Gary Hayes Country

 

Erin Enderline
Emi Sunshine
Porter Union
Brent Cobb
Joshua Morningstar
Cody Jinks
Tennessee Jet
The Steel Woods
Dallas Moore
Justin Wells
Johnathan Parker
Kayla Ray
Ward Davis
Sunny Sweeney

This week I bring you all Mr. Dustin James Clark. Please share this interview to help spread Dustin’s music to others. Remember to like the page if you like it to ensure you don’t miss any upcoming interviews. Thanks I hope you enjoy.

ROUND 1 – Being a traveling musician I am sure you see and hear a lot out on the road, can you tell us about one of your favorite memories?

DJC – “I have a lot of great memories but my most recent was playing in Nashville at The Nashville Palace for my Uncle’s Celebration of Life. It was such a great show and I just sat and listened to all of the amazing stories about my Uncle from so many amazing people. The highlight of my night was getting on stage with Robbie Turner “The Man Of Steel” and playing Lonesome O’nry and Mean as well as a few originals and a couple of my Uncles Songs. Then I listened as Mr. Turner told me about how when he first met my Uncle which is a gut busting story in itself, to ending up at Waffle House at 2 am sharing more stories with Robby and my family about my Uncle. It really made me realize how special and strong music and the life within it can be.”

ROUND 2 – Do you come from a musical family or is music just something you grew to love doing?

DJC – “I do but you wouldn’t know it for the most part. A lot of people in my family sing and are good at it but only in the car or every once in a while maybe on a drunken karaoke night would you ever witness it. Except for the exception of three of my family members. My Cousins Jackie and Joey who have sang at a lot of events as I grew up and taught me a lot. But most of all my Uncle Earl Clark who I just recently lost. He sang locally as I do for many years and in the 70s was invited by Ernest Tubb to Nashville. My Uncle’s first job in Nashville was driving for Waylon Jennings as well as Jerry Reed, Tanya Tucker, I believe Willie Nelson among many others. He finally got some big breaks in the Early 90s writing hit songs for Tracy Lawrence (Renegades, Rebels, and Rouges and Can’t Break it to my heart) George Strait (I found Jesus on the Jailhouse Floor and One Step at at time). He also wrote songs with His friend Billy Don Burns, Hank Cochran, and Mack Vickery like Desperate Men. He is my hero my Idol and the reason I write songs and play in Honky Tonks. I know it’s a long winded answer but I have looked up to him since I was a young boy singing songs like My Heroes have always been cowboys around my grandparents Christmas tree when he would get off the road with Waylon and come home for the Holidays. (We always changed it to My Heroes have always been Clark boys) I always wanted to follow in his footsteps. He passed on his guitar to me which I hope to honor him with by writing many songs on it like he did.”

ROUND 3 – How would you describe your perfect day?

DJC – “My perfect day doesn’t need much. Just being at home with my beautiful wife Jessica, my three fur babies Rhaina, Bocephus, and Emmet and our cat Waylon. Relaxing and watching movies and not thinking about or hectic and intense lifestyle.”

ROUND 4 – What are some of your upcoming goals and plans?

DJC – “My biggest goal for the near future is to get the money together to get back in the studio. I have a lot of songs old and new I would love to record. My first E.P. The Land Of The Free came out last July so I’m itching. I’m thinking about releasing some songs from an unreleased low budget E.P. from 2010 to help raise funds. We are also looking to tour after the first of the year. My biggest goals are to play some more music festivals. We had such an amazing time at Tumbleweed this year and can’t thank Doug and his crew enough for letting us be apart of it and supporting the True Country Music movement.”

ROUND 5 – What are some of your favorite things/hobbies to do outside of the Music World?

DJC – “My favorite hobbies are shooting, riding horses, mountain biking, camping and spending time with my wife and animals as I mentioned earlier. I also do some work for a farm that is pretty much like getting paid for a hobby. I’ve got a pretty amazing life as I get paid for two things I love!”

Last Call – Open message to your fans.

DJC – “I want to thank each and every person who has supported me locally for the past 10 years as well as my family. They have seen it all and have always been there. Without them I would not be where I am. I want to thank all of my new fans and all of the people who I won’t name but y’all know who you are if you’re reading this for helping promote my music just like they do every other independent artist that we have all come to know and love. You all are really making me realize that even though time has taken a toll on me as a singer I picked the right choice to follow my dreams and stay true to myself and that eventually I would find my audience. It’s amazing the support that comes form this community. I am blessed for all my new musical family Like ML750, Austin Lee, Cole and Kendra, Casper McWade, John D. Hale and so many more! Hello to all the people who may read this who don’t know me. I hope you enjoy what I try my damndest to do for true country music fans. A special thanks to you Josh for another platform for independent artist to interact with new fans. I can’t say it enough how amazing a community has been spawned from what is in my opinion the Flocker effect. Love y’all!

One thing I failed to mention in the last part of this article series was the host himself Mr. James Riley, and you can find him over at Rockabilly N Blues Radio Hour where he features some TRULY FINE music. If YOU LOVED ANY of these fine artists I have featured here, you can surely find them all over there, as well as Muddy Roots.

Mr. James is a 2017 Ameripolitan Music Association award winner for Best DJ. I’ll be attending the 2018 awards and you’ll be hearing more on that subject VERY SOON from my partner Mr. Joshua. Right now I’d like to bring you the second and final portion of this music festival that took place at the Nashville Palace last weekend.

Many of the past bands today played at the Muddy Roots Nashville Boogie and I don’t really get to run across them on a normal basis, so this supplement event to the Boogie is fun. I hope he continues to make this a regular event on his current roster, and we can all help make this one grow. I know the Nashville Boogie is in fact one of his more focused on and bigger events, and trust me it’s a VERY fun festival to cover.

As usual Miss Jane Rose And The Deadend Boys put on a really fun set here, I remember enjoying their set at the 2017 Nashville Boogie, and like I mentioned this is one of the bands that I get to enjoy at festivals. She has two albums out called “Damaged Goods”, and another called “Poultricide”. They are a four piece Rockabilly band, however this past spring during the Boogie they had Miss Mary Rogers on her saxophone to accompany them.

Her first album boasted her opening song called “Wrong Kind Of guy”, which displayed some very cool lead guitar licks and that recognizable Rocking beat that the Deadend boys usually bring to the table. I always expect full throttle beats and they always deliver! My favorite song she does is “Hot Rod Daddy”, I mean what is Rockabilly anyways but Hot Rods and jive shuffle beats? Now for me I enjoy Rockabilly and Bluegrass as frequently as Country and Red Dirt…folks you’ll find THAT HERE as well as Americana and more. If it’s NOT mainstream…and you love it…YOU ARE HOME HERE!

“Bad Little Betty” is a popular song on their set list many times, as well as “How Could you?” Their set also included many other great classic Rockabilly songs such as the Wanda Jackson classic we heard in Day 1 called “Fujiyama Mama”, and her very own version of “Hound Dog”. Now folks her version isn’t any comparison to the original (that’s NOT a putdown), her version is defiantly slower and in a different tempo.

Also in her set was a song called ‘Fool”, “Whiskey Nights” and a really good song called “Have My Husband”. all in all this band is always a excellent band to schedule early to set the pace for fun and exciting music. I will always have a few terrific things to say about her and the Deadend Boys, with her signature vocal yelp that distinguishes her from others to me.

Miss Laura Rebel Angel (Laura Palmer)- Upright Bass, Rhythm Guitar, Violin, Keys, Vocals , Mr. Brian Hack – Lead Guitar and Mr.Phill Lentz- Drums make up this New York based band called The Screamin Rebel Angels.

Miss Laura was an absolute firecracker up there today, tossing that upright bass all over the place like a mad woman. Opening with crazy fast paced songs like “Bumble Bee”, from their first full 2013 album called Hitchhike. Most of their songs were really crazy and eclectic in style, and I could easily tell their influences from many directions.

‘When I’m With You” was a really fun song to admire, and to be honest I enjoyed many of the beginning bands just as much as the headliners here. ‘Wild Side” was next with more great lead guitar licks and beats, EVERY OUNCE of passion and heart is poured into their live set folks..this band truly “gets it” and they defiantly are an entertaining band. They need to be booked at the Nashville Boogie in the future, that would be fun to see them again.

Their set also included “May Day’ also on the Hitchhiker album as well as a few that weren’t on either album, like the one called ‘Hands Off’ and another called ‘My Kind Of Man”. You know I’m going to be completely honest folks Rockabilly is one of my weaker subjects, that’s NOT to say I don’t thoroughly enjoy it VERY MUCH. I am just saying that I don’t easily spot covers like I can with Country or Bluegrass. It’s kind of like what BR5-49 used to do, they would play cover songs so obscure the general public would think they were originals, well with Rockabilly that CAN happen to me. I am always researching songs to learn that about it, I LOVE the style and the sound of it all.

“Right To Wrong” was one of their songs off their EP called “Pounce Like A Tiger” and their set also included the song called ‘Pretty When Your’e Quiet” but one of the best songs of the set was a song called “Come On Let’s Go”. They closed their set with a few more songs like “Out Of This World” and “Sizzle”, and the last song on their full album called “Saved”.

This part is interesting so pay close attention to the Wild Records portion of this event. These next couple bands were truly fun to watch and catch up with. The members rotate bands and instruments, and it was really fun learning the music I wasn’t familiar with. It was fun seeing their multiple talents here, like this band Josh Hi-Fi And The Rhythm Kings. Mr. Josh Sorheim is also an accomplished piano and lap steel player in his own right, and for his age I was extremely impressed with his abilities.

Mr. Josh Sorheim – Vocals / Guitar, Mr. Robert Greenig – Drums, and Mr. Sam Arreola – Upright bass make up this band that rotates members to other bands on this very same label….and ALL of this music was REAL and it was bad assed!

His album called “Riding The Rails” was a MUST purchase add to my CD collection and will remain in my constant rotation until I’m DEAD…I missed the first song because I was outside at the truck but when I came back to work here, they were pounding out a WAY COOL stroll version of Merle Travis’ version of “Sixteen Tons”.  Following that was an awesome original song called “Dixie Line” that was from his album, and after you watch these two videos if YOU skip out of buying the album it’s YOUR fault. You missed out on a GREAT find, and a GREAT band.

‘Texas Belle” was another truly fine original song he wrote and is on his album, and they followed that up with a Bob Wills cover song of  ‘Miss Molly” which I believe is from around 1942 area. There were plenty of train songs, like a truly great original song called “Old 109”..I mean what’s a music set without a train song? These guys rotated bands a lot today but displayed some damn fine craftsmanship today up there, and left me impressed.

He told a wonderful story about a song he wrote for one of his heroes Casey Jones. Speaking of craftsmanship, trust me you’ll truly enjoy this story and how it came about. This is one of the many that you truly have to listen to intently to absorb the level of content it possesses. Overall this was one of my favorite sets of the weekend!

“Steamboat” was next and you can find that on his album mentioned above, next was a Johnny Cash cover called “Walkin The Blues” it was off the Man In Black album from 1956. Now that album was re-issued twice within the years, and you can find it on the Bear Family Records sets as well. He closed his set with “Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and another obscure one written by Mr. Buck Trail and released by Moon Mullican in the late 50’s.

Miss Dawna Zahn- Vocals, Mr.Austin John- Electric guitar, Vocals and Mr. Hank Miles- Upright bass, Vocals make up my next band aptly called the Highjivers, and they come from my local area here. They have been around since about 2014, and I remember covering them before.

I’ll tell you upfront that Miss Dawna is an absolute powerhouse up front on lead vocals. and did the Big Momma Throton version of “Hound Dog” great, I remember this version from records of my youth. She was very prominent back in the 50’s. Like I said, many of the covers here within this scene are very old and articulate. They are carefully covered with great reverence and respect for the Legends.

“Hotwire Woman” was first in their setlist tonight with very upbeat beginnings and intros. This band is choked full of fully loaded blasting guitar licks and Rockabilly beats enough to satisfy even the pickiest of Rockabilly fans. I’m not very much of a Rockabilly purist myself, so I am pretty open minded on this subject.

Tons of soul here tonight on stage as they went into such songs as “Sweet Talkin And Lyin” and others like “I Can’t Believe It”. All in All so far I thought that everything was formulated pretty well for this event to be an off season supplement to the Spring Nashville Boogie. It was kind of like being there in a way…

I apologize to the band I did not get any video of them, I had slight charging issues that I corrected by the next act. “Blood In My Mouth” was next followed by a very energetic song called “Get My Way”. “Always Talkin Down” was another one of their songs in this set here tonight.

I pretty much enjoyed everybody on this lineup but I really admired this gals vocal abilities, she can WAIL up there and she has tremendous vocal stamina indeed. This band is worth 20 to see just them alone! “Smokestack” and another called “Anyway You Please” were two of the middle set songs here tonight. The next time out paths cross I’ll have to make it point to take videos. And as they closed with a song called ‘Knee High And Rising” we all got ready for a Legend up next.

Before the next act on the main stage I went up front to briefly see my old friend from Australia. His name is Mr. Stu Arkoff who if you remember used to play with a band called Zombie Ghost Train.I truly enjoy watching him play and I enjoy seeing him even more, talking with him is a joy. His knowledge is vastly overlooked within my music community, if you just bother to stop and listen to him..you will discover great new names.

OK Folks here’s where the band swapping goes into effect, and what amazes me about the versatility and knowledge of this band of young men. Mr. T.J. Mayes is another Wild Records recording artist and once again he displays remarkable guitar licks.

Mr. Josh Hi-Fi played drums for this man, and they JUST START PLAYING whatever for whomever, man they are just like a well oiled machine no matter what. I know, I know I’m elaborating too much perhaps, but Damn it’s a fun time seeing this friendship up there. All this talent on one label and all the band members swapping up playing things is neat to admire from afar.

“Tommy Gun” was first with a rip roaring beginning choked full of more guitar licks and steady beats. Follow that up with a song called “Lock Without A Key” and it brought us to the really cool song called “Bottle Bottom Bop”. That song was probably the best one of the set.

The different guitar tones abounded tonight as well, with many high octane solos, which is pretty much what I enjoy about Rockabilly. I want my ears blasted out and BY GOD I got that tonight, as they went into a song called “45 RPM” which by the way on Sunday there was a record convention. Now usually I don’t have a lot of time for record conventions BUT this one has a few vendors that bring in other kinds too like Metal.

Another good song they played was called ‘Dig It Up” and another was “Gypsy Woman”. See I’m actually one of those that go to these functions to listen close to the songs and lyrics. Not very often during the set do I network or socialize much.

“Rise Up Shine” was next along with “Hey Little Diddle”, “Devil Of A Woman” and his set closed with “Short Fuse”. If you are one of the many that take my word for it on bands PLEASE listen up here and go see this band or bands here. You will NOT BE disappointed in any form.

Mr. James Intveld is an upcoming Legend in my book.He’s been doing what he does for many years and I have been enjoying his music for many years. He is a fine musician and an actor, also he has many other talents. He graced the stage tonight with dignity and reverence for the Legends of Country Music in his true form.

Even the pickiest of Country Music purists cannot argue that Mr. James Intveld is an answer to the moniker “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes”? You know many people mention Cody Jinks and others but Mr. James is often overlooked by them all, and I cannot figure out why?

He brought along a band full of fine Classic Country veterans that accompanied his Classic style of songs like “Let’s Get started” and his cover of Waylon’s 1972 song “Stop The World And Let Me Off” written by Carl Belew. After some originals off of his first few albums, he played “Home Of The Blues” written by Mr. Glenn Douglas Tubb.

“I Keep Cryin Over You” was next followed by “Love’s Gonna Live Here Again” and “Pretty World Today” made popular by Wynn Stewart. The song was written in 1967 by Mr. Dale Noe. As he continued on with others I noticed a song called “Hotel Time” and “Ain’t Nothing But A Man In Love”.

“One Sweet Letter” was another really nice song followed by the Hank Thompson classic “One Six Pack To Go” from his prime years in 1967. “Boogie Woogie Country Girl” was another good song and he closed his set with “Only A Girl For Me”. I’ll tell you what Mr. James truly has passion for this genre and like all the others tonight, there was true love and respect for the Legends.

Bloodshot Bill was one I have wrote about a few times, and he’s always pretty good. It was better this time with a full band, over his usual one man band theme. However I understand the one man band thing, being the big Biram fan I am.

Bloodshot Bill is not for everyone his unusual vocal delivery of making noises while he sings is often not appreciated by some. And he is someone not many of my friends enjoy but you know… I DO. However during this set I was also up front enjoying Mr. Chuck Mead in the front bar.

I saw Bloodshot Bill play “The Girl Who Dances Alone” and play many instrumentals. I was bouncing back and forth pretty hard because even though he is a prominent fixture of my local scene, I don’t get to see Mr. Chuck very often. I watched him play many old BR5-49 songs from the Glory Lower Broadway Days.

“Waitin For The Axe To Fall” is a song they used to do, and honestly I’m not sure if it’s an original or a cover. My research says It’s not a cover, however I cannot find that one yet. “There Stands The Glass” was of course a Carl Smith song, which made me fall in love with BR5-49. they had a knack for playing obscure covers the general public knew nothing of.

“Little Ramona” was off their first self titled album and I know Mr. Chuck Mead wrote that one, also I got to see the former bassist Smili’n Jay McDowell AND ALSO their former bassist Geoff Firebaugh was there to play with the next band. The last song I got to watch him play was “Sweet Sweet girl To Me”.

I like to go up front and look for setlists because it helps me write other portions of articles while the current band is playing, with no fear of missing songs. However THIS BAND I need NO set list for, Hillbilly Casino I mean this band needs no kind words any further….OK so I lied.

They WILL BE on my TOP 50 of 2017, oh crap did I ruin that? Well also they will be a short focus on an upcoming article on involving kids into our music scene. I watched Mr. Nic play with his children and other children at many music functions. I’m not trying to flatter him falsely, I admired his qualities as a MAN many times by how he treats the kids, I remember Mr. Bandana once said if a toddler hands you a toy phone YOU ANSWER THAT SUMBITCH!

They opened with a Fats Domino song and followed that up with a new song off their new album Red,White And Bruised called “She’s Got Tricks”. I guess I already leaked one choice, that album will be on my TOP 50 of 2017. This set like their others involved some hellacious guitar work from Mr. Ronnie Crutcher.

“Low Down” was next followed by “PBR” which I’m amazed they don’t have a sponsorship from PBR. “Stop, Drop And Roll” was next along with “Trainwreck”. Many of the songs they played tonight were off the new album, and I understand it’ll soon be available on vinyl.

“How do You Think” was another song they played tonight, along with “More Blue Than Green”. The last song they played was hollared out by Smilin Jay McDowell and that was “Psycho”. EVERY TIME I get to see Hillbilly Casino I always leave happy, I mean who can leave a jam show like that sad? I sincerely hope that Mr. Jason continues this supplement  event so we can prepare for the Boogie in spring!