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Last Train to Juarez shares its map to success

BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI

West Valley View Executive Editor

With a cowboy hat pulled deep to his eyes and a thick beard, Dejan Knezevic fi ts the red dirt/outlaw country genre well.

He has his fans fooled — and that’s not a bad thing. Born in Chicago, Knezevic was raised by parents from Montenegro and Bosnia. Serbian is his fi rst language. The Serbian coat of arms adorns his hat.

“My family is from former Yugoslavia,” he said. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of an American Serbian country singer before. There’s a fi rst for everything, I guess.”

In late 2018, Knezevic formed Last Train to Juarez, following the lineage of his heroes, Ward Davis, Whitey Morgan, Hank 3 and Jamey Johnson. They released their debut album, “Some Road,” on March 18.

“It was an awakening, so to speak, for me, and I quickly started discovering a whole genre of country music that spoke to me,” Knezevic said. “It was around this time that I started seriously considering starting a project in the red dirt/outlaw genre of country music.”

Last Train to Juarez is a departure from previous projects like Pelvic Meatloaf. Last Train to Juarez sees Knezevic singing for the fi rst time, something that even surprised his wife of 23 years.

“Sure, I fronted a metal band, but I never really tried singing,” Knezevic said. “What we did back then was death metal and growling, so this whole singing thing was new to me. I wasn’t confi dent at all. But what I lacked in confi dence, I made up with motivation and perseverance.”

He had a revolving group of musicians until April 2021, when the lineup was solidifi ed as vocalist/acoustic guitarist Knezevic; Mark Tomeo, pedal steel, dobro, backing vocals; bassist Jonathan Candler; drummer Brian Teille and lead guitarist Stephen Dietrich. Additionally, fi ddler/ mandolin player Austin Brooks joins.

Debut EP released

In 2021, Last Train to Juarez released its debut EP, “Dirt and Stone,” which was recorded at Villain Recording Studio with Byron Filson engineering and producing. Prior to the album release, the band dropped the singles “Some Road” and “This Letter.”

“Our music blurs the lines a bit and doesn’t fi t neatly into any specifi c country genre,” he said.

“I’ve heard people refer to us as outlaw, red dirt, biker country, and rock or metal country. Ultimately, what is most important to me as an artist is to write and create music that is pure, honest and authentic, music that comes from the heart and soul, which is why I prefer to stick with originals over cover tunes.

“Granted, we do play cover songs out of necessity since we are a newer band and don’t have enough original material to cover a four-hour gig, but that is quickly changing as I continue to write new material.”

If You Go...

WHAT: Last Train to Juarez WHEN: As part of the Forgotten Country Music Fest, 1 p.m. Saturday, March 19 WHERE: Hidden Lake, 24445 W. Sunrise Drive, Buckeye COST: Tickets are $65 INFO: hiddenlakeaz.com

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ANSWERS ON PAGE 18

King Crossword

ACROSS

1 Soak up the sun 5 Joke 8 Sports figure? 12 Penne -- vodka 13 Playwright Levin 14 “Oops!” 15 Picnic spoiler 16 Vacuum’s lack 17 Novelist Jaffe 18 Chinese food assortment 20 Some mixologists 22 Docs’ org. 23 “Uh-huh” 24 Tousle 27 “Locksley Hall” poet 32 Year in Mexico 33 Sock part 34 Stop -- dime 35 Short recital piece 38 Uppity one 39 Spike’s warning 40 Three, in Rome 42 JFK’s vessel 45 Brother’s son 49 Leveling wedge 50 Jurist Fortas 52 “I did it!” 53 Antitoxins 54 “-- the season ...” 55 Ireland 56 Tiny amounts 57 Six-pack muscles 58 Head, to Henri

DOWN

1 Poet of yore 2 Jai -3 Slender 4 Sunflower State 5 “Billions” actor Paul 6 “Exodus” hero 7 Attire 8 “Oklahoma!” carriage 9 Oscar-winning actress Emma 10 Top-of-the-line 11 Compared to 19 Hesitant sound 21 Objectivist Rand 24 More (Sp.) 25 Popular card game 26 Lark, for one 28 Very long time 29 Fastidious trait 30 Yoko of music 31 Collar 36 Scents 37 La-la lead-in 38 Music for seven 41 Concerning 42 “Hey!” 43 Ellington’s “Take -- Train” 44 “Toodle-oo!” 46 Aesopian also-ran 47 Tend texts 48 Fade away 51 Clothing protector

by Linda Thistle

The idea of Go Figure is to arrive at the figures given at the bottom and right-hand columns of the diagram by following the arithmetic signs in the order they are given (that is, from left to right and top to bottom). Use only the numbers below the diagram to complete its blank squares and use each of the nine numbers only once.

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H H

H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK H

H Moderate HH Challenging HHH HOO BOY!

EVEN EXCHANGE

by Donna Pettman

Each numbered row contains two clues and two answers. The two answers differ from each other by only one letter, which has already been inserted. For example, if you exchange the A from MASTER for an I, you get MISTER. Do not change the order of the letters.

SCRAMBLERS

Unscramble the letters within each rectangle to form four ordinary words. Then rearrange the boxed letters to form the mystery word, which will complete the gag!