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During the past decade R&B music had taken a back seat to other popular music forms: Country, Hip Hop, Rap, etc. In close observation of these musical styles, you can distinctly hear the R&B influences. Even R&B record samples have been introduced on Hip Hop and Rap records. Due to exposure through these copied "grooves and beats", R&B has made a substantial comeback in the mainstream music arena. This has caused the music community as a whole to stand up and take notice of the powerful rebirth of one of America's most emotionally entertaining music forms.
Enter the ROAD CREW; the new millennium's version of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Otis Redding & The Bar Kays, Earth Wind & Fire, James Brown & the Famous Flames rolled up into one highly explosive package. Organized in 1987 and comprised of eight gifted musicians, the Road Crew is a show band with the intensity of a rock band, the emotion of a blues band, the funkiness of a dance band, and the savvy of a jazz band. These guys do it all!! Their performance is a must see for every live music lover, young and old.
COUNTRY FRIED ROCK is what they're calling it.
Dean Seltzer and the Redneck Mothers walk the line between Texas country and rock with a high energy live show that leaves the crowds in Austin screaming for more at the end of the night. Dean has shared the stage with the likes of Reckless Kelly, Pat Green, Gary P. Nunn, Robert Earl Keen, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Their debut album shows both the classic rock and Texas country influences that have shaped the band.
Two things stand out when speaking of Dean and the Mothers: First of all, the music on the album speaks for itself. (Pick a song - there's not a weak one on it!) Secondly, this band is fun to watch. Their stage energy and comic crowd interaction make this band impossible to pull away from. Whether its Dean's fire-breathing routine, Ricky's Grammy award winning fiddlin, or Shelli Coe (yes - David Allan Coe's daughter) coming on stage to sit in for a song or two, you'll find a reason to see this band again.
Winner of the 2006 Austin Chronicle/SXSW Voter Music Poll: Best Instrumental Band Winner of the 2005 Austin Chronicle/SXSW Voter Music Poll: Best Jam Band McLemore Avenue--following in the tradition of instrumental groups like Booker T. and the MGs, The Meters, Jimmy Smith, and Jackie Mittoo--combines elements of Southern soul, R & B, jazz and other genres with an original sound that is unique to Austin, Texas. The band takes its name from the street over in Memphis, Tennessee where STAX Records--a name synonymous with Southern soul music--once stood. It was home to a host of legendary recording artists including Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, as well as Booker T and the MGs, who performed the double role of house band and solo act. In 1977, the label went out of business and was eventually abandoned and demolished. However, in April of 2003 old 'Soulsville, USA' was rebuilt as a museum of American soul music, at its original 926 East McLemore Avenue location. Austin's McLemore Avenue, formed in 1997, continues where the studio left off, but with an original, southern-flavored sound all their own, with Patrick Barker-Benfield on the Hammond B-3, Landis Armstrong on guitar, Chris Johnson on bass, and Eric C. Hughes on drums. Besides being voted Austin's number one instrumental band, their debut album 926 East has been named an Austin Chronicle 'Texas Top 10' for 2003, declared 'Fun, fun, fun!' by Living Blues Magazine, and is already receiving critical acclaim: 'Rooting themselves in southern soul, they've made a modern record that plays with the excitement and feel of discovering a STAX classic.' -Robert Gordon, author of It Came From Memphis