So other than it being a really great restaurant name, it's a great "live" music venue, as well. In 100+ degree weather I went to see John David Kent play there on Sunday. It was an outdoor stage with mostly wooden picnic tables sat around the place with a good sized stage in the corner. Sound was great. Crowd was really impressive and pretty full, especially with the temps! The JDK band had great energy, the crowd was really into it as if it were all happening in a air conditioned room (while me being only mildly drenched in sweat). It was a short set (opening for Charlie Robison) and all going along just fine until some older guy (60's or over in the standard cowboy hat) steps up on stage and says some stuff to John. I thought he might have been a friend or local artist that was going to sing or something. After a little conversation John turns back to the mic "this man's saying that we're playing that contemporary country bullshit. What do you guys think, is it bullshit?" (as best as I can recall). The crowd booed the guy back to his seat and the damn guy sat back there stewing, looking down, smoking his cigarette (with a bucket a beer) through the last half of the show (o.k., I'm not sure why the dumbass kept sitting there, but he did). I REALLY thought about going over and talking to mister popularity afterwards, but I chickened out ("so... what's it like to be booed back to your seat and then to be too stupid or ornery to leave?") Really, I just wanted to ask him why. There's 2 things that I loved about it: 1. The old guy had the balls to go up there and speak his mind & 2. That John had the balls to throw it out there for the crowd to decide (which was not really that hard, given they were really diggin it anyways). I just thought it was classic, though John I'm sure wouldn't have wanted it to happen. I don't know, I just like watching real unpredictable stuff like that. In talking with John, I realized that these guys have a really hard time. Booking themselves, managing to keep a band together, publicizing, practicing for the shows, etc... . Oh, John's got a family with 4 kids. This hit me when I was giving him my advice to "write as much as you can". These working artists have an insanely busy schedule. Playing 120-200 dates a year keeps the family and band fed and pays for the van, the trailer, the equipment, etc.... If all they had to do was sit there and write songs to record, it'd be a different story, but they wouldn't be able to support a family and grow their crowd. I don't know the answer and wonder about that. I think John's about a good CD away from really doing well. His current 5 song self produced CD is pretty dang impressive.
Anyways, I've been running around Fort Worth/Dallas the last coupla days and have damn near come to the conclusion that I prefer being out in the country. I was looking forward to being in one place for a few days but it's been harder for me to find as interesting a stuff as out in the smaller towns. We'll see. Regardless, I've got an interesting weekend coming up. I'm gonna be "diggin up the dirt" on Tony Lane :)
Btw, Charlie Robinson acted like it was 100+ degrees. I guess that's about artists being at 2 different places in their careers. Who knows, he kept his shades on so maybe it was just a hangover.
P.S. the picture has nothing to do with anything. It's just a cow with big freakin horns at "The Stockyard" who looks happy to be there.
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