicer. With tracks from the album we have never performed live before. As well as a number of our popular songs you have all grown to appreciate over the years. We are hoping this mixture of songs will make for an enjoyable performance for both old and new fans a like.

This super eclectic mix of music will surely make for an awesome evening you won’t want to miss out on. We are all really looking forward to seeing your smiling faces from the stage and can’t wait to put on a great show for you all.”

Beginning at the end of August, “The Jackpot Juicer US Tour” will kick off in Tempe on August 24th and travel throughout 26 further cities ending in Detroit at the Ma-

sonic Temple Theatre on October 4th. Fans can also see Dance Gavin Dance at upcoming US festivals, including the band’s very own oneday festival, Swanfest, on October 1st. This year’s Swanfest marks the first ever East Coast edition, which will feature a special extended set from the band as well as performances from Periphery, Set It Off, SiM, Rain City Drive, Stolas, Within Destruction, Body Thief and Dwellings. Full 2023 routing below.

Rejecting tired formulas at every step, Dance Gavin Dance merge progressive rock and posthardcore with thick groove, brilliantly combining experimental music with hooks and a warped sense of humor. The group has amassed over 1.6 billion global streams, and 1.4 million album equivalent units

sold across their catalog in the US alone. With hundreds of thousands of rabid fans engaged with Dance Gavin Dance on socials and their very own festival event, Swanfest, which sold out both its inaugural edition in 2019 and its triumphant, post-pandemic return in 2022 in the band’s hometown of Sacramento last April and is now set to hit the East Coast for the first time, it all amounts to a full force band facing a mainstream that has overlooked them for too long.

As the undeniable statistics keep mounting up, the fact becomes more and more clear that Dance Gavin Dance are becoming one of this generation’s most popular and enduring forces from the world of heavy music. As Pollstar put it “Sacramento, Calif.-based Dance Gavin Dance is not just any band.”

Starting September 1, Katies’s will be featuring bands from 8pm-12am unless requested

Friday, September 1 - James Wilhite

Saturday, September 2 - Free Jukebox

Sunday, September 3 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host James Wilhite (4 - 8pm)

Wednesday, September 6 - Katie’s Wednesday Jam with Pierce (7-10pm)

Thursday, September 7 - Hugo Jamz Trio

Friday, September 8 - Sonny Wolf

Saturday, September 9 - Bayou Gipsies

Sunday, September 10 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Hugo Jamz (4 - 8pm)

Wednesday, September 13 - Katie’s Wednesday Jam with Bob Emmons (7-10pm)

Thursday, September 14 - Static Blues

Friday, September 15 - Mark May

Saturday, September 16 - Eric Demmer

Sunday, September 17 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with guest host Paul Ramirez (4 - 8pm)

Wednesday, September 20 - Jesse Cotton Stone (8-11pm)

Thursday, September 21 - Hammerlock

Friday, September 22 - Paul Ramirez

Saturday, September 23 - Pierce & The Purple Moon

Sunday, September 24 - Katie’s Sunday Jam with special guest host Mark May (4 - 8pm)

Wednesday, September 27 - Katie’s Wednesday Jam with Bob Emmons (7-10pm)

Thursday, September 28 - Hip Wadders

Friday, September 29 - Mike Zito

Saturday, September 30 - Scott McGill

Pablo Cruise Performs At Dosey Doe Big Barn On September 29th

Pablo Cruise is an American pop/rock band from San Francisco currently composed of David Jenkins (guitar and vocals), Cory Lerios (keyboards and vocals), Sergio Gonzalez (drums), Larry Antonino (bass and vocals) and Robbie Wyckoff (vocals and percussion). Formed in 1973, the band released eight studio albums over the next decade, during which time five singles reached the top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The group underwent several personnel changes and split up in 1986. The original lineup—Jenkins, Lerios, Price and Bud Cockrell—reunited briefly in 2004, and the group continues to tour today with two out of the original four members present.

In 1975 Pablo Cruise released its first A&M album simply entitled Pablo Cruise. The album cover was shot in the tropical gardens of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and it featured a huge gorilla standing front and center. The band, David Jenkins (guitars, vocals), Cory Lerios(keyboards, vocals), Bud Cockerel (bass, vocals) and Steve Price (drums, percussion) were no where in sight. At that point there was a bit of a mystique surrounding Pablo Cruise and when asked what Pablo Cruise meant, the well-rehearsed answer went something like this: “Pablo”, represents an honest, real, down to earth individual, and “Cruise” depicts his fun loving, easy going attitude towards life: In essence that’s what Pablo Cruise music is all about. Honest, real down to earth vocals,

accompanied by fun yet elegant, infectious grooves. To hear Pablo Cruise on record is one thing, but to experience the band live is an exhilarating event!

From 1975 to 1985 the band toured the United States, Canada and Japan extensively, welcoming fans to “Climb Aboard The Good Ship Pablo Cruise.” Reaching the top 10 with mega hits like “Whatcha Gonna Do When She Says Goodbye?” and “Love Will Find A Way,”and several other top 20’s, the band went on to sell several million albums and singles collectively and established themselves as well respected writers and performers within the industry. They appeared on numerous TV shows, including Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, The Merv Griffin Show, The Dinah Shore Hour and in 1979 they broke Elvis Presley’s attendance record at the Sahara Tahoe in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada, becoming the first rock band to play a casino showroom. They also became the first rock band to grace the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, but by 1985 after completing several national tours and releasing 7 studio albums in all, the band decided to take a hiatus……one that lasted nearly 20 years.

Fast forward 20 years…. In 2005 a reunited Pablo Cruise picked up where they left off and today the band performs all over the U.S. and Canada and they’re enjoying it more than ever… Since getting back together, they have released two live CD’s and a DVD

all through Sony Music documenting their exceptional live shows. During the Pandemic the boys wrote and produced a new single (through Sony) entitled “Breathe” which received considerable critical reviews! One of the great things about playing shows after all these years, is that primary songwriters David Jenkins and Cory Lerios are still on board! “Cory says, going out and playing shows these days, gives us the opportunity to not only pay tribute to our timeless repertoire, it also gives us a chance to see old friends and fans from back in the day, as well as gaining a whole new audience!” Today Pablo Cruise is bringing more energy and excitement to the stage than ever before and with the addition of Larry Antonino (bass, vocals), Robbie Wyckoff (vocals, percussion) and Sergio Gonzalez (drums, percussion) the band has never sounded better! If you get an opportunity to see Pablo Cruise live, don’t pass it up……IT’S GOOD TO BE LIVE! www.pablocruise.com

Pablo Cruise achieved some measure of success during the latter part of the ’70s with their mellow, easygoing California pop. The band was formed in 1973 by former members of Stoneground and It’s a Beautiful Day: guitarist Dave Jenkins, keyboardist Cory Lerios, bassist Bud Cockrell, and drummer Steve Price. The group was praised for its compositional and instrumental skill on

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the albums Pablo Cruise and Lifeline, and was rewarded with the Top Ten hit “Whatcha Gonna Do?” in 1977 from A Place in the Sun. Cockrell left and was replaced by former Santana bassist Bruce Day. Worlds Away went platinum, as did its predecessor, and produced three hit singles, including the Top Ten “Love Will Find a Way.” By the time the ’80s rolled around, the new wave movement was in full swing on the pop charts, and the group fell out of favor with the record-buying public. Several Pablo Cruise songs were used as soundtrack material for sports programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC, and the band’s work also appeared in the films Free Ride, An Unmarried Woman, and Dreamer.

Throughout the late 80’s, original lead vocalist David Jenkins continued touring and garnered acclaim in world of country music with the slightly ahead of their time countryrock band Southern Pacific. As they racked up hits like “Midnight Highway,” the chart topper “New Shade of Blue” and “Honey I Dare You” (co-written by Jenkins) the band toured all over the U.S. In 1992 Dave connected with Hawaii’s native son Kapono Beamer, and in ’95 the duo released the album “Cruisin’ on Hawaiian Time,” that became a critics favorite as well as being nominated for Hawaii’s prestigious Hoku Award for “Album Of The Year”. Dave has recorded with many music industry greats such as: Micky Hart, Buddy Miles, The Jefferson Starship, Huey Lewis, The Doobie Bros. to name just a few!….Since ’99 Jenkins has joined forces with the composite group, Rock & Pop Masters, that includes some of the great singers of the ’70’s and ’80’s. In May of 2011, Dave traveled to Iraq to perform for the troops with Bobby Kimball (Toto) and Bill Champlin (Chicago)… The troops were thrilled to have them even though the band barely escaped being blown off the stage…. for real!!!

Pianist, vocalist Cory Lerios decided to turn his writing and producing skills to Film and Television. In 1986 he landed his first scoring opportunity when he was asked to write the music for the now “cult classic” “One Crazy Summer” starring Demi Moore and John Cusack. In 1987 Lerios landed his first network series, scoring ABC’s critically acclaimed “Max Headroom.” ABC’s “O’Hara and “Police Story” immediately followed. Writing to “picture” became Cory’s new found passion and in 1989 Cory partnered with long time friend and composer John D’Andrea. Together they formed Lerios

D’Andrea Musicworks and aside from scoring 300 episodes of “Baywatch,” they garnered several Emmy Nominations and won the coveted award for “Music Direction for soap “Days Of Our Lives.” Lerios

D’Andrea Musicworks went on to produce countless hours of TV scores and themes including “Diagnosis Murder,”“Flipper,” and “Marshall Law.” In 2005 Lerios and

D’Andrea parted ways and Cory has continued to write themes and underscore for several shows including Disney’s “Kim Possible,” Universal’s “Land Before Time.” In 2015 Cory released an EP under his pseudonym, “Cory Charles” corycharles.com entitled “If I Could Change Anything, It Would Be You.”

Bassist and vocalist extraordinaire Larry Antonino is a very busy musician and aside from playing with Pablo Cruise, Larry has kept his calendar full through the years, playing with the some of music’s finest. Air Supply, Barry Manilow, Ronnie Laws, Jeff Beck and Al Jarreu, Jennifer Holiday, Bobby Caldwell all share one thing in common and that’s Larry Antonino. Larry also had a classic role in the Tom Hanks movie “That Thing You Do” where he appeared as “The Wolfman”…. If you saw the movie, Larry’s role was unforgettable! Pablo Cruise is thrilled to have him on board as his rich vocals and extraordinary bass playing fills out the Pablo Cruise signature sound!

The newest member of Pablo Cruise, Robbie Wyckoff, Lead Vocals and percussion has a huge history in not only live performance,

but television and film as well. Robbie recently finished up 5 years of international touring with The Roger Waters Band. (Pink Floyd) Robbie has also shared the stage with Michael McDonald, Keith Emerson, The Gregg Rolie Band, Jackson Brown, and Barbara Streisand to name a few. His voice

can be heard on several Disney T.V. series including Phineas and Ferb, The Emperor’s New Skool, The Replacements and he’s appeared on The Voice, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. As soon as Robbie hit the stage with his amazingly powerful voice and presence it was as if he’d been singing with Pablo Cruise since it’s inception!

Veteran Drummer, Sergio Gonzalez has played, recorded and performed live with many top artists including Jennifer Lopez, Queen Larifah, Steve Martin, Gavin Degraw, Don Was, Jessie J and Keb Mo. Simply said, Sergio likes to hit things. A professional “hit man” if you will, but he hits them in such and extraordinary way, that it has allowed him to perform all over the world, twice over. He has performed privately for the Queen of England and the Sultan of Brunei. After high school he was invited to play with a traveling gospel group and traveled around the world for three years. His highlight was playing in Bethlehem, Israel on Christmas Eve. Soon after that he auditioned for the main show Band at Walt Disney World in Florida, working there for three years, then transferring over to Disneyland, California for three more years. It was there where he started meeting and playing with some very talented and special friends whom he is very grateful to have in his life. Sergio’s has a vast range of experience from World music, Jazz, R&B, Rock and Latin meld together to create his unique and personal style and groove. Sergio continues to make his mark in the music industry currently performing with the band Pablo Cruise.

Escape The Fate Bring Their “Out Of The Shadows Tour” To Warehouse Live September 22

Escape The Fate will be on tour this month. The band is touring in support of their new album, Out of the Shadows, which was just released on the 1st of this month. The band will be making a special concert this month is support of the album on September 22nd at Warehouse Live.

Employing a punitive blend of metalcore, hard rock, and screamo, Nevada’s Escape the Fate emerged in 2004 and found mainstream success six years later with the release of their Billboardcharting eponymous third studio album. Despite enduring myriad

lineup changes and personal turmoil over the years, the band have maintained a loyal fan base and have remained at the fore of the post-hardcore scene thanks to hard-hitting efforts like Ungrateful (2013), I Am Human (2018), and Chemical Warfare (2021).

Formed in 2004, Las Vegas post-hardcore group Escape the Fate prided itself, above all else, on an energetic and visceral live show. Following the demise of their previous band, singer Ronnie Radke and bassist Max Green recruited keyboardist Carson Allen, guitarist Omar Espinoza,

and drummer Robert Ortiz. Debuting live barely one month after forming, the group found early success via local radio outlets and quickly amassed a devoted hometown following.

By September 2005, Escape the Fate had won a local radio contest judged by My Chemical Romance. The gig awarded them the opportunity to open a show on the band’s headlining tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie & the Full Effect, which subsequently led to a record deal with Epitaph.

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Their five-song EP There’s No Sympathy for the Dead appeared in May 2006, with their fulllength debut, Dying Is Your Latest Fashion, following in September of that year. Prior to both releases, keyboardist Allen left the group, with guitarist Espinoza also leaving amicably in 2007 after the two releases. The lineup shifts continued as singer Radke was ousted in 2008 due to continued drug problems and his involvement in an altercation that led to an indictment on a charge of battery; he later went on to form Falling in Reverse.

The remaining members recruited former blessthefall vocalist Craig Mabbitt to fill the vacant frontman position, and the revised lineup immediately hit the studio in mid-2008 to record their sophomore album, This War Is Ours, which subsequently reached number 35 on the Billboard charts that October. The record was a departure from Escape the Fate’s earlier emo-inspired sound, and featured a more streamlined, hard rock approach. They immersed themselves in a heavy touring schedule and, in early 2010, began working with producer Don Gilmore (Linkin Park, Bullet for My Valentine) on their third LP. Released later that year, the selftitled album would be their first for DGC/Interscope and fared well commercially, entering the charts at number 25.

They continued to tour heavily, playing shows around the

world before releasing the album Ungrateful in 2013. Their evershifting lineup continued to evolve, with founding member Green departing and his replacement, TJ Bell, taking over on bass. Brothers Monte and Michael Money manned the guitars and, in addition to the lineup changes, Ungrateful also saw a shift to a different label, this time coming out on Universal imprint Eleven Seven Music. Arriving in late 2015, Escape the Fate’s fifth album, Hate Me, was helmed by veteran producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Bon Jovi, Daughtry), and featured a lineup consisting of Mabbitt, Robert Ortiz, TJ Bell, and Kevin “Thrasher” Gruft.

In 2018, the band released the full-length I Am Human, featuring the singles “Do You

Love Me?,” “Empire,” and “Broken Heart,” the latter of which cracked the Top 20 on Bilboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart. Three years later, Escape the Fate returned with Chemical Warfare which was released on April 16, 2021l and featured guest spots from violinist Lindsey Stirling and blink-182’s Travis Barker.

On 27 January 2023, the band released their single titled “H8 MY SELF.” Two months later, on 31 March 2023, another single called “LOW” was released followed by “Cheers to goodbye” featuring Spencer Charnas from the band Ice Nine Kills on June 30th.

Alongside a USA tour, they shared their 8th studio album will be called Out of the Shadows and released September 1st, 2023.

The Fall Of Troy Bring Their North American Leg Of Self-Titled LP Celebration Tour To Warehouse Live September 17

THE FALL OF TROY Announce North American Leg Of Self-Titled LP Celebration Tour

The Fall Of Troy are a posthardcore band from Mukilteo, Washington.

Formed in 2002, they have released six albums to date, with the most recent being ‘Mukiltearth’ in 2020.

Washington state’s mathematical post-hardcore enthusiasts The Fall of Troy have announced a new leg of tour dates, again in celebration of their debut self-titled LP which was released in November of 2003 where they will celebrate 20 years of their self-titled debut by playing it in full. They will be bringing that tour to Warehouse Live this month on September 17th

The Fall of Troy took seven years between their 2009 album In the Un-

likely Event and 2016’s OK, though the band did release the single “We are the Future” and dropped their Mukiltearth LP in August 8 of 2020.

Mathcore trio the Fall of Troy formed in Mukilteo, Washington in 2002. Singer/guitarist Thomas Erak, singer/ bassist Tim Ward, and drummer Andrew Forsman previously collaborated in 30 Years War, a screamo outfit they formed with fellow high school classmate Mike Munro on guitar. After a pair of selfreleased 2002 EPs, Martyrs Among the Casualties and Live at the Paradox, Munro left the group, citing day-job commitments, and the remaining trio continued as the Fall of Troy, selecting the name as before by randomly opening the pages of a history textbook. Their self-titled debut LP followed on Lujo Records in late 2003. At the time of recording, all three members were still under the age of 17, and apart from a handful of Pacific Northwest dates and a

brief California tour, their live schedule was limited until the following year, when they self-released an EP, Ghostship. In mid-2005, the Fall of Troy issued Doppelgänger, their first effort for new label Equal Vision Records. A blistering and chaotic blast with ridiculous song titles, it became an instant classic of the genre. During their April 30, 2006 gig at the Columbus, Ohio venue the Basement, an angry Erak announced, “This is the last song the Fall of Troy will ever play together,” but the trio later scotched rumors of their imminent breakup via their official website and entered the studio that December with producer Matt Bayles (Isis, Botch) to record new material. (One lineup change: Ward’s place was taken by Frank Ene.) They emerged with the album Manipulator, which surfaced on record shelves in early May 2007, and spring was spent supporting the Deftones on nation-wide dates. The albums Phantom on the Horizon (2008) and In the Unlikely Event (2009) followed, before the group announced their disbandment in 2010. The members went on to form or join other projects, the best-known of which was probably Chiodos. Three years later, however, the Fall of Troy re-formed with a series of shows in which they played their first three albums in their entirety. In 2014, Erak left Chiodos to focus wholly on a new Fall of Troy album, which was finished and released in 2016. Titled OK, it was somewhat less heavy, less complex, and more straightforward than chaotic early classics like Doppelgänger. Their first album to be self-released, it was made available as a free download, with vinyl the only physical format. An alternative mix of the album, OK#2, dropped shortly thereafter.

In July 2020, The Fall of Troy announced a new album entitled Mukiltearth. Released in August of that year, the album consists of six rerecorded tracks from Martyrs Among the Casualties (an EP released when the band was known as The 30 Years War), alongside four newly written tracks. Two songs were posted to YouTube and streaming services following the announcement of the album, titled “We Are The Future” and “Chain Wallet Nike Shoes”, with the latter being a rerecording from Martyrs Among the Casualties.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 INVENT ANIMATE with VOID OF VISION WITHIN DESTRUCTION

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Conversations With The Professionals by John in Houston Lunch With David DeLaGarza (La Mafia)

So here I was about to have lunch with the noted multiple Grammy award winning David DeLaGarza of La Mafia. That in itself was cool but what was so much cooler is this cat is real. It wasn’t one of those hi I am a star and you’re not. No the man was approachable and most of all when we started talking about music he wasn’t stuck on himself as we talked about some of the best in the business both today and yesterday. To say the least it was the best lunchtime interview I have had in a long time. Check this out….

It was an extra hot August day in Houston on the day I would meet with noted keyboard/vocalist David DeLaGarza. We met at one of the premiere listening rooms in the city, The Mucky Duck. It was immediately interesting as we both arrived at the exact same time and both rushed to get inside where there air conditioning was doing its job. I didn’t know what to expect as it is my policy not read anything anyone else might have written about the person I am about to interview. My job is to capture the essence of the person in front of me and therefore not deliver the usual boring standard facts that you can read anywhere. Well this time around as the man educated me to his past I could feel a very personable soul filled presence. Nothing stuffy about this man, the man is down to earth. I don’t think anybody has told him how big a star he is or if he knows he wears it well. He walks his daily life in full humility. You can feel it, unpretentious is the correct word. So here’s this multiple Grammy award winning artist with one of the world’s greatest groups La Mafia and what does he do he begins to tell me about others around him that are unique musicians, artists. He wants to talk music baby and man did we ever get into it. Even though God blessed him with a natural ability on the keys he has a deep affectionate appreciation for all things brass and when he brought up Tower Of Power’s “What Is Hip” album we were off and flying about some of their greatest compositions such as “So Very Hard To Go”. That led us into a number of other great releases such as Al Kooper’s “Super Session” with Bloomfield and Stills, and then he hit me right over the head when he brought up Lydia Pence of Cold Blood fame and her “Feel Like A Ballgame” delivery. Next it was Joe Sample and Randy Crawford and not the Crusader’s famous “Street Life” track but Sample’s and Crawford’s riveting

“Tell Me More And More And Then Some”.

This man knows music but then again it that would make sense because his Dad was a career musician in Las Vegas. I had lived there too and so we were two kindred spirits in that regard. We knew the haunts and the lounges and the ever flowing top shelf inspirational acts that came to town. So yes the man was blessed from an early age on up and to this day has never lost his humility. Perhaps it was the awe of seeing Dad perform and the countless other professionals that made the scene in Vegas I don’t know for sure but I could feel the passion coming through for sure. Next our meal was served and I was able to turn David on to the Pub Crisps. The sauce is to die for and he agreed. It was over the meal that our conversation turned to David’s affinity for the kitchen. (see photo on next page) Can you believe it the man creates home made sushi among other things. I was surprised

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because I didn’t envision him as getting into cooking that much but he certainly does and that’s cool. The clock was ticking and I knew I had to get the conversation over onto his contributions in music. I asked him about them and after a bit of a struggle what came to me was that David DeLagarza brings depth to new compositions, no matter who wrote it. Yet when he performs another artist’s song on stage he does not stray from the original. For example recently he sat in at Dan Electro’s in order to share in the festivities at Corey Stoot’s birthday jam. As the band was ready to begin someone in the audience shouted out do the Doobie Brothers. David said yes that sounds good, let’s do it. You would have sworn that the Doobie Brothers were laying it down.

The song was “It Keeps You Runnin’”. If you haven’t ever heard David’s vocals the man is a tenor with a fantastic falsetto presence. The clip I am writing about can be found on You Tube “Corey Stoot B’Day Jam featuring David Delagarza”. This leads me into sharing the various Houston based names that David teams with: John Calderon (lead guitar) - Andy Vargas (lead singer Santana) - Chris Castaneda (lead guitar) and here’s something few know about: “Los Souldees”. An upcoming 5 track EP recorded at Jose “Chapy” Luna’s recording studio produced by David that features the old Chicano style of music. I asked him how he felt about it personally and he replied, “Definitely excited about doing something on my own.” David has recorded over twenty albums with La Mafia and this will be his first exploration into releasing his own sound. One of the cool attributes about this upcoming EP will be that David’s life long Latin influences are sure to come through, it’s a natural presence that flows through his family. I switched gears on him and asked him about what audiences, countries outside of the U.S. would he like to return to, well the list was long for sure but what stood out was Germany. He would like to return to Europe and then he told me something very interesting about earning the respect of the audiences in other countries. Right at the height of La Mafia’s early fame it was time to tour Mexico. You would think that they knew of La Mafia and that acceptance would be a given but it was not. They had to earn the respect and gain the love of each attendee in Mexico as if they were back in their formative years. David went on to say that from that moment on no matter what country they would perform in they would keep in mind that these people are just getting to know us. Today, well if you know about La Mafia fans you can hardly get a seat at one of their major concerts. Literally thousands show up and it’s the same all around the globe these days. David has been with La Mafia for thirty four years now received five Grammys and yet the man is as humble as the first time he stepped onto a stage. You can find David on all the popular social media sites and it’s a great place to sign up so that you learn of his upcoming EP release date and his upcoming shows. David DeLaGarza has got it working big time and the cat is cool too. When you meet him ask him about his family’s dog, a rescue dog, a Terrier mix, that they took in when the big flood hit Houston. You will see a huge smile.

Leon’s Lounge Is Now Available For Private Parties! Make Your Reservations Now!!

This September at Leon’s Lounge

Friday, September 1 - Blind Uncle Charlie and the Bull Goose Loonies

Saturday, September 2 - Dennis Elmer & The 4th Quarter Band

Wednesday, September 6 - Randy Soffar Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, September 7 - Thursday Sessions

Friday, September 8 - Proverbial Cool Aid

Saturday, September 9 - Dompston

Wednesday, September 24 - Randy Soffar Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, September 14 - Thursday Sessions

Friday, September 15 - Dennis Elmer & The 4th Quarter Band

Saturday, September 16 - Hermann Lee

Wednesday, September 20 - Randy Soffar Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, September 21 - Thursday Sessions

Friday, September 22 - Johnny Ono and his “BAND ON THE RUN”

Saturday, September 23 - Woodhead Green

Wednesday, September 27 - Randy Soffar Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, September 28 - Thursday Sessions

Friday, September 29 - Howard Singer & “The Lightning Brothers.”

Saturday, September 30 - The White Oak Bayou Band

The Biker, The Blues The Biker, The Blues The Biker, The Blues The Biker, The Blues The Biker, The & Trailer Park Jack & Trailer Park Jack & Trailer Park Jack & Trailer Park Jack & Trailer Park Jack

Life is strange. You meet all kinds. Years ago I met a man that everybody called Trailer Park Jack. A combination scooter tramp and bluesman. Cool guy kind of out there but cool none the less. He rode a trike. An old flat head Harley engine mounted inside a later model trike body. Definitely a conversation piece. He has this Jekyll and Hyde personality going on. Off stage he was this super quiet reserved guy. On stage he became something totally different presenting highly opinionated original lyrics and blazingly hot lead guitar licks. Anyway this was Jack and Jack lived in a small trailer park with just himself and his Irish setter named Kelly. He rented this two bedroom mobile home that was parked at a 90 degree angle that looked squarely onto the side of this green colored mobile home with this one large living room window. He had built this low height picket fence so that he could let his dog outside without her needing to be chained. When he would let Kelly out many times a young boy, maybe four years old, would look out his neighbors’ living room window and watch the dog romp around. On one such day I had bought some grub for Jack’s outside grill and was doing my best to grill up some cheeseburgers and a couple of hot dogs. It was an interesting afternoon because out of nowhere there was two unmarked cop cars with their red lights on the roof of their cars turning round and round. Then about six maybe eight plain clothes cops came out of nowhere. It was like being in a black and white Perry Mason movie actually. Watching a lot of drama with no insight into the story line but then again soon the main plot unfolded. I saw them bring a man out of that green mobile home in handcuffs and put inside one of the cars. As fast as the drama started it ended just as fast. I noticed a nice looking young lady holding that young boy I had seen in the window, she had tears in her eyes. She noticed me sitting there and turned her face away and went back inside. The meat on the grill was done by now and so I took it back inside Jack’s trailer and we scarfed it down like two men that had not eaten in days which was not the case but we were chowing down big time. We didn’t forget Kelly by the way she was digging the grub too. About two or three hours later around dusk I let Kelly out and went outside with her. I sat down in a summer lawn chair and was taking in a fantastic sunset. About maybe five minutes passed when I glanced over at the fence line and noticed the gal from next door standing there holding the boy in her arms. I got up and went over and said hi. She began to apologize for what I had seen and I told her no problem and offered her a beer. She said not right now as she needed to settle her son down and then get him into bed. Well for me it was time for a Macanudo 50 ring maduro cigar, single malt scotch and my round take on the road portable music speaker. So I went back inside fetched what I wanted including some ice and then went back outside. The sun was almost down now and the skyline was this deep purple color, perfect for kicking back and taking it all in. Trailer Park Jack came out with his rig and said he would see me later as he had to leave and set up for a gig. He invited me to attend to but I decided to stay with his dog Kelly. She was enjoying the yard and I was resting my keister from about a three hundred mile ride. Funny how at times you can’t think of one song to play. So I did what everyone should do and asked the dog. I pulled some names out of my head and she just

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laid there until I came up with Steely Dan then she raised her head in approval. I tried to tell her that Steely Dan wasn’t blues but then again I did mention the name. Now let me tell you something that everyone has done and it’s embarrassing. At one time another you are having a conversation with a pet or you are talking out loud to no one and then you notice someone just standing there smiling. Oh come on now you’ve done this, I know you have…. Well anyway I looked up from talking to the dog and there was that neighbor gal just smiling away. So I said ok who’s embarrassed now? Her smile became much wider. She said just said a lite beer and an ashtray. I said I can do that. I came back with both and looked down at Kelly and told her the track I thought she would like most would be “Deacon Blue” and commenced to getting it moving along. Maria was the girl next door’s name and I looked in her eyes and asked so how did your day go today? We both laughed a bit. Her husband had been doing twenty five years but had been paroled and came home to them but after a month had gone by he still had not reported

in to his parole officer. So they came and got him without any notice. I told her yep that’s the way it’s done. I told her that I normally can come up with a list of blues numbers I want to listen to but tonight my brain was not cooperating with my memory. I asked her what blues numbers she liked and she said just about anything blues rock and mentioned “Black Magic Woman” and I said coming right up. I lit her cigarette and my cigar and we kicked back to Black Magic Woman. Near the end of the song I chose “Hotel California” and without any words between us we got right into it. I poured another four fingers of scotch went inside and got some ice and of course another lite beer. She talked about how easy it is to get lost in the lyrics and I thought exactly. She excused herself to go check on her son and when she returned she brought one of those room monitors that parents use to keep a close ear on their child. She lit another cigarette and looked at me and down at the ashtray and asked if I was going to smoke that cigar or just let moss grow on it? I picked it up, she lit it, I said smart ass. She smiled. For two people that did not know each other we were having a pretty good time especially after the fiasco at her place. I asked if she liked the Allman Brothers, she nodded and I put on “Statesboro Blues”. Then I thought well maybe that song will be a bit too suggestive but the number is good no matter how you cut it. No it was alright as her foot was tapping and the woman knew how to down a can of cold beer. She asked where I was from and I said my mother and you? She changed the subject which told me she was sharp, intuitive. The next song up was “Stormy Monday” and we were both nodding ok

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with it so we just sat back and took it all in. Me? Good cigar, good scotch, good music makes for a nice evening, add a good looking hep lady and its heaven on earth. Some noise came across the room monitor and in a flash the ambiance of the evening changed as the good mommy left to be with her son. So I said to Kelly well this is we were in the beginning, how you doin? Kelly wagged her tail and moved closer. I said just you and me baby, just you and me. If you spell dog backwards that kind of says it all. There’s some kind of spiritual connection between humans and dogs. So here I was in Dog Patch Trailer Park on a warm night with clear skies and everything a man needs to be at peace, life was good. A while later I picked up my mess, called Kelly into the place and called it a night. Trailer Park Jack came wheelin’ in at zero dark thirty and bumped his way down the hall and into the main bedroom. There was a thump a few choice cuss words, then no sound at all. In the morning, it was about maybe nine, I fired up my scooter and made way to the local grocery store. Picked up some bacon, eggs and potatoes along with some salsa and returned to the hacienda on wheels. Jack was up and complained about a headache but was pleasant none the less. I warmed up a frying pan, added a little butter and made some breakfast for us then afterward he said his head didn’t hurt as much any more. We caught up on old times and shared who had left this planet since the last time we saw each other, which the list keeps growing as the years continue to move forward. Jack suggested that we ride together a bit since we hadn’t done that in years so we went for a country ride. The rain had fallen rather strongly the day before I arrived so the small streams were flowing and when we would go over a small highway bridge we could see clear water flowing. We were moving along at about maybe sixty miles an hour when a bubble gum machine came up behind us and turned on his siren. We pulled over and went through the usual insurance, registration and warrants check. The guy was a dick about it and I felt like Barnie Fife had strayed too far from his town and we looked like bad guys on bikes. No big deal in a way, if you ride it goes with the turf. However most cops are ok people and this could have happened without the sarcasm and cold personality. We decided to head back and I thought I would hose down ole red (not the dog but the hog) and clean my scooter up a bit. Jack was going to get ready for another gig that night. I thought I might go and then again I wasn’t sure. I knew it was about time to pull up stakes and head down the road so a clean bike would be cool to have ready to go. Kelly was eager to see Jack and then she worked her way over to me. Tail was wagging heavily and her body language was speaking a mountain of joy. That did my heart good. Ok inside for a cold beer, after all a man has to have his priorities, then back outside with a wash rag and some Dove dishwashing soap. I sat down in the “contemplating” chair, that was the spot where I would contemplate the near term itinerary. Then I made my baby shine.

Ingrid Contreras

Ingrid Contreras Performs At The Arena Theatre September 30

Ingrid Contreras is one of Mexico’s most unique interpretive vocalists. Possessed of a throaty, expressive contralto, she offers a unique hybrid of classic mariachi and smooth pop balladry. She chooses songs by Mexico’s top songwriters and applies their melodies according to her developed aesthetic. Her 2019 debut single, “Te Seguiré Queriendo,” showcased this fusion to the delight of radio programmers in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. “Costumbre” featured the other side of that equation, melding tender yet powerful romantic pop to ranchera and nuevo flamenco.

Born in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Contreras began singing to her mother’s records at age three. She counted Marco Antonio Solís, Rocío Dúrcal, and Marisela Hernandez among her early influences. At age four she told her parents that when she turned 18 she would move to America and become a pop star. She did just that. At 18 she relocated to Boston and worked in a restaurant to supplement her income as she pursued her dream. Six months later, she returned to Mexico, frustrated yet undaunted. Contreras began fronting

Grupo Onixx, remaining for a couple of years. Her dramatic vocal style combined with the band’s iconic stage show drew the notice of Mexican music executives. She paid only enough attention to their flattery to learn about the music business. In August 2019, she formed Ingrid Contreras Music and issued the debut single “Te Seguiré Queriendo.” Its video and streaming success prompted her to a distribution deal with ONErpm. She followed up almost immediately with two more: the silky ballad “Costumbre” and the sweeping union of Latin pop, ranchera, and mariachi on “Si Se Acabara el Mundo.”

While social media users caught on straightaway, Contreras wanted to try her hand again at the music biz in the U.S. She immigrated to Los Angeles in January 2020. Her video and streaming singles such as “La Peor de las Cobardes” and “Yo No Quería” followed soon after and garnered views and critical notice in Mexico and the U.S. In April, she issued the provocative Héctor Toro-directed video for her cover of Poncho Arocha and Horacio Palencia’s “Fue Lo Mejor.” While the song is about

toxic relationships, Contreras and Toro saw more poignancy. They drew attention to the wave of domestic abuse and femicide that was exploding in Mexico, which had prompted demonstrations by women across Mexico. The video showcased graphic violence, but it gave way to defiance, hope, and new beginnings; it racked up millions of views during its first three weeks and massive attention from feminists in the United States as well as back home.

After working on her own for only a year, Contreras turned music industry heads by releasing two albums within three weeks. The first, En Vivo, Vol. 1, offered a collection of influential covers of songs by some of her favorite songwriters. It included Solis’ “Vete Con Ella,” Rosario Carmen Gonzalez’s “Que Bonito,” and a pair from Cuitlahuac Vega Toledo including “No Te Esperabas.” Contreras followed it with her proper studio debut, Cu4tro, which included her three singles and five unreleased covers. The album placed inside the streaming Top 100 during its first week of release.

Paulina Rubio

Paulina Rubio will be retuning to Smart Financial Centre this month for a very special concert on September 13. She has named her tour the “Camino Golden Hits Tour” and will be performing a multitude of hit songs from her record breaking career.

Paulina Rubio is a Mexican singer, actress, and television personality who is known for her successful career in the Latin music industry. She has released numerous albums throughout her career, including “La Chica Dorada,” “Paulina,” and “Ananda,” and has received numerous awards and accolades for her work.

Rubio is known for her energetic and vibrant stage presence, and her concerts are always filled with fans who are eager to see her perform live. Her music is a mix of pop, dance, and Latin rhythms, and she is known for her catchy and upbeat songs.

If you’re a fan of Latin music, you won’t want to miss the chance to see Paulina Rubio live in concert. Get your tickets now and experience the energy and excitement of a Paulina Rubio show for yourself! So, don’t wait and grab your tickets now to see this talented artist live in action.

The Mexican singer with the greatest international projection returns stronger than ever. Her passion for her craft and her creative spark remain intact in this expansive return that promises as many surprises as it is satisfying. Few Latin pop stars have shone as brightly –and for as long – as Paulina Rubio. The Mexican artist has an incomparable journey of professional milestones and global successes. An original member of the group Timbiriche –one of the most enduring phenomena of Aztec pop–, she began her solo career in 1992 with an album whose title, “La chica dorada”, became a professional nickname and opened the doors of the US recording market. .

Since then, her popularity has grown steadily both in North America and Latin America, definitely exploding at the turn of the millennium after her signing by Universal Music. “Paulina” (2000) and especially “Border Girl” (2002) produced an extraordinary public crossover whose shock wave was felt all over the planet. Turned into a world-

Paulina Rubio Will Be Bringing Her Camino Golden Hits Tour To Texas This Month

famous pop idol, Rubio was the bestselling Latin artist during the first years of this century thanks to the impact of songs like “Y yo sigo aquí”, “Yo no soy ese mujer” or “The One You Love”. The publication of “Pau-Latina” in 2004 marked her return to Spanish after the successful English-speaking foray of “Border Girl” and marked a substantial

advance in her career. Paulina involved three dozen composers, producers and arrangers, broadening her artistic vision and creating a shortlist of incontestable singles – “Te quise tanto”, “Algo tienes” and “Dame otro tequila” – that reigned on the Billboard Latin charts and they

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consolidated their stardom.

From there, she continued advancing on the board of creativity to publish “Ananda” in 2006. Under the tutelage of the renowned producer Cachorro López and surrounded by a sensational team of songwriters in which figures such as Julieta Venegas, Juanes, Coti, excelled. Gustavo Celis or Xabi San Martín (La Oreja de Van Gogh), delivered another crucial work in his career, taking part in all stages of the process. Fueled by songs like “Ni una sola palabra,” the album reached the top of the Latin pop chart in the United States and went Double Platinum in Spain. “Ananda” was record of the year at the Latin Billboard Awards and the Spanish edition of GQ magazine considered Rubio the Woman of the Year in 2007.

Increasingly involved in the composition and elaboration of her works, the queen of Latin pop returned in 2009 with “Gran City Pop”, an unprejudiced and danceable album that included hits such as “Causa y efecto” and “Ni rosas ni juguetes”. The album expanded the stylistic palette of the

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Mexican woman by combining elements of genres such as ranchera, hip-hop, Eurodisco or eighties British pop. He reaped great sales success in countries like Spain, Mexico and Puerto Rico, reigning at the top of the US Latin chart in mid-2009.

With “Brave!” (2011) Paulina Rubio opted for a skilful combination of songs in English and Spanish. The album’s artistic roster included long-time hitmakers like RedOne, pop stars like Taboo of The Black Eyed Peas, and flashy Mexican songwriters like Espinoza Paz. Marked by her first maternity, but also by the death of her father, “Brava!” explores the coming of age of an artist determined to celebrate the cycle of life. The album expanded Rubio’s overwhelming range of hits thanks to songs like “Me gustas tanto” –composed halfway with Nacho, from the Venezuelan duo Chino y Nacho– or the vibrant dance offerings of “Heat of the Night” and “All Around the World”.

In 2013, the “Pau Factor” compilation hit stores, a nod to her participation as a jurist on the talent-show The X

Factor. The album covers part of the successes that mark her career and allows us to obtain a grateful panoramic view of it. Hits that would continue to accumulate in successive years thanks to the warm reception given to songs like “Mi nuevo vicio” in 2015 –in collaboration with the Colombians Morat, a real hit in Spain that resulted in a Double Platinum Record plus number one on the list. by Promusicae– and “Si te vas” in 2016. The latter once again occupied the top of the Billboard Latin chart, adding to the impressive collection of hits that Paulina treasures.

In 2018 hse saw the release of her eleventh studio album “Deseo”. To celebrate this new success, Paulina made her eleventh tour ‘The Deseo Tour’, in 2019, visiting Latin America, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

2023 will be another pivotal year for our golden girl. She has many surprises in store for her fans which is what they have been waiting for. Pauline is back. Go get ready.

Sin Bandera Brings Their Frecuencia US Tour 2023 To Smart Finacial Centre

September

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Sin Bandera is a MexicanArgentine duo formed in the year 2000, made up of singer and guitarist Leonel García and singer and pianist Noel Schajris. Sin Bandera’s upcoming “Frecuencia US Tour 2023” promises to be an unforgettable experience for the band’s fans, featuring a show full of energy, emotion, and musical quality at each performance. With their romantic pop style, the band will take their audience on a journey full of hits and unforgettable songs that will make them sing and dance non-stop.

Blessed with a melodic touch that

made them a sensation right out of the gate, Sin Bandera enjoyed enormous acclaim and commercial success with their self-titled debut in 2002 and continued to record superlative romantic Latin pop in the years that followed. Formed in 2000, Sin Bandera are comprised of Leonel García and Noel Schajiris; the former is from Mexico, the latter Argentina, and both are musicians, composers, and singers. Schajiris had already released a solo album, in 1999, but when the two singer/songwriter/ musicians befriended one another and realized how complementary they were to one another artistically, they joined

together and began to work on songs for an album. García played guitar, Schajiris played piano, and fellow musician Aureo Baqueiro assumed the role of producer, also contributing various instrumentation. The guys decided to bill themselves as Sin Bandera (Without a Flag) because of their mixed heritage as well as their belief in unity among diverse peoples.

They debuted with the song “Entra en Mi Vida,” an expressive love song that was chosen to be the main theme of a Mexican telenovela, Cuando Seas Mía.

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Other singles followed, including “Kilómetros” and “Sirena.” Released in early 2002, Sin Bandera steadily found international success, mainly in Mexico but also in Spain, Argentina, and the United States — that is, all the major Latin markets — in addition to smaller markets like Costa Rica. The album won that year’s Latin Grammy for Best Pop Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and it also netted a standard Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album. Other awards showered on the duo included an MTV Latino Award for Best Group and a Lo Nuestro Award for Best Pop Album.

Following this rash of breakout success, Sin Bandera returned to the studio quickly and recorded a follow-up album, De Viaje (2003), with Baqueiro again producing and playing a multitude

of instruments. De Viaje sold even better than Sin Bandera had, and it featured the duo’s first Hot Latin Tracks chart-topper, “Mientes Tan Bien.” Other singles include “Que Lloro,” a Top Five hit, and “De Viaje,” which broke into the Top 20. This second round of success was topped off with another Latin Grammy win for Best Pop Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Also in 2003, Sin Bandera toured America and Spain in support of Spanish superstar Alejandro Sanz, who was on the road promoting No Es Lo Mismo (2003), another of the biggest Latin pop albums of the year. In 2004, they mounted a tour of their own, covering all of Latin America, even small markets like Bolivia and Paraguay.

For their third album, Mañana (2005), García and Schajiris reached beyond Baqueiro, reeling in such

collaborators as contemporary R&B producer Brian McKnight, arranger Bill Meyers, Latin rapper Vico C, and Italian pop superstar Laura Pausini. The result was their most stylistically diverse album yet, certainly their most urban — not unlike No Es Lo Mismo in this regard, as that album had found Sanz toughening up his sound with urban flourishes. Mañana became their first album to break into the Billboard 200; it was also their first to break into the Top Five of the Top Latin Albums chart. “Suelta Mi Mano” was the biggest hit among the singles, with “Que Me Alcance la Vida” also charting well. Pasado (2006) followed soon afterward. An album of covers, Pasado showcases Sin Bandera reinterpreting songs by such well-known contemporary Latin pop influences as Sanz (“Lo Ves”), Ricardo Montaner (“Será”), Aleks Syntek (“Mis Impulsos Sobre Ti”), and Rosana (“Si Tu No Estas Aquí”).

After a lengthy tour of Latin America, Sin Bandera decided to split in 2007 though it was amicable. Both singers followed different solo paths, recording and writing separately. A second covers collection, Pasado Mañana was issued digitally in 2009 and the collection Personalidad in 2014. In mid-2015, Sin Bandera announced a reunion and undertook a tour they called Una Ultima Vez. It began in December and lasted well into 2016 with almost all shows sold out. To integrate the repertoire of the presentations, Garica and Schajiris asked their fans to send them a Top 10 list of songs that they’d like to hear. Response was overwhelming. Hundreds of lists were received and a set list was chosen (partially) based on them. The live Una Última Vez EP, released in 2016 as the tour progressed, topped the Latin albums chart; they followed it early the next year with Primera Fila Acustico: Una Ultima Vez - Encore, issued in 2017. The recording placed at number three on the Latin Pop Albums chart.

Join them this month at Smart Financial Centre on September 8th as they perform songs from their great repertoir of love songs and more.

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Paulina Ribio

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Sin Bandera

Ingrid Contreras

Ingrid Contreras

Ingrid Contreras se presentará en The Arena Theatre el 30 de septiembre

Ingrid Contreras es una de las vocalistas interpretativas más singulares de México. Poseedora de una contralto expresiva y gutural, ofrece un híbrido único de mariachi clásico y balada pop suave. Elige canciones de los mejores compositores de México y aplica sus melodías de acuerdo con su estética desarrollada. Su sencillo debut de 2019, “Te Seguiré Queriendo”, mostró esta fusión para el deleite de los programadores de radio de México y el suroeste de Estados Unidos.

“Costumbre” presentó el otro lado de esa ecuación, fusionando pop romántico tierno pero poderoso con ranchera y nuevo flamenco.

Nacida en Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Contreras comenzó a cantar con los discos de su madre a los tres años. Contó a Marco Antonio Solís, Rocío Dúrcal y Marisela Hernández entre sus primeras influencias. A los cuatro años les dijo a sus padres que cuando cumpliera 18 se mudaría a Estados Unidos y se convertiría en una estrella del pop. Ella hizo precisamente eso. A los 18 años se mudó a Boston y trabajó en un restaurante para complementar sus ingresos mientras perseguía su sueño. Seis meses después, regresó a México,

frustrada pero impávida. Contreras comenzó al frente del Grupo Onixx, permaneciendo por un par de años. Su estilo vocal dramático combinado con el icónico espectáculo de la banda llamó la atención de los ejecutivos de la música mexicana. Sólo prestó suficiente atención a sus halagos para aprender sobre el negocio de la música. En agosto del 2019 formó Ingrid Contreras Music y publicó el sencillo debut “Te Seguiré Queriendo”. Su éxito en vídeo y streaming la llevó a firmar un acuerdo de distribución con ONErpm. Siguió casi inmediatamente con dos más: la sedosa balada “Costumbre” y la arrolladora unión de pop latino, ranchera y mariachi en “Si Se Acabara el Mundo”.

Si bien los usuarios de las redes sociales se dieron cuenta de inmediato, Contreras quería probar suerte nuevamente en el negocio de la música en los EE. UU. Emigró a Los Ángeles en enero de 2020. Sus sencillos en video y streaming como “La Peor de las Cobardes” y “Yo No Quería” “ siguió poco después y obtuvo vistas y atención crítica en México y Estados Unidos. En abril, publicó el provocativo video dirigido por Héctor Toro para su versión de “Fue Lo Mejor” de Poncho Arocha y

Horacio Palencia. Si bien la canción trata sobre relaciones tóxicas, Contreras y Toro vieron más conmoción. Llamaron la atención sobre la ola de abuso doméstico y feminicidio que estaba explotando en México, lo que había provocado manifestaciones de mujeres en todo México. El video mostraba violencia gráfica, pero dio paso al desafío, la esperanza y nuevos comienzos; acumuló millones de visitas durante sus primeras tres semanas y una atención masiva por parte de feministas en Estados Unidos y en casa.

Después de trabajar sola durante sólo un año, Contreras llamó la atención de la industria musical al lanzar dos álbumes en tres semanas. El primero, En Vivo, vol. 1, ofreció una colección de versiones influyentes de canciones de algunos de sus compositores favoritos. Incluía “Vete Con Ella” de Solís, “Que Bonito” de Rosario Carmen González y un par de Cuitláhuac Vega Toledo que incluía “No Te Esperabas”. Contreras siguió con su debut en el estudio, Cu4tro, que incluyó sus tres sencillos y cinco covers inéditos. El álbum se ubicó dentro del Top 100 de streaming durante su primera semana de lanzamiento.

Paulina Rubio

Paulina Rubio regresará a Smart Financial Center este mes para un concierto muy especial el 13 de septiembre. Ha llamado a su gira “Camino Golden Hits Tour” y presentará una multitud de canciones exitosas de su carrera récord.

Paulina Rubio es una cantante, actriz y personalidad televisiva mexicana conocida por su exitosa carrera en la industria de la música latina. Ha lanzado numerosos álbumes a lo largo de su carrera, entre ellos “La Chica Dorada”, “Paulina” y “Ananda”, y ha recibido numerosos premios y reconocimientos por su trabajo.

Rubio es conocida por su presencia enérgica y vibrante en el escenario, y sus conciertos siempre están llenos de fanáticos ansiosos por verla actuar en vivo. Su música es una mezcla de pop, dance y ritmos latinos, y es conocida por sus canciones pegadizas y alegres.

Si eres fanático de la música latina, no querrás perder la oportunidad de ver a Paulina Rubio en vivo en concierto. ¡Consigue tus entradas ahora y vive la energía y la emoción de un espectáculo de Paulina Rubio por ti mismo! Así que no esperes más y consigue tus entradas ahora para ver a este talentoso artista en vivo y en acción.

La cantante mexicana de mayor proyección internacional regresa más fuerte que nunca. La pasión por su oficio y la chispa creativa permanecen intactas en este retorno expansivo que promete tantas sorpresas como satisfacciones. Pocas estrellas del pop latino han brillado con el fulgor –y durante tanto tiempo– como Paulina Rubio. La artista mexicana tiene un recorrido incomparable de hitos profesionales y éxitos de carácter global. Componente original del grupo Timbiriche –uno de los fenómenos más duraderos del pop azteca–, inició su carrera en solitario en 1992 con un álbum cuyo título, “La chica dorada”, se convirtió en sobrenombre profesional y le abrió las puertas del mercado discográfico estadounidense.

Desde entonces, su popularidad creció de forma sostenida tanto en Norteamérica como América Latina, explotando definitivamente con el cambio de milenio tras su fichaje por Universal Music. “Paulina” (2000) y muy especialmente “Border Girl” (2002) efectuaron un extraordinario crossover de público cuya onda expansiva se hizo sentir en todo el planeta. Convertida en ídolo pop de calado mundial, Rubio fue

Paulina Rubio traerá su gira Camino Golden Hits a Texas este mes

la artista latina más vendedora durante los primeros años del presente siglo gracias al impacto de canciones como “Y yo sigo aquí”, “Yo no soy esa mujer” o “The One You Love”. La publicación de “Pau-Latina” en 2004 marcó su regreso al castellano tras la satisfactoria incursión angloparlante de “Border Girl” y supuso un avance sustancial en su trayectoria. Paulina implicó a tres

decenas de compositores, productores y arreglistas, ampliando su visión artística y gestando una terna de singles incontestables –“Te quise tanto”, “Algo tienes” y “Dame otro tequila”– que reinaron en las listas latinas de Billboard y consolidaron su estrellato.

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A partir de ahí, siguió avanzando por el tablero de la creatividad para publicar “Ananda” en 2006. Bajo la tutela del reputado productor Cachorro López y rodeada de un sensacional equipo de songwriters en el que sobresalían figuras como Julieta Venegas, Juanes, Coti, Gustavo Celis o Xabi San Martín (La Oreja de Van Gogh), entregó otra obra crucial en su carrera, tomando parte en todas las etapas del proceso. Impulsado por canciones como “Ni una sola palabra”, el álbum alcanzó la cima de la lista pop latina de Estados Unidos y fue Doble Disco de Platino en España. “Ananda” fue disco del año en los premios Latin Billboard y la edición española de la revista GQ consideró que Rubio era la Mujer del Año en 2007.

Cada vez más implicada en la composición y elaboración de sus trabajos, la reina del pop latino regresó en 2009 con “Gran City Pop”, un álbum desprejuiciado y bailable que incluía hits como “Causa y efecto” y “Ni rosas ni juguetes”. El disco ampliaba la paleta estilística de la mexicana conjugando elementos de géneros como la ranchera, el hip-hop, el eurodisco o el pop británico ochentero. Volvió a cosechar un gran éxito de ventas en países como

España, México y Puerto Rico, reinando en lo alto de la lista latina estadounidense a mediados de 2009.

Con “Brava!” (2011) Paulina Rubio apostó por una hábil combinación de canciones en inglés y español. La nómina artística del álbum incluía a hitmakers de largo recorrido como RedOne, a estrellas del pop como Taboo de The Black Eyed Peas y a compositores mexicanos de relumbrón como Espinoza Paz. Marcado por su primera maternidad, pero también por el fallecimiento de su padre, “Brava!” explora en la madurez de una artista decidida a celebrar el ciclo de la vida. El álbum amplió el apabullante abanico de éxitos de Rubio gracias a canciones como “Me gustas tanto” –compuesta a medias con Nacho, del dúo venezolano Chino y Nacho– o las vibrantes propuestas dance de “Heat of the Night” y “All Around the World”.

En 2013, llegó a las tiendas el recopilatorio “Pau Factor”, un guiño a su participación como jurado en el talentshow The X Factor. El álbum recorre parte de los éxitos que jalonan su trayectoria y permite obtener una agradecida vista panorámica de la misma. Éxitos que seguirían

acumulándose en años sucesivos gracias a la calurosa acogida dispensada a canciones como “Mi nuevo vicio” en 2015 –en colaboración con los colombianos Morat, un auténtico pelotazo en España que se tradujo en Doble Disco de Platino más número uno en la lista de Promusicae– y “Si te vas” en 2016. Esta última volvió a ocupar la zona alta de la lista latina de Billboard, engrosando la impresionante colección de hits que Paulina atesora.

En 2018 vio la salida de su undécimo álbum de estudio “Deseo”. Para celebrar este nuevo éxito, Paulina hizo su undécima gira ‘The Deseo Tour’, en 2019, visitando América Latina, México, España y Estados Unidos.

2023 será otro año fundamental para nuestra chica dorada. Tiene muchas sorpresas reservadas para sus fans, que es lo que estaban esperando. Paulina ha vuelto. Preparate.

Sin Bandera lleva su gira Frecuencia US 2023 a Smart Finacial Center el 8 de septiembre

Sin Bandera es un dúo mexicanoargentino formado en el año 2000, integrado por el cantante y guitarrista Leonel García y el cantante y pianista Noel Schajris. El próximo “Frecuencia US Tour 2023” de Sin Bandera promete ser una experiencia inolvidable para los fanáticos de la banda, presentando un espectáculo lleno de energía, emoción y calidad musical en cada presentación. Con su estilo pop romántico, la banda llevará a su público a un viaje lleno de éxitos y canciones inolvidables que los harán cantar y bailar sin parar.

Bendecidos con un toque melódico que los convirtió en una sensación desde

el principio, Sin Bandera disfrutó de una enorme aclamación y éxito comercial con su debut homónimo en 2002 y continuó grabando pop latino romántico superlativo en los años siguientes. Formado en el año 2000, Sin Bandera está compuesto por Leonel García y Noel Schajiris; el primero es de México, el segundo de Argentina, y ambos son músicos, compositores y cantantes. Schajiris ya había lanzado un álbum en solitario, en 1999, pero cuando los dos cantantes, compositores y músicos se hicieron amigos y se dieron cuenta de lo complementarios que eran artísticamente, se unieron y comenzaron a trabajar en canciones para un álbum.

García tocaba la guitarra, Schajiris tocaba el piano y el también músico Aureo Baqueiro asumió el rol de productor, aportando también diversas instrumentaciones. Los chicos decidieron anunciarse a sí mismos como Sin Bandera debido a su herencia mixta, así como a su creencia en la unidad entre pueblos diversos.

Debutaron con el tema “Entra en Mi Vida”, una expresiva canción de amor que fue elegida para ser el tema principal de una telenovela mexicana, Cuando Seas Mía. Siguieron otros

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Sin Bandera

Continuación de la página anterior sencillos, entre ellos “Kilómetros” y “Sirena”. Lanzado a principios de 2002, Sin Bandera encontró constantemente un éxito internacional, principalmente en México, pero también en España, Argentina y Estados Unidos (es decir, todos los principales mercados latinos), además de mercados más pequeños como Costa Rica. El álbum ganó el Grammy Latino de ese año al Mejor Álbum Pop de un Dúo o Grupo con Voz, y también obtuvo una nominación estándar al Grammy al Mejor Álbum Pop Latino. Otros premios que recibió el dúo incluyeron un Premio MTV Latino al Mejor Grupo y un Premio Lo Nuestro al Mejor Álbum Pop.

Después de esta racha de gran éxito, Sin Bandera regresó rápidamente al estudio y grabó un álbum siguiente, De Viaje (2003), con Baqueiro nuevamente produciendo y tocando una

multitud de instrumentos. De Viaje se vendió incluso mejor que Sin Bandera y contó con el primer éxito del dúo en las listas Hot Latin Tracks, “Mientes Tan Bien”. Otros sencillos incluyen “Que Lloro”, un éxito Top Five, y “De Viaje”, que irrumpió en el Top 20. Esta segunda ronda de éxito se culminó con otro premio Grammy Latino al Mejor Álbum Pop de un Dúo o Grupo con Voz. . También en 2003, Sin Bandera realizó una gira por Estados Unidos y España en apoyo de la superestrella española Alejandro Sanz, quien estaba de gira promocionando No Es Lo Mismo (2003), otro de los álbumes de pop latino más importantes del año. En 2004, montaron su propia gira, cubriendo toda América Latina, incluso mercados pequeños como Bolivia y Paraguay.

Para su tercer álbum, Mañana (2005), García y Schajiris fueron más

allá de Baqueiro, contando con colaboradores como el productor de R&B contemporáneo Brian McKnight, el arreglista Bill Meyers, el rapero latino Vico C y la superestrella del pop italiano Laura Pausini. El resultado fue su álbum con mayor diversidad estilística hasta el momento, ciertamente el más urbano, no muy diferente de No Es Lo Mismo en este sentido, ya que ese álbum encontró a Sanz endureciendo su sonido con florituras urbanas. Mañana se convirtió en su primer álbum en entrar en el Billboard 200; también fue el primero en entrar en el Top Five de la lista de mejores álbumes latinos. “Suelta Mi Mano” fue el mayor éxito entre los sencillos, y “Que Me Alcance la Vida” también obtuvo buenos resultados. Poco después le siguió Pasado (2006). Un álbum de covers, Pasado muestra a Sin Bandera reinterpretando canciones de influencias del pop latino contemporáneo tan conocidas como Sanz (“Lo Ves”), Ricardo Montaner (“Será”), Aleks Syntek (“Mis Impulsos Sobre Ti”) y Rosana. (“Si Tu No Estas Aquí”).

Después de una larga gira por América Latina, Sin Bandera decidió separarse en 2007 aunque fue de manera amistosa. Ambos cantantes siguieron caminos solistas diferentes, grabando y escribiendo por separado. Una segunda colección de covers, Pasado Mañana se publicó digitalmente en 2009 y la colección Personalidad en 2014. A mediados de 2015, Sin Bandera anunció una reunión y emprendió una gira que llamaron Una Última Vez. Comenzó en diciembre y duró hasta bien entrado 2016, con casi todos los espectáculos agotados. Para integrar el repertorio de las presentaciones, Garica y Schajiris pidieron a sus fans que les enviaran una lista del Top 10 de canciones que les gustaría escuchar. La respuesta fue abrumadora. Se recibieron cientos de listas y se eligió (parcialmente) una lista de canciones en base a ellas. El EP en vivo Una Última Vez, lanzado en 2016 a medida que avanzaba la gira, encabezó la lista de álbumes latinos; lo siguieron a principios del año siguiente con Primera Fila Acustico: Una Ultima Vez - Encore, publicado en 2017. La grabación se ubicó en el número tres en la lista de álbumes de pop latino.

Únase a ellos este mes en Smart Financial Center el 8 de septiembre mientras interpretan canciones de su gran repertorio de canciones de amor y más.

RANDOM SHOTS

Chernobyl The Secret Perform At The Acadia Bar & Grill

Photos by Kevin D. Wildman

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DGMA Perform At The Acadia Bar & Grill

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Little Terry and The Blues Birds Perform At The Big Easy

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Jacob

Ward Band Perform At Leon’s Lounge

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Steve Krase’s Birthday Bash At The Big Easy Photos By

Kevin D. Wildman

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Hard Luck Revival Perform At Shady Acres Saloon

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Sparky Parker Performs At Katie’s Bar In Bacliff

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Big Fan Perform At The 19th Hole

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Kissing Judas Hold Their Album Release Party At The BFE Rock Club

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Christopher Seymour And Friends Perform At Dan Electro’s

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Bluebonnet Basterds Perform At The Shady Acres Saloon

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Clutch Cargo Perform At Leon’s

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

Lounge

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Minutes To Midnight HTX Perform At The Acadia Bar & Grill

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Perform At

Mud Creek Revival

Shady Acres Saloon

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Van Wilks And Friends Perform At Green Oaks Tavern In Humble

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

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Zephyr Island Perform At The Concert Pub North

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman